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What effect can fake followers have on your social media marketing

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computerGetting many followers on social media is viewed as one of the ways to promote a business, but this could be poison to a business if the followers are not earned naturally. There are many services that promise to help you get many followers on social media, and the big question is whether the followers you gain are worthy to your business. Sometimes, fake followers will damage the reputation of your business while in other cases you will see some improvement in growth.

If you are thinking about buying fake social media followers, you should be prepared to face any of the following consequences.

1. Loss of integrity or reputation

The biggest risk in buying social media followers is losing reputation. At some point, people could discover that you are not using honest means to gain followers and this could trigger a reaction that might bring your business down. What you need is to ensure the pattern used to gain the followers is a natural curve, otherwise your pages might also be put under review and banned if it’s discovered that you are abusing the system.

2. It could alienate true followers

Many services that promise to give you fake subscribers don’t consider the need to get you people who are interested in the topics you discuss on your pages. This could mean they will help you gain followers regardless if interests, and in that process you could miss out on adding genuine followers who share the same ideas as you. With time, you could have a system that is filled with bots that engage with each other instead of real humans. Any authentic followers on the pages will watch for signs of inauthentic activity, and this is easy to tell because inauthentic followers will sometimes sound off topic. A lot of those who followed genuinely will leave the channel then you end up with fake followers that cannot drive any conversions.

3. Brands don’t like that

It’s common among influencers to cheat their way into getting followers, and most of those followers are not real humans, so even when a brand advertises through the influencer, they will get no traction. Many brands are careful when hiring influencers and will keenly study the behavior of the followers to determine if they are real or fake. Those with fake followers will end up losing business and missing out on lucrative opportunities. Don’t attempt to artificially raise comments and likes because people will study the pattern and discover the lies. Rather, work on your engagement strategy by sharing interesting content that will attract real subscribers and spark a conversation.

Buying followers has become the norm especially among influencers looking to make quick money without working on getting genuine followers. However, there are many challenges when it comes to using fake followers to promote products and services. The practice could alienate real followers and will likely get your pages banned if it is discovered you are cheating the system using bots. Work on getting genuine followers and you will reap more benefits than when you rely on fake followers.

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Contributors

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