Why This Might Be A Self-Sabotaging Strategy
© 2019 Vinny Ribas
It has become a common practice among many to seed a new music or video release by buying some fake likes, views and/or followers. The thinking behind it is that it will make it look like the release is more popular than it actually is, and that will compel others to check it out. Here are some challenges with this strategy that should cause you to think twice:
- It’s easy to spot when someone has bought YouTube views or Instagram followers. The comments all look the same – 1-4 generic word phrases such as ‘I love this” or ‘Great work’. Immediately you are branded as a fake.
- To be effective you should have many more followers than the number of people you are following. It’s critical to know and maintain this ratio. If you buy followers, you’ll never know what your actual numbers are.
- It messes with your analytics and makes it hard to sort out and cater to your super fans.
- You might end up responding to or trying to engage robots.
- It’s easy for anyone to see when the number of comments you receive is an extremely low % of the number of followers you have. That signifies either you bought the followers or you are not good at engaging your audience. Both are challenges.
- It easy to see when a song, post or video gets a lot of ‘interest’ immediately and then that interest just suddenly dies off. In other words, you can’t keep the the image of popularity up without constantly spending more money.
- If you do it for one post or release, you have to do it for them all. Otherwise it’s obvious that something is not right. Anyone can see if you have a lot of followers but no one is liking your newer releases.
- Your numbers aren’t real so you can’t use them to determine where you are popular and should be touring.
- It’s misleading and borders on cheating.
Nothing compares to having a true, trackable and consistently loyal organic following. It leads to credibility, recognition of your hard work and confidence in your ability to attract and please a fanbase. It shows everyone that you’re ‘the real deal’. In addition it should also give you a strong and well-earned sense of accomplishment and personal satisfaction.
