Why buying fake likes and comments for Facebook or Instagram is a bad idea

So apparently buying fake likes and comments is something that is still happening to this day. Some people might think it actually is a good idea in order to get fast results or getting popular. But actually in many cases it will result in the exact opposite. In this article I would like to highlight five critical points in order to educate you on why buying fake likes and comments are a bad idea.

Live with the unknown

So don’t ever expect comments and likes of a real person. That is the first thing I would like to mention. You are buying these likes from so-called “click farms”. These automated programs are mostly located in Asian countries like India, Bangladesh and Pakistan that create thousands of accounts to follow you. You might think this sounds great, but bear in mind that these account do not produce anything. They will only produce one interaction by liking a post or some shady comment and that is all. A lot of times you have no idea where these likes come from so you have to live with the unknown.

The algorithm always gets you

So in case you did not know yet, Instagram and Facebook do not like fake likes and comments. They are constantly updating and developing complex algorithms who assess all messages and content on you profile. They keep track on the number of likes and the number of responses in context of your followers or friends. Based on this, they assess whether your messages are still relevant to your followers (and even non-followers). If you get 10 followers every day and your messages get an average of 100 likes, a bell will ring at Instagram and Facebook if you suddenly have an additional 1000 followers but the number of likes remains the same.

Your content will be assessed as being less relevant and shown less on the timeline of your followers and people who do not follow you but fall within your target group. In some cases, they sometimes decide not to show your content at all. And that of course would be the very last thing you want.

Strict policy will make you waste your money

In addition to the algorithm, Instagram and Facebook have also increased their policy on checking fake accounts. These accounts are now deleted on regular basis. So it could well be that after you have spent € 100 euro on followers they are deleted the next day! Which means the same amount of followers but € 100 euro less cash in your wallet.

When Facebook removes a user, most times, all their fake likes go with it.
Facebook has thousands of employees who are constantly looking for fake accounts and deleting them immediately.

Fake likes reduce the quality of your Facebook page insights

So if you care about your marketing then your Facebook data is very important. If you have fake likes on posts your Facebook insights data will become contaminated with incorrect data. Which means you can no longer trust the data and statistics because they are simply not a true reflection of the reality. You can’t do anything great with fake data that comes from fake users.

Fake likes don’t convert!

Ok this is the last important point and it is actually pretty logic. Fake likes don’t convert! There is no way a fake account will click on a link, subscribe to your newsletter or buy a product.

Because…. fake users are not real, DUH! You need real people that will buy your products. You can get those people by creating more content on your site and promoting them on social media.

How to get more likes FOR FREE!

In terms of likes, hard work always pays off. Here is what you can do in order to get more likes:

1. Publish messages and articles on a regular basis and check which ones are popular. Instagram and Facebook care about real and unique content. If you keep have minimal likes then maybe your content does not match your target group.
2. Maintain interaction with your visitors. Respond to their messages.
3. SPAM is killing. Do not post too much and certainly do no overkill the message by sharing it everywhere with everyone.
4. Post interesting visuals with your content. People are not interested in long text. Interesting visuals with your content will increase the click rate.