Buying likes across social media platforms still occurs in some circles, but is generally a “shortcut to nowhere” according to We Are Social managing director Julian Ward.
Questions around the proliferation of “buying likes” across social media have re-emerged following speculation Prime Minister Tony Abbott had been inflating his popularity on Facebook.
Comedy duo Bondi Hipsters posted a Facebook upate yesterday, questioning the legitimacy of Abbott's 395,000 likes, given the statistics show most of his fan base are located in Delhi.
Facebook activity from a number of members of the Federal Government show a similar spike in likes, around the time Abbott's fan base grew.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister told AdNews “No likes or advertising" have been purchased for the Prime Minister’s Facebook page.
“It is no secret that the Prime Minister hosted a number of world leaders in recent times, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These visits attracted large international audiences to the Prime Minister’s social media channels, thus generating a spike in organic engagement with the page.”
We Are Social's Ward agreed that this is likely the case and that given Modi has 25 million Facebook followers, Abbott's jump in popularity is a small conversion.
“Buying likes would seem to be an insane strategy, even for the Abbott Government. It would be very obvious,” Ward told AdNews.
“Our assessment at We Are Social is that this was likely a legitimate following generated from the time spent with Prime Minister Narendra Modhi, who is a 'social' leader.”
Ward said that buying likes might still be a strategy used by some, it is a strategy that can actually backfire.
“You need an engaged audience for any value exchange out of that audience,” Ward said. “Also, the governance over who gets seen in the Facebook feed uses engagement as a key component within its algorithm. So it's a lose-lose decision.”
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