Internet

Why Spam Facebook Likes Should be Avoided Like the Plague

Keyboard Facebook Like

Having a lot of likes on Facebook can appear to be a good thing. All kinds of businesses implement complex strategies just to get their audience to click on the like button. This must mean that likes are an indication of popularity, right? Your social media presence is intended to increase awareness of your brand so how could having more likes be bad? Below is an explanation of why spam likes are bad and why you should go about getting rid of them as soon as they appear.

Just like search engines, Facebook has a way of determining relevance. Their aim is to provide users with content that they will find interesting. Their algorithm determines what is interesting, relevant and useful by looking at the way that people interact with the content. Content that has thousands of spam likes from people who did not view or otherwise interact with it signals that it is not interesting even to the people who “liked” it. Spam likes make it so that the likelihood of your content showing up in the feeds of those who truly like your page goes down considerably.

The Facebook algorithm calculates engagement. The more people you have sharing your content and commenting on it, the better your content will perform. This will allow you to expose your brand to more people along with any special offers or other promotional content.

Removing Spammy Facebook Likes

Facebook does allow you to remove unwanted likes yourself; however, you must remove them one by one. If you have thousands of spam likes, this can take an unfeasibly long time. For a large number of likes, you may be able to contact Facebook and have them do it for you. You will be required to provide an explanation.

Buying Likes is Not a Good Idea

Scam sites sell likes from real Facebook users. The buyers believe that these will result in traffic for their Facebook page and increased ad revenue. The idea of buying likes may sound tempting to B2B markerters looking for quick and easy ways to promote their brand, but it can backfire. Along with potentially making their content invisible to their intended audience, these B2B markerters would be in violation of the Facebook Terms of Service. If they are discovered, they could potentially have their social media profile deleted.

The Facebook Help Center explicitly states that you cannot buy likes and that those selling them are likely scammers and are using “deceptive practices.”

Of course, there is nothing wrong with B2B marketers promoting posts on Facebook or trying to get more likes for promotional content. Facebook is a social network and fully approves of sharing if it is done in the right way. It is important that they target their content and promoted posts. Getting likes this way is an ethical and reasonable way to increase followers.

Defending Against Spam Likes

While there is no guaranteed way to protect yourself against spam likes, you can take a few steps to make them less likely. One tool is the Country Restrictions option in your General settings. This option allows you to determine which countries can see your Facebook profile. Using it is especially important for local businesses. Having thousands of likes from Indian users is not going to help your coffee shop in Boca Raton, Florida.

Could a competitor buy spam likes to sabotage your business?

Yes, they could. However, this is unlikely as it makes for a highly inefficient method of sabotage. If they are willing to pay to sabotage you online, there are better ways to do it.

This kind of spam affects other social media services as well, including Twitter and LinkedIn. It exists because Internet culture is obsessed with popularity. Organizations, celebrities and regular people are constantly seeking more followers and likes. What they forget is that quantity is not the most important metric for social media marketing success, quality is.

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Paul Tomaszewski is a science & tech writer as well as a programmer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of CosmoBC. He has a degree in computer science from John Abbott College, a bachelor's degree in technology from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, and completed some business and economics classes at Concordia University in Montreal. While in college he was the vice-president of the Astronomy Club. In his spare time he is an amateur astronomer and enjoys reading or watching science-fiction. You can follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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