Recently there has been more news coverage about companies who have been found to have ‘fake’ followers on their social media accounts. It seems that despite the dangers of being discovered and tarnished as cheats, brands still believe that high numbers of followers, even if they are fake, are better than just a few real connections. Don’t believe it! Paying for fake followers can seriously harm the health of your brand. And more importantly, the Google bots will spot it. Fake likes on Facebook, Twitter and other ways to fake it, do not generate natural traffic. And since the arrival of Google Penguin, it is natural traffic that the bots are attracted to. Fakes will not help build a trusted relationship with your customers either. Although the site of many thousands of followers on a page may attract more followers initially, once they realise there is no real activity going on, and that all these ‘people’ come from the same geographic location, they will be much less impressed. In fact, a recent survey indicated that most customers severed ties completely with brands they found to be cheating or behaving in a dishonest way online. Continue reading →