The digital space growth has grown so much that people go gaga over everything posted there. Social media applications have become platforms for people to express their views, create content, fulfill their professional commitments, and make money. Everything looks good until the dark side of it is exposed. In the race to be seen, admired, and famous, people tend to take the unauthentic route of paying money to increase their likes, have positive comments on their posts, and increase their fake followers.
Many people build careers on their social profiles, but they tend to buy fake followers in the race to be on the top and have the most followers. If you look at the statistics, the rise of influencer marketing has taken the internet world by storm. Estimates suggest that for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, companies are witnessing a $5.78 ROI. The figures suggest influencer marketing to be the next big thing. But, if all the businesses are doing it, where does the authenticity lie in it?
According to ExpressVPN, social media space has witnessed a significant rise in sophisticated Ai-generated bots that skillfully mimic human behavior, making them difficult to spot. The research revealed that nearly half of Instagram accounts and approximately 30% of all accounts across social media platforms are operated by these bots.
But all of it comes down to one thing how did all of this rise, and what’s the right way to seek protection against it?
Let’s learn more about it.
How Does The Game Of Fake Followers Work?
The truth behind many people and their over a million followers on various social media platforms is a combination of true and fake accounts. In simple words, their influence is not as large as they claim to be that it is. The impressive numbers allow people to trust them to create an unshakable base over social media pages and market trends.
Sometimes, there can be some people or an organization who works for the influencer and post comments and likes on their accounts. The influencers who want to grow their social media families by hook or crook tend to choose this option. It is an open option, and many companies and groups of people tend to offer the same secretly and openly.
There are open pages and websites for buying fake followers, likes, subscribers, and likes on their accounts that are functional on various platforms. The real question is, how is this done?
So, a fake account by the name of any random person is created, and then fake photos are posted on it. These fake photos are either picked from stock photos or models are hired to pose. Then the pictures are uploaded to fake accounts. The following begins after this.
And if that’s not the case, AI technology is used to create bot accounts that are added as followers in the list of influencers. The person getting it done must pay online based on the available social media bracket rates.
It is confined to social media influencers and people who want to make it big through these platforms. Spending money on these things is easier for them than to work for their goals. The ready availability of fake follower services is a major question of authenticity. All you have to do is google your need to have fake followers, and you will get many companies, pages, and AI tools that can help you with it. The engagements will also be high; estimates suggest there can be a 20-30% follower inflation.
So, the propelling and famous business brands are facing a lot of risks as there may not be any returns for the campaigns they are running. Also, the influencers or pages are not as valuable as they appear, so it might be questionable. Reports suggest that brands anticipate spending approximately USD 15 billion on influencer marketing by the end of 2022. If that’s the case, the money will go down the drain.
Recent Market Examples
The robotic functioning of fake accounts following real people looks like an interesting plot but offers many disadvantages. If you see the estimates, you will be shocked to know that approximately 5% of Facebook accounts, followed by 15% and 45% of Twitter and Instagram accounts, respectively, have fake accounts that act as real people and converse with living beings as if they are one of them.
The imitations are not only stuck at following people but also lead to data theft and security breaches. That’s where the information is taken and made available on the dark web. The sale and purchase of stolen information pose major threats worldwide.
Did you know that in 2014, the famous social media application – Instagram took a step to eliminate fake accounts run by bots? After they took this step, the celebrity – Kim Kardashian lost over 1.5 million followers. That’s one celebrity and one platform. You can only imagine what these boots and fake followers pages are up to globally.
Demand For Fake Followers
The demand is like an echo chamber. The availability of these issues sugarcoated as solutions for growing your social media family, views, likes, comments, and followers, is one of the biggest issues propelling technology brings forward. The ease of availability, techniques, and availability of more followers for lower prices is the biggest reason people sign up for this.
Also, the hype around content creation and social media visibility is such that people are ready to spend huge amounts to be a part of the league. Apart from searching, they run sponsored ads and connect to the people looking for a rise through commenting and DM’s. It works like serving a platter on the plate so that people think of signing up for it.
Conclusion
Everything has its set of pros and cons. The same stands true for social media and AI. The wide recognition of social media platforms and the growing trends on them is brainwashing people into going for irrelevant and unsafe methods that can also threaten their information. Taking the safe and authentic route and increasing organic followers is better.
