Five Finds Friday in the Blogosphere:
The Buying Twitter Followers Trend
Welcome to a brand new segment here on MamaNYC! I have been putting off a Five Finds Friday meme, but decided that today was the day to kickoff this brand new weekly feature!
What is Five Friday Finds?
Five Finds Friday is a blog meme, which is published each week on Friday! The idea is to list five different things you have located throughout the week that may be of interest to your readers. Some bloggers list the scrumptious recipes that they found throughout the week. Another blogger may decide to display five gorgeous photo finds that took their breath away.
Lately I have been too busy to put together a Blogging 101 tutorial, so I thought that it would be a great idea to create my Five Finds Friday themed at stories in the blogosphere, or we may stretch it into social media, search engine optimization, or any other related topics that fall under the blogging umbrella.
Without further adieu, I am pleased to present my very first Five Finds Friday post here on MamaNYC!
THE BACKGROUND STORY:
There’s a sad sad in the blogosphere when you start to hear about bloggers, politicians, and celebrities unethically buying Twitter followers. This story went viral after an article featured on Fast Company quickly spread and started to put a lot of bloggers under the spotlight.
You may have wondered how your fellow blogger gained over 5,000 followers on Twitter overnight. Maybe she told you it was because of a Twitter party that she hosted, or perhaps she just happened to have a great traffic day! Whatever her excuses, I would begin to think twice and realize that her blog is not what you thought it was; someone is lying and spending money to look cool.
*NOTE: Visiting and reading each of these posts/site in order will help the story unfold and make sense as you head down the list! Of course, I don’t mind if you jump around, but that’s just a tip!
Status People – Fake Follower Check
This rush of viral information sprung from a brand new app developed by Status People, which uncovers the truth behind your real and fake Twitter followers. We’ve all heard it before (especially from our mothers):
"Be careful on that Facebook and watch what you say! It could be damaging to your reputation!".
Seriously, mom? I doubt it!
Err… mom was right?
There has always been the opportunity to purchase Twitter and Facebook followers, but those that actually stooped so low and paid the piper are now regretting their decisions. They are flushing their money down the drain as they remove the FAKE followers once purchased in an effort to regain their digital reputations.
In an effort to grow their reputations fast and begin to entice advertisers, several bloggers have apparently purchased their followings. These "followers" that you can purchase are not "real people", but rather Twitter accounts setup by individuals or companies that sell "followers" in bulk. You can gain 5,000 Twitter followers overnight for only $89.95! Now tell me that ain’t a deal!
Dishonest, unethical, and an abomination to all bloggers. As a blogger that tries {very hard} to remain in the green with the laws of blogging, comply with the Federal Trade Commission’s policy for review product disclosure, and do my best to provide an honest and real community for my readers, I am humiliated to be associated with this story. Thousands of bloggers are devastated to hear that their favorite bloggers have purchased their followings, but it also provides many answers we all had about their overnight success.
FastCompany – Buying Twitter Followers? Beware StatusPeople, The Service That Exposes Social Media’s Black Market
Now we bring in the article that many are attributing to the popularity, or quick viral spread, of this issue that has placed several bloggers under the spotlight (which is a spotlight you do not want to be under!). The article basically discusses the background story of how StatusPeople’s web app came to be and what is will do to humiliate those that actually spent money to make their Twitter accounts look fluffy and voluptuous:
"The main goal of StatusPeople’s web app is to find out how many fake followers you and your friends have.The company, which creates social-media management software, released the tool as a side project in July to shed light on a user’s follower quality. While the makers emphasize on their site that their metrics aren’t perfect, there is no doubt that the results have the potential to humiliate anyone who pays money for subscribers–a dodgy practice that takes just a few minutes." – FastCompany
While many of us are sitting bewildered and scratching our heads over the thought of actually stooping to a level as low as this, apparently "everyday people businesses, wannabe (and real) celebrities and politicians" are doing what they can do be an Internet sensation overnight. As if the approach of buying Twitter followers didn’t make much sense before, Twitter account buyers are now at risk of being humiliated on top of everything else.
These people are purchasing accounts that have been created in bulk by companies that sell Twitter followers. These account are meaningless; no one is actually there or listening to what you have to say! Plus, I think a quick @username search for your favorite big blogger is going to prove that there isn’t as much there as you had previously thought!
ShePosts - Faking It: The Troubling Trend of Purchased Influence
Send in the troops because this topic is not about to fade away! ShePosts discusses the troubles that one could face when actually stooping to a level where you become so desperate that you actually fork over cold hard cash in exchange for Twitter followers.
Although ShePosts states that they made the decision not to “out” any bloggers with suspicious numbers, their staff decided to do a little research on both the Facebook page popular cities issue (purchase Facebook fans; suddenly gain popularity in ONE specific city) and the Twitter fake followers topic on a number of bloggers. ShePosts says, "We were rather shocked by what we found. It seems a number of bloggers, both big and small, have shelled out some cash to boost their numbers."
This post considers a lot of the issues that bloggers face when they make that ultimate decision to sacrifice their digital reputation just to look good for the moment. This trend is surely damaging to the reputation of bloggers as a whole, but may also help us create a divide between good vs. evil in the blogosphere. Who is buying followers? Which bloggers have given it their all and gained followers the ethical way? You always get caught in the end, so the time is up for anyone that decided this would be a great idea!
ShePosts’ writer, Kristen, reminds us that ‘while buying followers or inflating [blog] comments is not illegal, the ethics of such practices are questionable at best‘. This is the case, but I truly wish such actions were against the law. These numbers may not have directly affected any one persons or blogs, but beneath the surface much more damage has been done through a domino effect that none of us can truly see. [see MamaNYC's Twitterific Twitter Mart Infographic below!
"My assumption is that most bloggers are inflating comments or social media stats in order to make more money, be it convincing a brand that their twitter following warrants a certain fee for a twitter party, or nabbing a coveted ambassadorship because their sponsored post appear to receive remarkable engagement from readers." - ShePosts*
Read more at ShePosts. Lots more...
MediaBistro - The Underground Twitter Economy: Buying And Selling Followers [INFOGRAPHIC]
As I said up above, I do not see this issue fading away. The severity of the consequences behind purchasing Twitter followers is damaging not only to yourself, but hundreds (or, millions!) in the same industry. After reading MediaBistro’s article on the art of buying and selling Twitter followers, I had to ask myself what sort of position I would find myself in that such a desperate circumstance would draw me to conclude it was a good idea to buy followers. I am yet to consider how this would be beneficial in the longrun. Damaging, unethical, dishonest, and shameful.
MediaBistro discusses how Barracuda Labs, a networking and technologies security firm, went undercover in the Twitter follower black market. Their findings are astounding, which can be found in an infographic packed with statistics, prices, and other figures that you won’t believe!
Barracuda created three Twitter accounts in May 2012, which they filled up with followers thanks to an eBay and website purchase selling Twitter followers. These accounts received well over 20,000 and 70,0000 followers each. Thereafter, Barracuda studied each of their new followers’ profiles and tweets. What they found will shock you! The underground Twitter followers dealers have the potential to make up to $800/day if they control 20,000 fake Twitter accounts.
Huffington Post [Tech] - Obama’s Fake Twitter Followers: StatusPeople Faker Score Finds Romney Has Fewer Phony Tweeps
Just how far has the story gone that we should call it viral? Politicians are on the stand over the new StatusPeople app, which is clearly the perfect timing with a campaign undertow! Huffington Post (amongst hundreds of others) have put the Romney vs. Obama campaign into the limelight as they compare who has more fake Twitter followers. Once politics are involved, it’s bound to be known this issue has reached a level we call viral.
According to StatusPeople, Romney’s 855,287 followers are only 15% fake spam accounts with 58% legitimate and real. However, StatusPeople says that the 18,537,830 Obama Twitter followers are actually 41% fake with only 30% real. Eek!
Huffington Posts shares some not-so-surprising results from a recent survey, which questioned 600 journalists from around the world. According to this 2012 study, "55 percent of journalists stated they use Twitter and Facebook to search for stories and sources". It seems a bit odd to know that 55% of our news is coming from Facebook and Twitter sources, but the surfacing of an issue where politicians and celebrities purchase their followers seems even worse. Are journalists relying on their stories from fake Twitter bots? I hope not! 
[Here's my best attempt at a cartoon/infographic to show how this is negatively affecting the entire blog community. We're all hanging our heads in shame as our fellow bloggers delete their fake Twitter followers. As someone that has tried her best to do good by others and remain inside of the ethical guidelines as a blogger, writer, product reviewer, and human being... I am sad to see such unethical behaviors in the headlines.]
About Nicole
Nicole is a stay-at-home mom living on the outskirts of Manhattan with her husband and their 3-year-old son. She is also expecting a second child in January 2013.
That is crazy – good collection of sources, but I wouldn’t read too much into the Obama v. Romney followers – Obama has been on there longer and has so many more overall followers that it’s not surprising he attracts spammy ones, too – in fact, you could probably say the same for really established bloggers – the fact that they are so active on twitter and have been posting for so long is going to draw spam even aside from any unethical practices – so it’s probably good to give people the benefit of the doubt before leaping to the conclusion that they are padding their numbers unless there is evidence.
Megan,
Definitely agree about Romney vs. Obama! I didn’t read too much into it, but thought it was interesting to see how this issue over “social media scamming” came into politics!
The issue with established bloggers is much deeper than this app. In fact, I have known that these specific few WERE buying followers way before this story/app surfaced. Plus, I am having difficulty finding innocence in these bloggers when everyone else I have checked comes up with 0-10% (some a few points more, which is still very low) — but those few that we already had suspicions over are getting 90% and more. Another way to tell is checking their “Followers” – I am seeing HUNDREDS of followers in a row on the “Followers” lists’ (which are listed by order followed, generally..) that have NO Tweets, NO Followers, but FOLLOW 300+ people. Those are the accounts that have been setup by these companies selling followers.
There is much more to look at beyond this app, but I think it is definitely raising a lot of eyebrows when a majority has a low percentage, but the one blogger we were all boggled over gets 95%…and we all sit here wondering how their success happened overnight while we try to establish large followings. I am just about to hit the 10K followers mark on Twitter. It’s taken 2-years, but I know my followers are real people – ready to engage!
Lady, you just put it ALL out there with that infographic, didn’t ya?!
This has definitely been an enlightening week for us “ethical, honest, and hardworking bloggers” now hasn’t it?!
JanetGoingCrazy recently posted..A Love for Horses and a Call to Action #SaveAmericasMustangs #CBias
I guess a total noob. Granted I only really started blogging a year ago (I had my blog longer but only got serious in the last year, but I’m shocked that people would buy followers. I just don’t see the point. Don’t you want people who are actually engaged in the conversation? Who cares about numbers if no one is talking back.
Teresa Peschke recently posted..Natural Newborns Giveaway Hop!
It has definitely been crazy watching the once mighty fall down to earth with us little people.
Melissa Lawler recently posted..UnStuffed Cabbage
I find it hard to believe that all this goes on–happy to say that out of 9300 (?) followers only 1% are fake!! My numbers on twitter, facebook and even my blog have taken time, energy and giveaways!!
Well I can hold my head up high—I, and many others, have done it the old fashioned way–with lots of work!!
Michele recently posted..$40 Amazon GC-24 Hr Flash Giveaway-Midnight 8/17 – Midnight 8/18
This is a great post. Apart from the fact that I’m constantly amused by the Tweets of “I can get you 10k followers” from people who only have 4oo (?!) I have never seen anything to gain from buying followers. Perhaps my numbers aren’t that impressive but I’d rather have 3.5k and know they choose to follow me because of things they’ve seen or heard, than have 13.5k and think that 10k will never even see my tweets or interact. Talk about something that takes the “social” out of social media.
Thank you so much – this was a great read and I’ve shared on.
I had no idea that people would buy followers. I guess I am naive and should have know better.
While i’m not a blogger I actually had someone OFFER me 1000 Twitter followers in exchange for an item I had placed for sale on Craigslist. I was shocked! So, that is how I found out about this “market” of buying followers. Interesting reading!