Facebook Likes Farming You Should Avoid at all Cost

Facebook likes can help your page shoot up in page views, as well as Google page rank. That is why many business owners and entrepreneurs alike are working day-in and day-out just to get as many likes as they can in a short period of time as much as possible. However, getting likes in Facebook is not at all easy. It is also not hard at all if you have an effective strategy of getting likes.

Consequently, different strategies on getting likes and shares abound, and Facebook marketing war has become a battle of ingenuity and wits. The tough gets going while losers quit. Smart marketers are enjoying success in their Facebook promotion campaign, but also celebrating with them are scammers who have amassed massive bucks at the expense of others.

It’s a known fact that scams in Facebook exist, and the numbers keep rising every day unless more people are educated and become aware of the modus operandi of these scams in order to avoid falling into their traps. On the part of marketers, it is imperative to know the FB like scams that abound, especially those who are contemplating on buying Facebook likes; subscribing to their services will pose some SEO risks.

How the FB Like Scam Works?

The structure of the scam is spammy in nature. But if you are not properly educated about it you will also more likely to fall into the trap. The first step is to create a Facebook page. The next step is to add a post that attracts the attention of many people.

It could be a sad story of a poor kid with physical disability that obviously requires help. At the end of the post is a call-to-action statement asking viewers to like or to share the page in support of the poor kid. In some cases, a statement will be inserted telling readers that in every like a certain amount of donation for the poor child will be funded. Naturally, likes will start pouring in to support the unfortunate individual. After all, it will not cost any money. All you have to do is to simply push a button.

However, it is important to be aware of the implication of liking a page. Once you like a certain post, the liked page will be instantly shown in your timeline feed. Consequently, all your fans will see the post and there is higher possibility that some of your fans will share or like the page, as well. The process repeats in the timeline of your fans, and the scam page will quickly spread like wildfire. Within a short span of time, hundreds to thousands of likes will be collected, sometimes garnering millions of likes in some instances.

Once the page gets sufficient amount of social likes and social shares, it will be stripped down to bare format. The fake sad story will be erased and the picture of the unfortunate child will be deleted. It will then be sold in the black market at a high price. The more likes the page gets the more expensive it will be sold.

 

There are many black market buyers willing to pay high price for a Facebook page with plenty of social activities in terms of likes, comments, and shares, as well as those with many Facebook fans. Some of them will offer services like giving social signals to customers. Others will use the page for the advantage of their businesses, while other buyers will use the page for malicious intent.

The above technique of getting likes is naturally a form of FB like farming. Google introduced the Google Panda to get rid of content farming back in 2011. If the incidences of Facebook shares and likes farming will become so rampant, there is a possibility that search engines will launch another algorithm pet to get rid of social farming as well.

The sad story scheme is just one of the many farming activities in Facebook. There are other techniques being used by other scammers. Another case is giving perks and prizes if you like a post, or if you share the page to your friends. One like is equivalent to one raffle entry. The prizes at stake can be quite alluring. But obviously they are bogus and non-existent; fake winners will be proclaimed, though.

Takeaway Lesson

It is worthwhile knowing the schemes of these scams so that you can avoid being lured into their traps. This is particularly important to marketers buying likes and shares in Facebook, and also to those who are buying Facebook pages.

While social signals from likes and shares are beneficial to search engine optimization, to some extent, likes generated using black hat techniques will have future consequences. Sooner, search engines will be fully equipped with programs capable of detecting social signal farming, and by then it will be difficult to undo what you have done.

So the main takeaway lesson here is to keep your Facebook marketing campaign activities within the white-hat limits, and don’t go astray towards the black-hat territories. As Google keeps on saying, blog for the readers and not for the search engines; this can also be applied to social media marketing. Share and like posts for your fans and not to get more likes and shares in return. Likewise, it is encouraged to be extra vigilant when sharing or when liking posts in Facebook. Sometimes it is hard to detect scam posts, and by liking the post you will become a part of the scam activities. If you are in for business, liking a scam post may have catastrophic effect to your business page, thereby placing the reputation of your business at risk of being labelled as spam, as well.

Moving forward, the best way to get organic likes and organic Facebook shares is to post valuable posts that are helpful to your fans. Engage with them and build relationship and trust. Social engagement built on trust will go a long way. This will also give you better milestone from your Facebook campaign.