Don't Buy Followers on Facebook and Twitter

buy followersDon’t Buy Facebook Likes

The whole point of social networking is to be social. And to network. Buying Likes is neither. But it’s also more damaging than you might think.

Don’t Buy Twitter Followers Either

Sometimes, we’re hired to clean up an online reputation. And we admit that some messes are harder to clean up than others.

Can we tell you something, though? One of the messiest situations we are called to fix is so unnecessary. We understand the importance of having a good following on Facebook or Twitter so that anyone else who chances upon it gets the right impression. We also understand the pull to buy those Likes and followers.

But it’s just not a good idea.

Chances are, you will not be publicly ridiculed for buying followers (like Mr. Romney there). But just because you’re not getting the celebrity treatment when it comes to being outed for fake fans, it doesn’t mean that someone who matters won’t be coming to the same conclusion about you. And if that someone found out about fake followers while they were researching you and trying to decide if they wanted to do business with you, well, this could be a costly mess, indeed.

Seriously, Don’t Buy Followers, Likes, or Fans

Most companies purporting to selling fans are selling you fake or inactive accounts.

  1. Regular fans, potential booking agents or venues, etc. can see a spike in your analytics with a single click of their mouse.  Look at any Facebook page. Click on Likes, and a graph appears. Anyone can see this. A jump in the number of Likes is easy to spot – and can look mighty suspicious.
  2. Getting caught can make you look like a phony! Zero credibility.
  3. Your Most Popular City may turn out to be Pakistan. Which is great if you live and work in Pakistan. …Do you live and work in Pakistan?
  4. How will it look if your average follower is between the ages of 13 ~17? Or completely skewed on the side of one gender? This may work in your favor if you’re marketing, say, pre-teen apparel, but what if your target audience was high-end homeowners? You may be sending a vastly different message than you intend.
  5. The BIGGEST thing: “People Talking About This” vs. “Likes” will be horribly skewed. A huge number of followers is great! But if they’re silent, that can be more damaging to your reputation than not having them at all.

The point of social media is to engage. Buying followers shows a complete misunderstanding of this point – and power – of social networking.

The Bottom Line

It’s quality over quantity. Despite the growth of the Internet and the changing of the business landscape, the basics tenets of good business have not changed.

We know business. We know social networking. Ask us your questions here or on Facebook. iQuarius.

Pixar’s Next Movie Gets A Mysterious Photo Blog

Pixar is known for its long development cycles: the Emeryville, California-based company can take years to churn out a new animated movie. Now fans will be able to get an oblique sneak peek inside the studio’s next film — thanks to a new blog started by Lee Unkrich, a director and member of Pixar’s creative team.

The blog, simply called “Lee Unkrich,” will feature one image a day for the development cycle of the new, untitled film. That could mean a lot of updates. Unkrich already guessed, via his Twitter account, that he may be chronicling for up to four years.

Right now, the blog only has two entries. The first is captioned “The starting line.”  The opening image — a close-up of a Mac keyboard — doesn’t give away many clues. The second entry is titled “My standard lunch” and shows a bowl of broccoli and a sandwich. In other words, the blog looks like it will touch on things both central to the film and charmingly off-topic.

The blog is a nice way to share exclusive content with Pixar fans, but we’ll see if Unkrich can actually keep up a photo-a-day for the entire development process.

Is this Lee Unkrich feeling the attraction of engaging with fans on a daily basis? Because, if so, we know exactly what that’s like.

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