Buying likes on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any social network can be a recipe for disaster.
Don’t do it.
PLEASE!
Here is why buying likes on social media is such a terrible idea: all of the social media algorithms show your content to a small portion of your audience and then expand the reach based on how that audience responds. If you have fake followers, your content will have terrible reach.
So, if you have 10,000 followers but 9,000 are fake, your content will do significantly worse than if you had 1,000 followers. It will mean that your loyal followers won’t get to see the content you post.
Luckily, in this post, I’ll not only teach you what to avoid…I’ll also show you how to get great engagement and build your following the right way.
The Downsides of Buying Likes on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or ANY Social Network
Problem 1: Buying likes costs money
Not only will it damage your account, it will cost money as well. It typically costs somewhere around $25 for 1,000 followers. Even though this isn’t a huge sum, if you are adding thousands of likes this could cost hundreds of dollars…just to wreck your social media accounts.
It will be some of the worst money you’ve ever spent.
And getting rid of those followers later on? It can be an involved process, taking dozens of hours or requiring paid tools.
Also, let’s say you’re running a big promotion…
It’s a great use of money to show that promotion to all of your followers (if you post it organically, only a small percentage of your followers will see it).
But, if you have tons of fake likes, this strategy no longer works. You’d be paying to show content to fake followers. Not being able to send a message to all of your followers is a BIG deal.
Problem 2: You could get banned
What would it feel like to have all of your hard work building a following flushed down the drain?
You could be potentially penalized by Facebook or whatever platform you are buying likes on. Facebook directly states not to buy fake likes. You could be setting yourself up to get your accounts banned in the future if you buy fake likes.
Problem 3: Your analytics will suffer
Having good data on your users is key. When you have a ton of fake likes, all of your numbers will be off. It will alter your analytics it will be difficult to see how big your actual audience is and what they respond well to.
Because the algorithm shows content to a small group of your followers and that impacts how well the post performs, it will be difficult to discern why a post didn’t perform well.
Was it because of the content? Or because it showed the content to more followers that were bots than the last time?
Problem 4: It looks bad to customers and clients
If your page has 20,000 likes but gets 1-2 likes or comments, it’s pretty clear that your business’ page is mostly made up of fake likes. Honestly, this hurts your reputation. It’s clear that you cheated to grab more likes.
Trust is so key in business, and this slightly decreases trust. People will know you bought likes, and that won’t impress anyone.
What About Running Ads to Gain Facebook Likes?
On Facebook, you can run ad campaigns that have a goal of adding likes to your page. This is different than buying likes from outside websites. It’s not against the terms of service.
But, you still need to be CAREFUL.
Here’s why: you may be tempted to try to get cheap likes for the lowest price possible. If you target people in India and Mexico, you can often find likes for a few pennies.
But, they end up not being people who are engaged or potential customers. You can run into the same issues with reaching your audience. So, if you do run a campaign to get likes, aim for finding actual potential customers.
In fact, if you run other ads, often people will like your post and you can invite them to like the page. This is the technique we’ve been using lately, over trying to optimize for page likes.
If you really need to quickly build up likes, it’s an option, but running compelling ads is often an easier way to start to build a following.
Page Likes Don’t Matter
I know it’s a bold statement. But, you can’t take likes to the bank. You’re using social media for business. Driving sales is key. This doesn’t mean that every post needs to be a sales pitch. Social media is about building connections and relationships. But 10,000 likes and no customers loses to 200 likes and 10 customers.
It all matters who you are getting in front of and how much of a relationship they’ve built with your brand.
That’s why the most important areas of focus in order are:
- Sales
- Comments and shares
- Followers/Subscribers
- Likes
Are customers loyal? Are they finding value in the things you are posting? Are they making additional purchases and staying engaged with your brand?
This is so much more important than counting likes, which is just a vanity metric.
Don’t forget to center your content around people who you can help, an audience who is going to miss you when you’re gone, and stop falling into the trap of thinking it’s all about the numbers because really the number of people who are engaging and helped by your content is so much more important.
Conclusion: Don’t buy likes, but there’s a lot that you can do instead.
Fake, spammy accounts can wreck your channel’s reach, it can get your account banned, and it’s pretty obvious to everyone what you’re doing.
These channels show your content to a small pool of people and then expand the reach if the content gets a lot of likes, comments, shares, etc.
However, if a portion of your followers are fake, it’s going to send signals that people aren’t engaging with your content and don’t like it, which means it will never get in front of your actual fans.
Be authentic, genuine and help people. That’s how you actually get an ideal audience for your content.
If you need to, you can run compelling ads to potential customers and you can grow your account in that way.
Did you know, social media is just a small piece of an incredible marketing strategy? I actually created an amazing course that provides 14 lessons, assignments, and templates for creating an incredible marketing strategy.
It’s called the 14 Day Marketing Foundation Challenge
You can also watch this marketing strategy training first to learn about the unique way I approach marketing businesses.
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