In the world of Internet business, social media marketing content that attracts many "likes" is considered by some to be worth its weight in gold. They are probably right to hold that opinion.
A large amount of these positive responses by users is thought to drive additional traffic to a website. There is probably an element of truth in this but is that belief driving some businesses to obtain these accolades by other than the natural means?
How often have you "liked" something that is in fact not a submission by a lone Internet user but instead forms a part of a carefully orchestrated program that has been specifically designed and targeted to attract users to click on that "like" button? No one really knows the scale of this but it is undoubtedly going on to quite a large extent.
Fake "Likes"
As soon as professional Internet marketers realized the enormous potential of this free endorsement by users they started to look around for means to maximize the benefits that could be realized by obtaining "likes" by any means. More unscrupulous individuals could see nothing wrong with creating fake "likes" and selling them on.
A virus called Zeus has been used to create fake "likes" on Instagram. One thousand "likes" is now apparently obtainable for around $30 if you know where to go to find a seller. These are now more expensive than illegally obtained credit card numbers from such sources.
It is a fact that some marketing companies have discovered that it can reap real rewards by utilizing services that create a large following for clients by using fake profiles on media platforms. The big social media sites obviously condemn this practice and who can blame them.
Most Internet users see this form of showing approval of a product as a good indicator of the quality or desirability of that product. They are unfortunately being misled in some cases as the thousands of "likes" they see before them are actually meaningless, having been generated by other than the proper means. There is no doubt that some users are actually parting with their money and purchasing products based to some degree on their perceived popularity.
Savvy Internet users can gauge the validity of "likes" by clicking on a few. This will quickly indicate the geographical area they are coming from. If there were numerous "likes" all originating from one spot in the world only then it would be sensible to treat them with caution.
To find out more about using social media marketing in the correct manner to improve the Internet visibility of a website, call us at (888) 318-3950 ext.211.
