Fake page likes - what they are & how to avoid them

Fake Facebook Likes

Unfortunately, this is a post we are writing having suffered from the scourge of 'fake likes' on our own Facebook Page. Taking it back to basics, a 'fake' like on your Facebook Page or your Facebook Post is one that has come from somewhere that is not a legitimate person, or is a person that is being paid to like pages and posts. For the most part, these fake likes come from click farms, which are predominantly based in Africa & Asia, and have been setup for dodgy companies to try to trick the system. You've likely heard of these type of companies, pages and people who try to boost their standing on Facebook by paying a third party to like their page hundreds or thousands of times. What you might not realise, is that even if you are running your page by the book, your company may be affected by fake page likes. Here's how:

1. ​Dodgy users pay third party click farms (usually in Asia or Africa) to like their page or posts.
2. Those click farms create profiles, which then like those pages and posts.
3. To seem legitimate to Facebook bots, the click farms and fake profiles also trawl through 'liking' other pages and posts that either naturally, or through legitimate Facebook advertising, appear to them.
4. Your page gets liked by one of these bots, and you start getting suggested to more of them, they like your posts and page more and more, and all of a sudden your audience is skewed to these fake profiles.

But a like is good right? Wrong! A legitimate like is great, a fake like is terrible. Think of each like as a 'referral'. When someone likes your page or post, is can then be referred onto their friends and similar profiles. If you recieved a fake like, the referral will more than likely be to another fake profile, and so on, meaning your message and sales point never gets to legitimate customers. Even worse, if you then pay to boost your posts on Facebook, they'll fly out to this audience of fake likes, meaning you've effectively paid for a campaign that will never result in sales. Fail.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO

1. The first piece of advice we can give is NEVER, EVER pay a third party click farm for page likes or post likes. It may seem like a good idea to jump up the numbers of your Facebook followers, but in the long run it will ruin your ability to use Facebook as a marketing and sales tool, because your audience will be skewed. Don't mix this up with Facebook advertising - paying for an advert campaign to gain more likes in a targeted way through Facebook is OK and very different from just paying a click farm to like your page. If growth happens too fast...be wary.
2. Stay vigil. Keep an eye on who is liking your page, and especially your posts. You'll get a feel for which ones are click farms. You'll get unusually high numbers of people liking a post, and they'll often have names that are foreign to where you are based. If you see them liking a post, ban them from there immediately (click the likes on a post on your computer, a pop up will appear with all the people who have liked the post, and you'll be able to permanently ban profiles from your page).
3. Keep it local. Don't over-reach with your Facebook advertising. For New Zealand companies, keep your advertising within New Zealand or, even better, your city, and you'll largely be safe from the click farms.
4. Cull your list of users that like your page. This will feel terrible at the time, as you go through and block people that have liked your page and drop the total number of likes down, but it is so important. Alot of it will come down to gut feel about who doesn't look like a legitimate customer, but banning fake users (https://www.facebook.com/help/222702104422027?sr=14&query=delete%20page%20likes&sid=0IrKAJWbJLHuhLLro ) will mean your posts and adverts in the future should have a better chance of hitting the right target. Stop the rot early.

Hopefully this is helpful to some of you out there who are scratching their heads at the high number of likes but low number of sales on your Facebook Page. Stay alert and keep your organic followers happy and Facebook can be a great tool...and let's hope Facebook themselves start to crack down harder on these click farms!