The year had barely started and already I’m fighting the same old battles again. And one of the main battles I have been fighting since 2014 has been the one against my various inboxes, news feeds and comment areas filling up with invitations to buy Facebook likes and Twitter followers.

It’s not just about buying Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers anymore

In the beginning it was only about Facebook likes. Then it started about buying Twitter followers as well. But now it seems you can buy anything you like to make you look better on social media. From YouTube views to making people believe that thousands of people follow you on Instagram, it’s all for sale.

This whole thing makes me think of the Russian Brides farce. If you need to look through a website for a woman, have her come to your country and fork out thousands of dollars for the privilege of having a beautiful woman on your arm to keep those lonely nights at bay, you are kidding yourself. Then you are missing out on meeting someone by fate, falling in love, getting engaged, getting married and growing old together knowing that the one snuggling on the couch next to you on cold winter nights chose you to love.

It’s the same with buying Facebook likes and Twitter followers. When you do all the right things to generate traffic to your blog or your website and people start liking your Facebook page or follow you on Twitter, it means they find something on your blog or within your social media pages that’s of value to them. These people will become loyal to your brand because they are there out of choice. These are the people you want on your list of followers.

Why buying Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers is a farce

Having many followers on Twitter, Facebook and all the other social media sites can give you a certain acclaim. But like the guy who buys a bride and fools himself into thinking she really wants to be with him, you can only fool yourself and others for so long into believing that you are popular in social media circles. The truth is that most of those followers you buy will come from false profiles, created only to provide thousands of likes and followers for people giving their credit card numbers to follower mills. Reality check – it won’t generate any business for you!

The real danger in buying Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers

Not only will you know that it’s a case of smoke and mirrors, that you aren’t really as popular as others may believe – Google will know it too! And this is where the real danger lies.

We all know that Google launches regular updates to its algorithm. And yes, it’s true that Google’s algorithm takes into account how much engagement your website gets on social media. So more followers and more likes will mean great things for your page rank in Google, right? WRONG!

Google is clever and becomes more so every day. How long is it going to be before Google has an algorithm that can gauge whether the followers you have on social media are real people who are truly in to what you have to offer them or some manufactured profiles you bought from a follower mill?

Just like the crash in ranking many websites experienced when Google decided it’s time to do away with the buying and selling of backlinks, those buying Facebook likes and Twitter followers are going to one day check their websites only to see that they have experienced a huge downturn. Getting rid of all those fake profiles on their social media platforms are then going to be an insurmountable task.

So what is the solution if it isn’t buying Facebook likes and Twitter followers?

My solution? To be as real on social media as you possibly can. In a world where everything has become contrived and false, people respond to those who are real. When sharing on social media, don’t always just be marketing. People don’t only want to learn about your product. You and those who work for you are a huge part of your brand. People want to know the people behind your product.

Sharing honest content that piques their interest is probably the best way to steadily build a following. It may not grow as quickly as buying Facebook likes and Twitter followers but you can go to bed at night knowing that real people follow a real you. And that will keep even Google happy.

A free course to teach you how to do social media right!

At the beginning of the year many have started their journey building a business. But to make a success of any business you have to know how to do social media right – you need to know how to survive without buying Facebook likes and Twitter followers.

You can learn all you need to know to build a healthy social media following with this free course. Just click here and you can join in some social media fun, teaching you how to do it the right way from the start.

Do it right, even if it takes you a bit longer than buying Facebook likes and Twitter followers. Years from now you will still be glad you did.