The Disadvantages of Paying for Facebook Likes

Today we share with you an insightful post from Sarah Dunbar of SEO Map. If you have been reading the news, you know that Facebook is cracking down on fake likes. Let’s see her take on why this is a good thing.

Many companies are taking the easy way out when it comes to their social networking campaigns. Instead of creating a thorough strategy that provides them with a large number of followers and great repertoire between their business and their customers, they’re instead dishing out the cash and paying for Facebook likes.

That’s right. Who needs to earn an honest customer when you can pay for fake ones?

Purchasing Facebook likes can occur in two different ways. First, a business can hire a company that helps generate the large interest, or a business can pay certain individuals directly in order for them to like their page.

Both concepts are unethical, as paying for Facebook likes is not a trusted business practice. But there are companies out there who would rather fill their following with fake fans than earn the real ones.

Obviously, paying for Facebook likes comes with plenty of disadvantages, including the following.

You’re not generating content for real people

If you are paying individuals directly in order to get them to like your site, you may find that the same person is creating multiple social media accounts just to reap the rewards. Instead of earning a large and eclectic amount of consumers, you’re simply getting whatever is thrown at you.

There’s no interaction

Most people who are paid to like Facebook pages don’t do so because they want to interact with the brand. This inhibits the main purpose of Facebook, which is to build relationships. If there’s no interaction occurring between you and your followers, Facebook is not going to help your business.

They don’t stick around

Once an individual has earned his or her payment for liking your page, chances are they’ll never come back. Sure you have the “like” on your business page, but again, you’re not building the relationships needed in order to social networking to work.

Some of these individuals will also unlike your page once they’ve received their payment for liking you in the first place. Since most of these individuals don’t sign contracts with the companies whose pages they like, they are free to do whatever they want once payment has been rendered.

You don’t learn anything

One of the best features of social media is its ability to teach you something new about your audience every day. If you measure the metrics of your network, you’ll find that most people can provide information on their target audience, where they come from, what interests them, etc. When you purchase Facebook likes, you will not gain this type of feedback because you’ll either be relying on fake users or not generating enough interaction on your network. If this occurs, you can’t learn more information about your following, so you’ll have a harder time creating the right marketing tactics.

If you want to succeed in marketing, you need to employ honest business practices. If you buy Facebook likes, it not only shows that you’re deceptive, but it also shows that you’re too lazy to truly care about generating the content to earn your business the honest way. If you want to be successful and earn a large following, create a great plan and launch it, and leave your checkbook out of it.

Sarah Dunbar works for the online marketing team at SEOMap. To learn more about their work, click here.