How those behind fake likes are on the extinction list
Building on the trust factor: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Hyderabad: “Fake likes” or simply a like on an item on Facebook aimed at making a product or a person appear legitimate are on their way out. An advertisement on Facebook about the latest “magic weight loss pill” might have 3,000 likes, which will prompt at least one user in 10 to check it out. But keep in mind that those 3,000 likes, in all likelihood, could be the result of a ‘click farm’ using bots or software or just meagre-salaried students clicking away at the item — in exchange for a few thousand rupees.
The going rate? “It depends on who you are doing the job for. If it’s some college, it could be as low as 12 paise for a like. If it’s a cosmetic giant, the payment could reach a crore,” reveals a city-based social media management expert. The problem has become so serious that Facebook has launched a massive purge to “cleanse” itself of these fake likes.
“Keeping activity authentic on Facebook is an important part of our ongoing efforts to make sure Facebook is a trustworthy place for people and businesses to connect,” the company’s Huseyin Kerem Cevahir wrote in a blog post this week. But in 2015, you might wonder why there are many who still pay for likes because, yes, besides being slimy, it’s just... stupid. Prepare to be surprised then.
“There exists a cosmetic company on Facebook which has over 15 million likes... 15 million is a massive number. But then their posts have just 60 likes, forcing you to ask: When they have 15 million people following them, why are there just 60 likes to a single post?” asks the social media expert.
Celebrity accounts
An employee of a top social media management firm in Hyderabad which handles several accounts of Tollywood celebs ack-nowledges that fake likes are a problem. “Let’s take Kajal Aggarwal as an example. She has at least 15 million following her. Following a recent purge, sometime in March, she lost nearly a lakh in Facebook users. Now, celebs completely avoid buying likes as it serves no purpose and they really want to genuinely know how many fans are out there,” the staffer says.
Another technique which mischief mongers use is the sale of pages. “College students looking for that extra buck, start an FB page filled with porn. Soon, you have a page with at least 30,000 likes. Then, you just app-roach someone who wants a page with plenty of likes and you simply change the name. A brand or a person then ends up with a ready-made page filled with 10,000 likes,” adds the staffer.
Facebook though is taking serious note and seems to doing everything it can to maintain “trust”. A city-based hacker who has previously worked on social media systems explains: “A good number of what you see on the website is either promoted, pushed or paid for. You have to understand that Fac-ebook makes its cash from advertising so, when there’s mischief being done... legitimacy is the first victim and advertisers might fail to judge trends clearly. At the end of the day, numbers cannot become a lie.”
( Source : dc correspondent )
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