If you’re new to Twitter and have only just heard of the somewhat strange concept of buying Twitter followers, you’re probably wondering what that’s all about. Specifically, what’s the difference between a real follower and a fake follower?
Before you can know if buying Twitter followers is right for you or not, you’ll need to learn a thing or two about what makes them different, and what they can do for you. Keep reading to learn all about the differences between real and fake followers, and why you might want to buy Twitter followers and other signals of engagement to help boost your ad campaigns.
Real or fake followers?
Quite simply, real followers are actual people. They usually have profile and banner pictures, filled-in bios, and actively tweet.
Image credit: Twitter
A blue check beside the name means the account was verified by Twitter, legitimizing the account further (although it’s hard to get verified).
When you have real followers, you have a community of real people willing to interact with you and your content. They could become attracted to what you’re doing, and some will (hopefully) become paying customers.
Fake followers, on the other hand, are bought to help you appear more popular and authoritative on Twitter. You can buy followers, or even Twitter retweets and favorites, to boost your ad campaigns – just be sure to go with credible, reputable providers.
How To Spot Fake Followers
There are two kinds of fake followers: high-quality and low-quality. Of the two, the low-quality fake followers are the easy ones to spot.
Some of the most common characteristics of low-quality fake followers are:
- They’re default profile photos, without a real profile picture. Some people don’t bother uploading profile images, but if you see an account without a profile picture it’s often fake.
- They use generic images. A real person will most likely upload their own picture. Unless, of course they don’t have any, which in this age of selfies and narcissistic tendencies is far-fetched.
- They post identical tweets multiple times in a row. The tweets they make are also sometimes senseless and illogical, obviously spammy.
High-quality fake Twitter followers, on the other hand, are difficult to tell apart from real followers. They will look like real Twitter users, and it would be easy to mistake them for one. Below are some of the main differences between high and low-quality fake Twitter followers.
High-Quality Twitter Followers
These are Twitter followers that, without close scrutiny, will usually pass your fake-follower test. Check these followers out – can you tell if they were bought?
Aside from having profile images, bios, and followers of their own, high-quality Twitter followers can actually act like real ones, sending out tweets regularly.
For an extra fee from some providers, they can favorite and re-tweet your posts, making their activity look even more authentic.
Low-Quality Twitter Followers
In contrast, low-quality Twitter followers look very much like a fake follower. Their profiles scream it, sending off tons of reds flags.
Low quality Twitter followers usually have very few tweets. Also, if you investigate further, you’ll see that most– if not all– of their followers are fakes too. Whoops! Look whose account these followers are under. Oh well, no time to correct this now. Nope, I’m simply too busy…
The most important difference between high and low-quality followers is that they can influence the way people perceive you and your brand. You might even get some XXX or porn-related followers, and you don’t want them hanging around your company account. Having low-quality Twitter followers will reflect on you, because that’s as good as saying you obviously bought them.
If you’re going to buy social media services, always buy high-quality followers. They will look real, and people won’t be able to tell that you bought them. Any way you look at it, buying high-quality followers is the way to go.
Is buying Twitter followers the right move for you? Take a look at the pros and cons.
Is Buying Twitter Followers a Good Idea?
To be clear, just because you didn’t buy fake followers doesn’t mean you won’t get some attached to your account. You probably will at some point, if you’re on Twitter long enough, although there are ways to remove them from your list.
Remember that, as with all things in life, there’s a good and a bad side to buying Twitter followers. It’s a controversial topic and the consensus among those who advocate not buying seems to be that it is unethical.
From a marketing point of view, however, there are solid advantages to buying Twitter followers, along with other signals of engagements. Let’s go over some of the upsides and downsides of buying Twitter followers in particular.
Benefits to buying Twitter followers
Boost your credibility
Buying Twitter followers will boost your online credibility. You will be seen as more of an authority in your industry. People will perceive you and your brand as important, and your large following will influence consumer behavior.
The Bandwagon Effect
You’ll reap the benefits of the bandwagon effect – as people see your big following, they’ll be more likely to follow you as well. You’ll have a much better chance of quickly growing your followers organically.
Are you more likely to follow someone with a lot of other followers, or someone with none? That’s a pretty obvious choice!
Higher engagement
Your tweets won’t just attract followers – you’ll also get other signals of engagement, like retweets and comments. The more followers you have, real or fake, the more engagement you’ll get.
Thanks for retweeting. Retweets always make me happy! 😸♥❗
— TrustCommunications (@trust_content) July 8, 2018
Save marketing expenses
You’ll save on marketing because bought followers are like a shortcut to massive popularity. If your main goal is to appear popular, it will be cheaper to buy followers than it is to invest in marketing campaigns geared toward increasing your followers.
Don’t go completely without real Twitter marketing, though. Treat buying followers as a leg up and go from there.
Effective Marketing Campaigns
Your marketing campaigns will be more effective when you have social proof. This is because Twitter users will be more receptive to your marketing projects, which will lead to more conversions.
People will trust your business, simply because there are plenty of people who appear to do so already.
Drawbacks to buying followers
You may lose your standing
You’ll have the risk of losing your social standing. Just as you’ll earn credibility by buying Twitter followers, you’ll also have the risk of losing it if people found out you bought your followers.
However, buying high-quality followers decreases this risk because they do look real. Make sure you look for companies that will protect your privacy.
No sales and leads
Buying Twitter followers does not directly result in sales if you‘re buying for your business. That is, they will never become customers. They are just there for the sake of appearance, and to attract real followers.
No targeted audience
Because bought Twitter followers are not usually grouped according to target markets, you might not always get followers that are very relevant for your purposes.
You can, however, choose providers that have targeting options to let you narrow down on the demographics you want, especially if you want to target by country. A good Twitter followers provider will have this option.
You may lose what you bought
You might lose followers you buy later on. If you buy low-quality followers from a low-quality provider, they might unfollow over time, or they could be caught the next time Twitter does a sweep of fake accounts.
That’s another reason why you should only buy high-quality followers. High-quality followers come with replacement guarantees, so they’ll be replaced if they unfollow, and they’re designed to pass Twitter sweeps.
Scammy sites
Unfortunately, like many industries, there are a number of sites that come across as scammy at worst, or unprofessional at best. Always do some research, and check out our list of trusted, reputable providers.
To Twitter Bot or Not
Having a large following will give you more influence over the average user, making you more attractive and credible-looking. This can only benefit your brand.
Whatever you do, if you go with bought followers, make sure you go with the highest-quality you can find. Complement your marketing campaigns with real-looking Twitter followers. It’s the smartest thing to do.