It will not suprise many that there are fake accounts on all social media platforms and this number is increasing as more and more people realise the full potential that the likes of Twitter and Facebook hold for business and network marketing. It is said that around 5% of Twitter accounts are fake, this may not sound a large equation, but this amounts to approximately 20 Million accounts! Facebook likewise suffers from bogus accounts with a reported 85 Million accounts that are fake.
Can you spot fake account on social media?
Fake accounts in most cases do not engage, they have no updates, no branding / image and usually a name that makes no sense at all. Other times, especially for Facebook, they are younger eastern European / Asian ladies looking to attract male followers. Many people can spot these fake accounts, usually by:
Fake names and images (stock image or commonly used image)
No updates / comments
Hardly any followers / likes / connections
Eastern / Asian young lady profile descriptions
Timeline posted with spam updates / Tweets
How and why do fake accounts on social media circulate? Many people still sell and many people still buy fake followers / likes as this false economy gives their accounts supposed credability, social media users are far more likely to take notice of an account that has high following compared to those will small numbers. But do fake accounts really give you any value?
- They are easy to spot so anyone with social media knowledge researching your account will see you have been desperate to get followers / connections and obviously are unable to get numbers on board the natural way.
- The fake accounts will populate your time lines with spam messages.
- Eventually, even if you have paid for 20,000 new followers, the numbers will fall quickly as the social media platforms combat fake accounts by deleting / suspending them.