Recently, a client asked me if I could help their startup company get more likes on Facebook. However, after further discussion, it turned out that they weren’t looking for real likes, but rather to buy “dead souls”. Ultimately, there was no project, but the idea of exploring this issue more thoroughly seemed interesting to me, so let’s take a look at it together.
Předně je nutné si říct, že nákupem like a zhlédnutí nic nezískáte – spíše naopak. Níže uvedu několik důvodů, jak nákupem like poškodíte svou značku a ztížíte vaši pozici do budoucna. Na jedné platformě si také vyzkoušíme, jestli je celý proces opravdu bezvýznamný.
5 reasons why not
So let’s start with some problems that you may encounter when buying followers, especially on social media platforms such as Instagram or Facebook.
Reason 1 – Fans are inactive
Purchased followers will not engage in any further activity on your page. You will only increase the number of followers, which in many cases raises suspicions. For example, investing 1000 CZK will get you around 4000-6000 followers. However, your posts will have zero reaction. For a regular visitor, such a profile seems untrustworthy, even suspicious. A regular page with 200 followers reaches at least several interactions, rather dozens.
Reason 2 – Dilute your audience
Social media platforms usually use the number of interactions on a specific post as an indicator for recommending channels. It means that the published post is displayed to about 10% of the total number of fans of your page. Therefore, the chance of interaction is minimal. In this calculation, the algorithm also considers the number of interactions to the total ratio of your page’s followers. Without paid promotion, you will not move forward and completely prevent the chance for your posts to be organically recommended to other people.
Reason 3 – Spam comments
Spam comments are another big problem when buying followers, which is primarily a privilege of Instagram, but you will also encounter it on Facebook or elsewhere. These comments appear long-term, randomly, and practically on every post. You will, therefore, have to be prepared to delete such comments, but even that may not help in all cases. Robots publishing these comments can also send similar messages to private messages on the profiles of your real followers.
Reason 4 – Shame when exposed
It is effortless to find out if you have purchased followers. You will be revealed by a large number of followers, zero or very low activity of followers, and names typical for robots, such as John Snow, Thomas Anderson, etc., which will be striking in the case of a Czech entrepreneur.
Reason 5 – Profile deletion
Most social media platforms try to fight fake accounts. One of these ways is deleting pages that try to buy followers in bulk. Therefore, you may experience a sudden increase in followers one day, and the next day, they may all disappear, or in the worst-case scenario, all links to your social media platforms may report only “not found” without the possibility of return.
Example from practice
I have listed several reasons why followers, likes, etc. should not be purchased. However, I also objectively acknowledge that there are moments when it pays off to break the rules a little bit. As an example, I will mention the recent past on YouTube. Newly created channels had a video length limit of 15 minutes. There was no available branding settings and it was still not possible to broadcast live. For this feature, you need to have at least 50 subscribers.
Therefore, if you view YouTube as a tool for live broadcasting or uploading a video to your own website, such behavior could and still can be understood to a reasonable extent. However, there is still a big difference between 50 subscribers to gain the necessary functions and 500 subscribers to deceive your surroundings.
Example from Twitch
To demonstrate how most processes work, I decided to use my personal profile on Twitch.tv. It is similar to YouTube, with the difference that the platform is exclusively focused on live broadcasting, and gaining the “Partner”/”Affiliate” status on the platform gives you the opportunity to set up subscriptions and other tools to make money through the marketplace. You also gain certain branding options, such as uploading and using your own emoticons across the entire site. In our experiment, I will attempt to fulfill all the rules that Twitch has set for obtaining this status.
Rules:
According to information from the administration, we learn that we must meet the following criteria:
- Reach 50 followers.
- Broadcast for 8 hours.
- Broadcast on 7 different days.
- Have an average of 3 viewers.
Rules two and three
These rules will be easy to fulfill. Essentially, all we will need is time and some idea for content that is suitable for online broadcasting. After exploring the platform, I found that some individuals even use simple animations, such as a loop of an animated fireplace or aquarium, for this purpose. I decided to go a little further and for an easier process, I chose to use the game Kukoro, where there are options to activate the game in AFK mode (which means “Away from Keyboard”), and not have to worry about anything else, as the game itself will take care of the rest.
Rules one and four
These criteria are already a bigger challenge, and I anticipate using some unethical practices. After some searching and investigating, I found the website Follower panda, which appeared to be the least untrustworthy of all the sites I visited. It should be noted that I would never provide my real information to any of these sites. However, the website offered 100 followers for a friendly price of $2. So, I filled out a short form and placed an order.
The result did not take long to show up, however, in a completely different form than I expected. Instead of the promised 100 followers, there was suddenly a number of 541 on the profile. Most people would rejoice, but not me! The number is much higher than I needed. At this point, I use a tool: “https://twitch-tools.rootonline.de/” which allowed me to quickly get rid of the unwanted number of followers. At this moment, it is once again evident that this is not the way you would want to go. At the same time, it also reveals to me one piece of information, that all the user accounts have been reliably marked as known bots by the website. It is therefore more than likely that Twitch itself will also know them, and I am curious to see how it will evaluate the followers in its statistics.
Statistics evaluation
More than 24 hours have passed since my experiment, but there is no visible change in the statistics, and even the hours just broadcasted have not changed. Everything else seems to be okay, so I assume that it will take some time before the difference in the statistics shows up. About 30 hours have passed since adding the followers, and the results have indeed arrived. There were 541 followers in the statistics. The broadcast times have also been updated, so now I will fulfill rules 2 and 3, and I will solve the fourth rule as the last one, as there is a chance that it will not be necessary to deal with it. It is worth noting that even though I removed the unwanted bots, all the new followers were counted. By removing them, we also present ourselves well to Twitch and cannot be accused of unethical behavior, as we have honestly removed all bots. It should be noted that in the meantime, I have also asked some of my friends to follow, and the final number of followers is: 22 real users.
We’re moving on
After analyzing the statistics and after the first broadcast, I started the stream again. At this moment, the average number of viewers is 1/3. However, unlike in the morning when I last started the stream, I am choosing nighttime hours. Most of the time, the number of viewers is around 3 or 4. The stream has been running for 1 hour and 10 minutes, and even a few meaningless emoticons are appearing in the chat. So, I’m keeping an eye on the numbers, and as soon as the number drops to 3, I plan to end the stream to increase the current viewer ratio. But at the moment, it’s advantageous to keep the stream on because I’m increasing both the average viewers and the broadcast time.
Further progress
I continue in a similar way on other days. In the nighttime hours, I manage to gain a few real followers. The number of viewers ranges from 2-6, and the average number of viewers stagnates around 2-3.
Completion of the process
Less than a month has passed since the beginning of my experiment, and the broadcast time is 9 hours. I was able to reach an average of 3 viewers even without any help, and I actually received an email inviting me to be an “Affiliate.”
Word of conclusion: What was it all for?
So here we are at the end of the whole process – what was it all for? The Twitch requirements have been met and I could start earning income on this platform. However, this is not something that appeals to me. Maybe I’ll use this status later, but most likely not. Nevertheless, I want to point out that with a little skill, I managed to achieve in 10 hours what others try to do for weeks or even months. And all of this for just 48 CZK.
I would compare the whole experience to driving a car. If you drive 60 km/h in an area where the highest allowed speed is 50 km/h, most likely nothing bad will happen, and there are cases where even a few minutes saved on the journey can help. However, once you race at 180 km/h without experience and gradual development, it’s only a matter of time before you crash. And as in traffic, here too, even a small violation of the rules does not excuse you when a problem arises.
In my opinion, the same applies to buying likes, views, or followers. If this little scam will benefit your cause, it is not something that any responsible person would recommend to you, but it is not an unforgivable sin either. First, try to create a community of real users. Ask your friends and acquaintances to follow you. Communicate with your customers. This way, you will achieve better results than just fake high numbers on the screen, which won’t create quality posts or other content for you.
