Intro
If you follow me on social media, u know that this topic is extremely important to me as a business owner! but also as someone who works in an industry that believes strongly in ethics. Unfortunately, even within the ‘ETHICAL’ industry, I’ve come across accounts who have purchased their engagement for a few reasons, one begin social proof or to look like they have a larger audience than is actually true, and to use that ‘LARGE AUDIENCE’ to their advantage.
THIS IS AN ISSUE THAT I’VE SEEN IN BOTH BRANDS AND BLOGGERS, AND IS EXTREMELY UNETHICAL FOR MANY REASONS. Contact me
Before we even begin, I want to make the important point that it is actually very easy to tell if an account has bought followers, so please look into this before collaborating with someone so that you’re not wasting your time or your money!
You would be surprised at how many ‘ ETHICAL’ bloggers that we interact with on a daily basis have purchased engagement, and the same goes for brands. You can detect a fake following in two easy steps:
Look at the following number. If they have 17K followers, and 65 like on every one of their pictures, that's usually a fake following. I realize that the algorithm lately means fewer likes than normal, but if less than 5% of their followers are interacting with their audience, it should be a red flag.
The second way to tell is to look at a photo that has high likes, such as a giveaway, scroll through all accounts that have liked that photo, and if you're starting to notice a trend of sketchy accounts, they are most likely purchased likes.
IF YOU ARE A BLOGGER PURCHASING ENGAGEMENT:
you’re SCAMMING brands!
Not only are you taking money under false pretense, but you’re also taking advantage of business owners, which is exactly what the ethical industry is trying to combat. These business owners are trusting that the small marketing budget they do have is going towards reaching their target audience. Purchasing followers so that you’ll get paid more money from brands, or purchasing likes so that you’ll have higher engagement on getaways or collaboration posts is extremely misleading and UNETHICAL.
There are so many more points that I could make, but to sum it up, having a 'LARGE FOLLOWING' is not going to make you successful. Creating an authentic community of people genuinely interested in your brand is what is going to generate revenue, and create lasting relationships.
