Fake Follower Counts: A Toxic Trend

Fake Follower Counts: A Toxic Trend

We’ve all seen those social media accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers that get less than a hundred likes and rarely have any comments on their posts. People have been led to believe that in order to be successful on social media, you need to have a large number of followers or page likes. But that’s just not the case. To be successful, you need to care less about the number of followers you have and more about the amount of interaction and engagement your account has. Having a large follower base means nothing if they don’t interact with you.

Bad Buying – Fake Followers

In a world that is obsessed with the number of followers that people or businesses have, many people or agencies turn to “buying” followers. While buying followers portrays that your account is successful, it’s actually the total opposite. Purchased followers don’t benefit your account in any way. They aren’t valuable to your success because they do not add value. None at all! In fact, the more fake followers you have, the less engagement you will receive, not to mention fewer sales if you’re selling a product. Fake followers can’t exactly make real purchases so you’re setting yourself up for a monetary loss.

The same thing goes for buying “likes” on Instagram. Having thousands of likes on your posts when you have less than a hundred followers doesn’t make sense and people will notice. No one is going to line up to buy from a brand that fakes success.

Authenticity is Key

In an era of false presentations, being authentic is refreshing — and it works wonders for your social media success. Remember, quality over quantity, always. Wouldn’t you rather 50 followers that regularly interact with your content and purchase your products than 500 followers that never engage in your posts and have never even visited your website?

Building relationships with your followers can help establish your brand and more importantly, build your brand’s reputation. Build a brand that people talk about, a brand that people remember. In 2016 and 2017, Wendy’s was the reigning monarch over Twitter for their sassy interactions with their followers (and competitors) and it got people talking. Granted, they’re a popular fast-food chain that has been building their brand for years. However, even now, when they no longer clap back at people on the platform, people are still talking about them. Now, you can’t just start insulting people on social media and think that it will skyrocket your brand’s popularity. Building the right following and reputation takes patience. And, getting to Wendy’s level of savagery must be earned.

Time and Effort

As I said before, you’re not going to wake up tomorrow and suddenly have the engagement and interaction that your favorite brands have. Building your online presence takes time, but the payoff is worth it. Creating quality content that makes people want to like, comment, or even follow you is the key. You don’t want people to follow you and be done. You want followers that wanted to follow you because they wanted to continue seeing your content. You want organic, never fake.

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