14/12/2012

Fake facebook likes saga takes a whole new turn - on facebook itself

There's been a lot of hoo-har in social media circles recently about unwarranted popularity on certain sites. The biggest of them all was reputedly on the warpath, promising to strip and/or suspend any accounts suspected of acquiring fake facebook likes.

It's no secret in social media marketing that the more popular your fanpage, the more traffic facebook sends your way. Your own status updates and shares similarly reach further the greater number of likes your profile has.

[caption id="attachment_16264" align="aligncenter" width="646"]facebook violation text - sort this out before accusations of fake facebook likes example of community standards violation text - sort this out, facebook, before members get hurt by your own fake facebook likes[/caption]

Certainly, if you're running two accounts from the same IP address, your activity could be counted as 'spammy'. It's assumed that the one account is created to give the other fake facebook likes or share content further.

This is a killer for anyone looking to build a career in social media. If you're a blogger, more and more the role involves sharing your content on behalf of the client across their social network.

It's happened for me since joining fecktv. I've got a personal account, one for a mortgage site where I'm a page manager and a third for my fecktv page. I don't want any activity to compromise my personal page, thus have created separate accounts.

Despite pleas to facebook, my newest facebook account for fecktv.com, remains banned from certain activities. I cannot comment on my own status updates, add friends of my own accord, send private messages or even like a comment made by others.

The image above is what gets thrown back at you when attempting any one of the above actions.  It's feckin' ridiculous and, as well as pissing me right off, I'm not alone, it seems.

Fake facebook likes being created by the social media site itself


The latest spat of fake facebook likes has not been coming from its membership. One guy in the U.S. was so aroused by suspicious activity, he started to document instances by taking screen clippings.

One of his friends, according to facebook advertising, had liked Subaru. This guy knew his friend had no interest in cars whatsoever. So he asked his buddy if he had indeed had reason to like the Japanese car manufacturer.

This is how his friend responded:
Nope, never liked Subaru. I've never owned a car in my life. A FB friend gave me shit for liking a real estate company. Another one that I never liked.

This cycle intensified, with one of his friends resorting to taking screen-grabs himself. When an ad showed up in his own time line that he'd purportedly liked, he replied with,
No, I did not press like. Maddening. I look at facebook less and less because it lies more and more.

The last straw came when a new fake facebook like appeared from one of his friend's accounts in favour of a huge corporation, Discover. Yet the guy knew that his friend absolutely detested huge conglomerates of this ilk.

In itself, seemingly innocuous. Just another run of the mill fake facebook like, you say. The issue this time around was a little more serious, though.

The like was dated November 1st. His friend had passed away in the March of that year. Would someone who's been dead for eight months suddenly decide they like large corporate entities?

So before facebook get arsey about users trying to get fake facebook likes, they want to look at their own practises. Could you imagine if you'd supposedly 'liked' Victoria's Secret and your wife happened to see it?  Yep, you'd need a stocking to put your balls in.

Fake facebook likes aren't funny. Sort it out, facebook, before your lies really land someone in hot water...




Have Your Say: Have you experienced any shenanigans with your facebook account? What course of action would you advise to others in this situation?

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