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. Google will spot it if your website suddenly has over 30 thousand FB sing-ups in one night. It will automatically look at where these registrations have come from, and whether they are natural. At worst, you could permanently damage the perception of your brand. At best, you could get banned from the rankings for a set period of time. Either way, we believe you should avoid fakes at all costs. The growth of companies offering ‘genuine likes’ and ‘genuine followers’ are on the rise. They tend to be scammers who are using very low paid workers to create false accounts, or they use software, or both. They are making a fortune, while you could lose just as much in revenue, if not more. Competition online is fierce and it can be a highly pressurised environment. If you are running your own business online you will know and understand the need to build your customer base and find quality leads. There is no doubt that traffic builds traffic. Another survey confirmed that users are far more likely to like a page or use a company which is already popular. This makes it very difficult for companies under pressure to perform, to resist the temptation to cheat. Each manager is in a position to make their own decisions, and for many, the benefits outweigh the risks. However, our advice is to spend the money on a PPC campaign or some banner adds instead. They will generate more natural, real traffic for your business than a bunch of fake followers ever could.