Never Fake It on Social Media: Be Honest and Real
Why You Should Avoid Automated Likes and Fake Followers
Nobody likes a faker, and that’s even truer on social media. From undisclosed influencer promotions that trick you into buying products or brands that buy followers to seem more successful than they are, it seems social media is a breeding ground for spam and lies. That’s why as a brand or business it is so important to be authentic and organic on social media. Your followers want honest recommendations, real followers and real opinions. That’s why they follow you after all! It may seem like a quick fix to buy a couple hundred followers here and there, but it can actually lead to damaging your brands hard earnt reputation. Here are our top reasons why you should avoid the world of automation, fake likes, fake followers and spam.
Fake Followers
The usernames of followers are usually a massive giveaway as to whether they’re real and active, or fake and a ghost follower. If the username is something like “dizzahft_2892” then the user is likely to be fake. Real followers tend to use their real name, or a well thought out username, with either their birth year or other important numbers. Usernames that look randomly generated – usually are! Fake users will also either have a private account, no photos or spam photos.
Another way of your followers easily telling if you’ve purchased fake followers (aside from your follower count jumping up) is your engagement rate. If you’ve got 200k followers, but only get 100 likes, then something is really wrong. Every account, if they are active and posting good content should receive around 10% engagement on their photos. So if you’ve got 100 followers, you should get around 10 likes or comments on everything you post.
Automated Comments
Commenting on people’s photos is a great way to get them to view your page and follow you. Therefore the appeal of automated commenting is understandable. It seems like a great way to leave an authentic looking comment and then get more followers. The way automated commenting works, however, is that you have to select the hashtags or location people are using and then your account automatically leaves a comment. This all seems fine until somebody has used the hashtag #love on a photo of their sick grandma, and you’ve left an automated comment of “Great!” – so unprofessional.
Obviously automated comments can lead to some really awkward situations, so it’s probably best to leave them altogether. Especially as some people get really funny about generic comments. If you’re seen to be commenting “Great” under dozens of photos a day, people will quickly realise they are not genuine and this can damage your brand image.
Block Spam Accounts
Your followers trust you. They follow you to follow your interesting or informative comment. What they don’t follow you for is spam comments left on the bottom of all your photos. Your social media manager needs to be alert and responsive and delete these comments as quickly as possible. They should also block all spam users. Your social media needs to be a place of trust and genuineness – not people selling followers or dodgy face creams.
Also, by blocking users leaving spam comments you are more likely to notice authentic comments from your actual followers. You then have the chance to monitor your social media more effectively.
Use Fewer Hashtags
Hashtags mean easy likes, right? Wrong. Although spamming all your posts with hashtags may get you a few more likes in the short term, all those users will dwindle off. This leaves you exactly where you left off before. Instead of spamming 30 hashtags on each Instagram post, or as many as you can fit in on Facebook and Twitter, why not create a succinct list of around 10 for Instagram and 4 for other social networks that are directly relevant to your business or brand and the post itself.
Spamming dozens of hashtags can mean more spam followers, spam comments and likes from fake users. None of these mean conversions, authentic followers or honest reviews. You want your post to appear in the timeline of people who will be interested in it, so pick your hashtags wisely! The people you want to see it will see it if you pick the most appropriate tags.
For more help with social media, contact us today. Our experienced team use best practices – no spam. Just great content and genuine interaction with your followers. Read more about brand loyalty in this post and learn how one brand built itself up from an Instagram account here.