I had been thinking about buying Facebook Likes for a page of ours. But as a professional digital marketer, something just never set right with me about the whole idea of buying fans or likes. There's just a whole lot to be suspicious about with this enterprise.
First, let's think about it. If I'm buying a Like, that means that the person who was "bought" may have been coerced. Think about it: in order to guarantee, for example, 500 likes in 3 days, there's a very high likelihood that at least some of the "Likes" don't even know they're "liking" your page. I would suspect that many of these bought Likes were actually forced by some type of software or manipulation of Facebook profiles.
This is - in fact - what happens with some of the outfits that sell Likes. A Quora Forum on the subject states,
"There are two ways [that Facebook Like Sellers use to get you LIkes], both illegal.
1. One is to have a bot network. This essentially works by creating many fake Facebook accounts, running them under assigned proxy, and initiating actions on behalf of user.
The latter is very tricky, because it will recuire a lot of endeavour to create a cURL driven system that's hard to detect. Back in 2011, I've experimented myself how vulnerable Facebook is for such behaviour – pretty vulnerable. If you make the users to "chat" with one another, like random content, browse random pages, upload random photos, it will go through unnoticed. I've reported few of the suggestions how to improve Facebook platform against these vulnerabilities, though never got a reply. Eventually got banned from Facebook, though probably unrelated since the fake accounts were still active ~3 months later that I've checked.
The same of course can be achieved using cheap labor force to manage many Facebook accounts.
2. The second approach is the infamous use of Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) trickery. It involves such methods as using pointer-events:none; or hidden overlay Like box to make user believe that he is clicking something completely different while in reality he likes whatever the content was given."
So, either way, what you're buying are probably not authentic, real Likes from interested users. That point is important. What's the point of having Likes from users who don't really "Like" your brand? Or, what good is it to have Likes from users who were just mass-generated with an automated software that creates fake accounts?" (see http://www.fragglesrock Sheriff's Note: Off Fiverr links are not allowed.
Ive-seen-people-sell-Facebook-likes-in-sites-like-fiverr-How-do-they-actually-do-it)
Now, the second reason why you probably should not buy likes is because Facebook doesn't like it. In fact, Facebook is now actively opposing these sorts of artificial Like inflation schemes and is even banning some accounts that engage in this practice:
"In a blog post by its security team at the end of August, Facebook announced a new automated system for detecting and removing fraudulent likes, noting:
'A Like that doesn't come from someone truly interested in connecting with a Page benefits no one. Real identity, for both users and brands on Facebook, is important to not only Facebook’s mission of helping the world share, but also the need for people and customers to authentically connect to the Pages they care about. When a Page and fan connect on Facebook, we want to ensure that connection involves a real person interested in hearing from a specific Page and engaging with that brand’s content. As such, we have recently increased our automated efforts to remove Likes on Pages that may have been gained by means that violate our Facebook Terms.'
This initiative is meant to improve the integrity of the Facebook platform, as well as enhance brands’ engagement with their fans and provide a more accurate platform for measuring demographics and other data from fans and customers. Because a higher percentage of a brand’s likes will now be users who actually want to connect with the page, brands can have a more engaged and relevant fan base as well as a more accurate read about their real customers.
Facebook has already taken some steps to prevent fraudulent Likes. This new crackdown is designed to find and remove Likes that were obtained by malware, hacked accounts, coercion of users, or purchased in bulk by brands that wanted to quickly grow their network on the site, in violation of Facebook’s terms of service. However, Facebook stated that it expects less than 1% of page Likes to be removed as part of the clean up, at least for brands that have been abiding by Facebook’s terms of service." (see http://www.fragglesrock)
Sheriff's Note: Off Fiverr links are not allowed.
Buying Facebook likes is a bad idea. Not only is it poor marketing, but it is against Facebook policy. Buying likes could even get you banned from Facebook. Fiverr should strongly consider banning people who sell these types of gigs.
Eric Bryant
Gnosis Media Group
http://fiverr.com/petrosianii
First, let's think about it. If I'm buying a Like, that means that the person who was "bought" may have been coerced. Think about it: in order to guarantee, for example, 500 likes in 3 days, there's a very high likelihood that at least some of the "Likes" don't even know they're "liking" your page. I would suspect that many of these bought Likes were actually forced by some type of software or manipulation of Facebook profiles.
This is - in fact - what happens with some of the outfits that sell Likes. A Quora Forum on the subject states,
"There are two ways [that Facebook Like Sellers use to get you LIkes], both illegal.
1. One is to have a bot network. This essentially works by creating many fake Facebook accounts, running them under assigned proxy, and initiating actions on behalf of user.
The latter is very tricky, because it will recuire a lot of endeavour to create a cURL driven system that's hard to detect. Back in 2011, I've experimented myself how vulnerable Facebook is for such behaviour – pretty vulnerable. If you make the users to "chat" with one another, like random content, browse random pages, upload random photos, it will go through unnoticed. I've reported few of the suggestions how to improve Facebook platform against these vulnerabilities, though never got a reply. Eventually got banned from Facebook, though probably unrelated since the fake accounts were still active ~3 months later that I've checked.
The same of course can be achieved using cheap labor force to manage many Facebook accounts.
2. The second approach is the infamous use of Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) trickery. It involves such methods as using pointer-events:none; or hidden overlay Like box to make user believe that he is clicking something completely different while in reality he likes whatever the content was given."
So, either way, what you're buying are probably not authentic, real Likes from interested users. That point is important. What's the point of having Likes from users who don't really "Like" your brand? Or, what good is it to have Likes from users who were just mass-generated with an automated software that creates fake accounts?" (see http://www.fragglesrock Sheriff's Note: Off Fiverr links are not allowed.
Ive-seen-people-sell-Facebook-likes-in-sites-like-fiverr-How-do-they-actually-do-it)
Now, the second reason why you probably should not buy likes is because Facebook doesn't like it. In fact, Facebook is now actively opposing these sorts of artificial Like inflation schemes and is even banning some accounts that engage in this practice:
"In a blog post by its security team at the end of August, Facebook announced a new automated system for detecting and removing fraudulent likes, noting:
'A Like that doesn't come from someone truly interested in connecting with a Page benefits no one. Real identity, for both users and brands on Facebook, is important to not only Facebook’s mission of helping the world share, but also the need for people and customers to authentically connect to the Pages they care about. When a Page and fan connect on Facebook, we want to ensure that connection involves a real person interested in hearing from a specific Page and engaging with that brand’s content. As such, we have recently increased our automated efforts to remove Likes on Pages that may have been gained by means that violate our Facebook Terms.'
This initiative is meant to improve the integrity of the Facebook platform, as well as enhance brands’ engagement with their fans and provide a more accurate platform for measuring demographics and other data from fans and customers. Because a higher percentage of a brand’s likes will now be users who actually want to connect with the page, brands can have a more engaged and relevant fan base as well as a more accurate read about their real customers.
Facebook has already taken some steps to prevent fraudulent Likes. This new crackdown is designed to find and remove Likes that were obtained by malware, hacked accounts, coercion of users, or purchased in bulk by brands that wanted to quickly grow their network on the site, in violation of Facebook’s terms of service. However, Facebook stated that it expects less than 1% of page Likes to be removed as part of the clean up, at least for brands that have been abiding by Facebook’s terms of service." (see http://www.fragglesrock)
Sheriff's Note: Off Fiverr links are not allowed.
Buying Facebook likes is a bad idea. Not only is it poor marketing, but it is against Facebook policy. Buying likes could even get you banned from Facebook. Fiverr should strongly consider banning people who sell these types of gigs.
Eric Bryant
Gnosis Media Group
http://fiverr.com/petrosianii