There was a Twitter conversation recently about the practice of buying Facebook ‘Fans’ and ‘Likes’. Apparently the way it works is that a firm guarantees a brand that it will acquire a certain number of fans and likes on Facebook – for a price, of course. And there are firms in places like Indore which employ people whose job profile is simply to ‘like’ brand pages. @beastoftraal plans to share the low down (no pun intended) of such practices soon – and as is wont, expect a detailed post from him.
Meanwhile, a cursory search on Google reveals that in the US, there are ‘experts’ who recommend such practices and options are huge. The rationale offered is that while it is easy for established brands (with a heritage) to garner fans, new or unknown brands can build traction by ‘seeing to be’ popular on FB.
Since social media marketing is still a fad, many marketers tend to hang on to buzz words like ‘fans’ and ‘followers’ as the only or primary measure of success. No wonder there is a market for them. Remember the days when web pages were the rage and one had to contend with designers who could set up a site for Rs.1000 or even less. Stuff like brand aesthetics, content and engagement go for a toss in such situations.
I can’t imagine savvy marketers or just plain smart businessmen not being able to figure out that you can’t force someone to like your brand. And that affinity comes from within. But unlike a low price website, the fan count is a badge. And who doesn’t like to show off? And when your rival brand boasts of a higher number of fans, it is time to join the bandwagon. Maybe over time, sanity will prevail.
5 Comments
[On my blog] Buying Facebook ‘Likes’ and ‘Fans’: perils of bandwagon marketing http://www.lbhat.com/online/buying-faceb...
RT @bhatnaturally: [On my blog] Buying Facebook ‘Likes’ and ‘Fans’: perils of bandwagon marketing http://www.lbhat.com/online/buying-faceb...
I have tried 4 websites offering the same services as this one, but all of them failed to deliver what they advertised. Then, I tried my last one http://www.FBpopular.com and was skeptical about this one too but I was able to talk to a representative on the phone and that gave me more confidence so I went ahead and ordered the gold package and more than what I ordered. I really recommend this company for facebook fan services.
For those looking to buy fans for any reason, whether it be lack of time or quite simply confused about Facebook but understand it's power and influence in terms of generating traffic etc, buy fans would seem like a good idea.
Unfortunatley it can lead to complications firstly finding the right company to partner with in terms of purchasing fans.
Secondly quality of service, some unscrupulous compaines have indeed jumped on this bandwagon and are offering supposed services covering 1000 fans, 10000 fans and more.
Now not all of them will be rip offs, however I would encourage anyone who is certain to do this to properly evaluate and search the web for feedback and more on so called services.
Personally I run a little site called http://webalista.com which is a kind of Facebook Pages Directory. The aim of the site is to offer more detail on Facebook Pages and help users find interesting and of course relevant pages pertaining to their needs.
The site is free to submit to and we have included a facebook login so no need for a convulted registration method.
Great post by the way! thanks for writing it!!!
Facebook is where many people gather
million peoples around the world have a facebook account.
facebook is currently ranked number one for sites with the highest traffic. So if our business websites participating in the facebook, surely the chance to get visitors will be even greater.
Thanks for sharing