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What are some FaceBook 'like' sites?

What's the word on sites/services that "sell" you Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and the like?

  • I came across one site, http://www.getmorepopular.com, that lets companies buy users and activity for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. We are primarily interested in learning more about their Facebook fan packages Has anyone worked with this company (or others like this) and found the results to be worth the cost? Are these actually good, qualified fans and followers? Are they active or valuable users in any way? Are there any negative or damaging aspects to this kind of buy? It seems like the type of thing some companies might do or have already done, but no one would readily admit to it. In general, what are your thoughts on buying social media followers?

  • Answer:

    I've been on both sides of the equation re: FB fans, so can give a reasonably well-informed viewpoint, though I do not have any knowledge about the company you mentioned.  However, over the past two years, I've helped numerous brands gain thousands of FB fans through both app and Page distribution; furthermore, I've been on the buy-side of campaigns through both 3rd parties and FB Social Ads.  Here's my overall take:  It's smart to buy fans, but you have to be smart about the source and the spend. Why buying fans is smart:  In the heyday of 2009, FB Pages had full feed distribution and were intensely viral.  Since then, feed distribution has become based on content performance and as such much of the natural virality has been limited.  If you are serious about buying fans (and you must be clear what you are actually buying:  distribution), then you're most likely going to have to pay to track down the people who are either a) natural fans or yours but don't know about the page or b) who would likely become a fan after learning more.  This is relevant for both big brands and local merchants. Buying fans from a third party:  When app traffic was at its peak (again in 2009), advertisers could readily obtain fans here.  Ad networks on both sides of the spectrum (incentivized and non-incentivized) were doing a variety of fanning products either in-line in display ads or on a CPA-basis after a click to the Page.  In general, these products did not send quality fans to advertisers.  The problem:  app users were typically taking actions simply to get credits or to continue a flow of a game or app.  These problems still exist with much app traffic unless the campaign is highly integrated.  For instance, companies such Appsavvy and Focused Labs have become pros at this very integration.  If you are buying fans from a third party, make sure you fully understand the types of traffic your campaign will be exposed to, the extent to which users are incentivized to take a "fanning" action, and how your CPA relates to CPM (always wise to add some value for impressions).  In general, avoid *all* types of traffic where users are rewarded for becoming a fan. Reality: It's better to just buy from FB: The cold reality in buying Fans is that you're best off doing it directly through Social Ads (or if you have a big budget, through FB directly).  In recent months, the Social Ad product has added many targeting features that allow advertisers to hyper-target to the ideal type of fan.  Furthermore, one can now fully track both impressions and actions, so there's a true way to evaluate spend.  The challenge, of course, is one of both time and knowledge:  it's easy to figure out how to target using Social Ads, but it is quite difficult to launch, test, and evolve ads to optimize for the ideal CPA.  One ad might get you fans for $0.15, the other for $1.50 (and the former might range up to the latter over time).  If you have some time and can build up some patience for testing, though, going through FB directly really is the best way to go.  There are many great guides on the web about how to run effective campaigns.

Dan Birdwhistell at Quora Visit the source

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B2C Social Media should be about loyalty and genuine dialogue. Any mercenary tactic of fan acquisition (buying fans or even just offering sales promotions to attract deal hunters) flies in the face of this premise. Moving beyond romantic notions, the main problem I've found with fans acquired via mercenary means is that they become a greater problem later on in that they hide you from their News Stream. Based upon my data a healthy fan page has a Hidden Fan % ranging somewhere between 4-8% of your total fan base. Once the number reaches/surpasses ~12%, you've got a real problem on your hand in that your message (stream posts) just aren't reaching any sort of critical mass. The solution to this problem is to buy more fans. You can either 1) Buy ads against your existing fan base in order to get some of those fans to unhide you or 2) Go out an buy all new fans who might just end up hiding you so that they too have to be repurchased. Bottom Line: Once you acquire a fan via mercenary means (buy them), it is very likely that you will have to repurchase them in the future.

Dakota Reese Brown

As somebody who supports multiple companies on Facebook daily, I would not recommend buying Facebook fans from a 3rd-party. I spent time trying to help a network marketer "figure out Facebook." She had 10,000 fans and after two minutes of looking it was obvious that she had purchased them. I'm always amused when clients tell me their fans are all organic and when you start digging you see that the local marketer has 6,000 fans in China...and 3 in her hometown. Here are some of the issues she ran into and you're likely to run into as well when you buy fans: They're far less likely to engage with your product or service and that means less reach for your content. If you're running a business fan page, your goal should be to turn fans into customers. That's far less likely to happy with a purchased list Your organic growth will suffer because people will be reluctant to become fans of a page that looks like it has a lot of spam followers. You're far better served using Facebook ads and Look-Alike Audiences to grow your fan base. It will cost you less, you have more of a chance to build a real community and it will be far easier to convert them to customers in the long-run. Bonus Tip: Facebook now includes trending stories that include links to posts about the subject. Try creating content around those topics and include and optimize media. Also remember-the vast majority of your fans will not come to your fan page but will see and interact with your content in their news feed. Plan accordingly. Bonus Tip #2: Switch from posting as your fan page to your regular profile and share the corporate content. I've seen content jump from 20 to 400 views with a single share.

Chuck Apostolas

Twitter's Promoted Accounts product promotes your account to users likely to find it relevant and interesting. It works extremely well - in the last month, the follow thru rate on the product is the same as it is for organically recommended accounts.

Pierre Legrain

I know of people that have built up sizable Twitter followings (10,000-50,000+) through scripts or some software that automatically follows people and unfollows those who don't follow back within a set period of time (like 48 hours). By doing this, they are able to remain within Twitter's Following limits. I had heard of these methods but was genuinely surprised to find out that they were actually successful...if all you are looking for is numbers, not interaction. I've noticed that for most of these accounts, there is no conversation happening. The user didn't select people to follow that they thought were interesting or interested in what they had to offer. It was just a random process. So, they send out ("broadcast") messages, rarely reply to anyone & never seem to read other people's messages. So, yes, I've known people who've had success in quickly building up follower numbers. But I think having 200 people follow you who are interested in what you have to say is more valuable than having 20,000 followers who automatically follow people back and probably will never read any of your messages, much less act on them.

Liz Pullen

Facebook in particular is very cost effective when your goal is to build a community of loyal and genuine fans. Why does one need to buy Facebook fans when you can get quality fans using their self advertising program? Buying fans/followers might give you the numbers initially, but if they aren't interested in your offering/product, they will just back off (read: dis-engage).

Rohit Onkar

You can purchase cheap likes/fans from http://www.promoshore.com/ , they’re very friendly and their service is amazing. I have been using them for long to help my pages grow because they provide quality likes. You can check below to learn how-to. How to get Facebook Likes:1.Visit their website http://www.promoshore.com/2.Choose the fanpage or post/photo likes.3.Select the amount of likes you would like to buy. PromoShore is one of the best ways to get real Facebook like for your business. You will get few facilities from them and that's are unique from others.If you buy real like then, you should try anywhere who provides real Facebook like, so you can ask them to place the order..Best Regards, Nick :)))

Nick Taylor

Facebook is happy to "sell you" fans via performance based ad campaigns. Expect to pay ~$0.50 per person.

Pete Mauro

I know Klout's business model is around connecting people (say, a marketing firm) with targeted groups of people on Twitter and FaceBook. Anyone have any experience working with them?

Joshua Seims

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