Facebook, Twitter and Google+ have known about the massive amount of fake fans and followers on their social networks for awhile now. So much that some people have and are making a living by creating and selling these types of ‘fans.’
Facebook has finally decided to try and do something about this as they have started to begin the process of ‘removing’ some of these fake, and often purchased, fans from Facebook fanpages.
Friday, “Facebook Security” announced that they were cracking down on fake Likes:
“We have recently increased our automated efforts to remove Likes on Pages that may have been gained by means that violate our Facebook Terms.”
“On average, less than 1% of Likes on any given Page will be removed, providing they and their affiliates have been abiding by our terms. These newly improved automated efforts will remove those Likes gained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users, or purchased bulk Likes. While we have always had dedicated protections against each of these threats on Facebook, these improved systems have been specifically configured to identify and take action against suspicious Likes.”
So, in other words, if you were contemplating buying some “likes”… save your money. If you have bought some… brace yourself. Reality will soon be hitting.
Facebook pages that will probably receive the biggest hits are music artists/bands pages. In an era where record labels are looking for how an up and coming group, they are looking at their social media presence, interaction, and following. We know this firsthand as we had an up and coming rock band come in our office and confirmed this.
But as record labels are looking for the “Next Big Thing,” some bands and musicians have turned to building a “Non-organic” way of building their fanbase and followers. Looks great at first glace but Facebook will now be removing these ‘fans’ and show the true numbers of fans.
Twitter has been exposed in the past several days by an app created by statuspeople.com that shares their results on the number of ‘fake’ accounts following, ‘inactive’ users and ‘real’ users. With this being publicized and now Facebook beginning to take action, one would think that Twitter would soon follow suit and start to remove fake accounts.
Are you glad to see this happen? Let us know on our Facebook, Google+ or Twitter pages.
Swish Digital: Digital Marketing Agency, Social Media