Buying fans on Facebook is a lot like taking diet pills. Sure you’ll lose weight, but you’ll quickly discover it was water weight and the whole thing was a sham. And to make matters worse, you’ll put the weight back on and then some, leaving you worse off than when you started. But if you lost the weight by eating right and exercising over a period of time, you’ll have long-term success.
So, you ask, why do people buy likes on Facebook? For the same reason people buy all those diet pills advertised on TV. We’re a society that loves instant gratification. We want what we want, and we want it now. So when what you want is more Facebook likes, taking a company up on its offer to give you thousands of fans for cheap sounds pretty darn tempting. But, like the diet pill, it’s a bad idea.
What’s the catch?
I can get fans for pennies, you argue. Yes. Yes, you can. But remember, you get what you pay for. What many of these companies are selling you are fake profiles made in a digital sweatshop in a third world country.
Here’s how it works: Oftentimes, it operates on a credit system. That means someone is being paid to like your page. You’ll get international traffic, bot traffic and pointless traffic. In some cases, the company requires administrative access to your page. I don’t have enough room on this blog to explain why that is a bad idea.
But it will make me look good?
If people come to my page and see I have a lot of likes, I’ll look legit and important. That’ll make me seem more credible and they’ll be more apt to like my page, you argue.
Problem with that is you are buying people who couldn’t care less about you and your products. If they did, you wouldn’t have to pay them to like you. So yes, someone clicks on your Facebook and says, “Wow! They have a gazillion likes. They must be important and awesome!” And then they scroll down, below the bar that boasts your measured awesomeness, and see that no one is interacting with your page … ever. How do you think that looks to a potential customer? Not good. In fact, it looks terrible.
Let’s get real here: If you just opened a restaurant, would you hire paid actors to fill your tables so passers-by will think you’re awesome. Man, I hope not.
But I’ll do better later?
OK, I’ll pay for a bunch of likes and then get serious later about building engagement. My efforts will pay off more later because they’re more people listening, you argue.
Facebook is far from stupid. In fact, Facebook is really, really smart. So smart it has a fancy algorithm it uses to determine who sees your status updates. That algorithm takes into consideration your page’s fan engagement. If you’ve bought all your fans, you don’t have any engagement. And when you decide to really get serious, the algorithm is now working against you.
So what do I do then?
Just like losing weight, if you want more fans, you’ll have to put the work in long term. You have to be disciplined and focused with a goal in mind. You have to be willing to accept small successes in the short run and have a plan in place to get you to the next level.
It’s not the easy way, but it’s the right way.
Thanks for reading,
