Buying Facebook Likes: 3 Cons In This Dangerous Game

Buying Facebook likes from a source other than Facebook is a dangerous game. Is it against the rules? Yes. Do people still do it? All the time. There is a ton of pressure to constantly grow your Facebook page, and dropping a bit of cash to get instant results is tempting. But like Gary Busey once said, “If you take shortcuts, you get cut short.” The repercussions of buying Facebook likes range from damaging your page’s viability, to perpetuating the mistreatment of employees in the Click Farm industry. In this article, we talk about three cons of buying Facebook likes, plus what you can do to grow your page the right way. 

What Does It Mean To Buy Facebook Likes?

Buying Facebook likes is exactly what it sounds like. People pay a service various amounts of money  for a set amount of  “likes” on their page. . In theory, it sounds amazing. A few bucks for dozens of new Facebook followers? Sign me up! But while this industry generates boat loads of money, it also creates a boat load of issues for those participating. Pages have been placed in the notorious Facebook jail, some even permanently shut down.

Cons: Buying Likes Foster Unengaged Audience

Facebook’s algorithm for 2020 prioritizes engagement, and genuine engagement at that. Though Facebook allows it, buying Likes is a problem because it dilutes the efficacy of the platform for business. Therefore, Facebook continually works to detect low-quality engagement AKA purchased likes from fraudulent accounts. In 2014 alone, 83 million fake accounts were deleted, which makes up for 11.2% of the 1.3 billion total accounts. The more your platform relies on these fake Likes, the more likely you are to lose viability.

Cons: Buying Likes Could Damage Your Reputation

If you’ve been thinking about buying Facebook Likes, consider this for a moment: How would you feel if everyone found out? Odds are you’d be ashamed and expect to lose some followers and favorability. While hiring a click company is a quick and easy way to bolster your numbers, it’s also a one-way ticket to hiding a dirty little secret from all your true followers. If you, the Facebook account owner, don’t even have faith that your business page can garner authentic interest, how do you expect the public to believe in your product or service? Just because it is legal doesn’t mean it is right.

Cons: Buying Likes Supports Click Farms

Supporting local farms: good. Supporting click farms: bad. Click Farms are an undercover operation in which low-paid workers fraudulently interact with online content to artificially boost likes, comments, shares, views, and followers. Not only is this bad for your business (see above), but this also perpetuates extremely unethical workplace practices. According to The Guardian, click farm employees experience poor work conditions, “sitting at screens in dingy rooms facing a blank wall, with windows covered by bars, and sometimes working through the night.” Countries like India, the Philippines, China, Indonesia have all emerged as major hubs for buying Facebook likes as they are all locations for low wages and high tech penetration. Click Farm employees could have to generate 1,000 likes or follow 1,000 people on Twitter to earn a single US dollar.

How To Grow Your Page The Right Way

Despite its many harmful effects, buying likes can still be a tempting option. Don’t succumb! Instead, try the following.

First, Check out this video on the top 6 secret tips to get more likes on Facebook.

If that doesn’t pan out, Hire a professional marketing team to help you grow your Facebook page the right way. Here at IDS, we believe the first step to great marketing starts with you. If you want to drive more traffic, sell more products, build your brand, or reach your target market you have to put the right content out there. On top of that, it HAS to provide value. If a piece of content doesn’t bring value, skip it. 

No matter what you’re looking to achieve–driving more traffic, selling more products, building your brand, or reaching your target market–we can help. And we can’t wait to work with you! Contact us today. If you’ve tried one of these tips or you have other tips that have worked for you, share your experience in a comment below.