4 ms·

Anyone with $10 can go buy tens of thousands of followers. And they work. And stay for a fair while. I've done this a few times myself, it really doesn't take a

Anyone with $10 can go buy tens of thousands of followers. And they work. And stay for a fair while. I've done this a few times myself, it really doesn't take any more than a quick google search.

andai 10y ago
Would you mind sharing why you did it? I've been curious about this for a while.
- Spoom 10y ago
  One thing I can think of is getting support from the "social media" arm of companies; if they believe you're an "influencer", you're likely to get white glove treatment (and may otherwise be ignored).
- apocalyptic0n3 10y ago
  Not the OP, but I previously worked for a company that did this. We had tens of thousands of fake accounts on both Twitter and Facebook and had a script that would have them all (or specific sets) follow the same account at random points over the course of a few days (to avoid giving the client a few thousand followers instantly, which might draw attention). I can't remember full details since I wasn't involved, but I think we were charging $10 per 1,000 followers per network. The customers were generally people trying to get their small business out there or some local thinking it could make them into an internet celebrity (I work in/around Scottsdale, AZ and there are a lot of people here that think like that). We had a separate script that would check to make sure each account was still active once a day and if accounts were removed, they would be replenished automatically, although once a client lost a follower, it was gone and a new one didn't replace it for them. It was all kinda shady and it was one of the numerous reasons I left that web agency (which went bankrupt a year later and is no more), but it apparently produced decent results since search ranking increased both on Twitter/Facebook and on Google. I'm unsure if it is still as effective, though; this was almost 4 years ago that I left. Only time I've seen it first hand since was with a client trying to get famous. They made some YouTube videos and bought tens of thousands of YouTube subscribers from somewhere (we don't offer that at my current agency)
  - brilliantcode 10y ago
    what was the result? did it work out?
    - monk_e_boy 10y ago
      not op, but this is essentially what SEO boils down to. More links to your site from legitimate sites with high page rank push your site up the natural listings. It doesn't matter how 'pure' a site is, you can still buy a link, it just costs more. It's all about looking at how the algorithm works, then gaming it. Tinker with Twitter and facebook, spend some money, keep the results secret. Sell this information. Do what works to your clients. Bot nets work. For now. Does Twitter want to kill them? Maybe not, active accounts is a big number that they love to tell people.
    - apocalyptic0n3 10y ago
      It was highly effective. Catapulted a few local businesses (I believe one gained enough exposure to open a second location) and a few temporary internet celebrities owed at least some of their fame to it. That said, the latter example on YouTube was not effective at all, but that was probably because the content wasn't great.
- wmil 10y ago
  I've bought fake followers before. It's actually fun. You'd be surprised how much of the "chattering class" will check your follower count before they decide if they should read and respond to your comments. If you enjoy chiming in on national conversations then it's a cheap way to appear prestigious. Of course, you need to be able to argue well enough to not out yourself as some random joe.
  - will_pseudonym 10y ago
    I wonder what proportion of the chattering class will pay attention to measures of retweet:follower ratios. It's a good proxy for a fake account.
    - problems 10y ago
      Go over to google and put in the words "buy retweets". That's really not a problem. They have full control over the accounts (via either fake signups themselves or script kiddie iStealer means), so anything like that in demand enough is probably something you can buy. A look at the history or content of mentions is probably the best bet to detect a faked account. Still, a clever person might slip by a cursory check.
      - andai 10y ago
        Can you buy retweets from accounts with human followers?
        problems 10y ago
        Yes, if you can get those stolen accounts rather than generated ones.
      - ryanSrich 10y ago
        Hell there are even Chrome plugins for free that'll get you followers, retweets and likes all automatically. Twitter is a joke. Anyone that takes their user count and interactions seriously on that platform is in for a bad time.
- problems 10y ago
  The answer probably isn't satisfying - pranks on friends, it's cheap and is usually a good laugh. 20k followers for around $10 found on a blackhat SEO site. 19.5k of which are still around after about a year. You could totally use it for business purposes too - as a really shitty form of advertising or just to make your popularity look higher. I doubt it'd be too effective, but hey, it's cheap.
  - andai 10y ago
    I see... Could someone buy 200k for $100?
    - chillydawg 10y ago
      I'm not sure, but I expect it gets harder to hide the fakes at larger scales.
  - nickfromseattle 10y ago
    I'm familiar with this space and I think the biggest benefit is providing 'social proof' to new websites / startups / brands. I know from my own experience when doing research on a company - whether it's a prospective client, vendor or competitor, I'll click through to their social properties to gauge their traction. I definitely look at their engagement ratios to determine whether their social following is organic or fake, but I think typical consumers miss this.
- edoceo 10y ago
  Use fiver. You can buy followers on Twitter, IG, FB, G+ (is it still around?) and other networks
- pluma 10y ago
  Marketing and credibility. It's not about the followers, it's about the metrics. Whether it's Twitter followers, Facebook likes, GitHub stars or Hacker News upvotes -- if the metrics matter to someone, there's a market for manipulating them. I'm actually surprised this is news to anyone. Some of my first Twitter followers were blatantly fake (unless vacuous Russian models are really into JavaScript programming all of a sudden) accounts trying to appear legitimate at a glance -- following random people and posting credibly arbitrary nonsense to avoid easy detection when they later follow/like whatever someone paid their owner to.
tmaly 10y ago
I would much rather get an amplified retweet than get followers for the money.
userbinator 10y ago
This reminds me of when I first heard of people buying "traffic" or "visitors" to their site --- being the type to not see the Internet in any commercial sense, the idea of paying to increase the bandwidth to your site (back in those days, bandwidth was not exactly cheap) was a bit puzzling... and then after seeing that many sites had ads and analytics, it all suddenly made sense.

Anyone with $10 can go buy tens of thousands of followers. And they work. And stay for a fair while. I've done this a few times myself, it really doesn't take any more than a quick google search.

andai 10y ago

Would you mind sharing why you did it? I've been curious about this for a while.

Spoom 10y ago
One thing I can think of is getting support from the "social media" arm of companies; if they believe you're an "influencer", you're likely to get white glove treatment (and may otherwise be ignored).
apocalyptic0n3 10y ago
Not the OP, but I previously worked for a company that did this. We had tens of thousands of fake accounts on both Twitter and Facebook and had a script that would have them all (or specific sets) follow the same account at random points over the course of a few days (to avoid giving the client a few thousand followers instantly, which might draw attention). I can't remember full details since I wasn't involved, but I think we were charging $10 per 1,000 followers per network. The customers were generally people trying to get their small business out there or some local thinking it could make them into an internet celebrity (I work in/around Scottsdale, AZ and there are a lot of people here that think like that). We had a separate script that would check to make sure each account was still active once a day and if accounts were removed, they would be replenished automatically, although once a client lost a follower, it was gone and a new one didn't replace it for them. It was all kinda shady and it was one of the numerous reasons I left that web agency (which went bankrupt a year later and is no more), but it apparently produced decent results since search ranking increased both on Twitter/Facebook and on Google. I'm unsure if it is still as effective, though; this was almost 4 years ago that I left. Only time I've seen it first hand since was with a client trying to get famous. They made some YouTube videos and bought tens of thousands of YouTube subscribers from somewhere (we don't offer that at my current agency)
- brilliantcode 10y ago
  what was the result? did it work out?
  - monk_e_boy 10y ago
    not op, but this is essentially what SEO boils down to. More links to your site from legitimate sites with high page rank push your site up the natural listings. It doesn't matter how 'pure' a site is, you can still buy a link, it just costs more. It's all about looking at how the algorithm works, then gaming it. Tinker with Twitter and facebook, spend some money, keep the results secret. Sell this information. Do what works to your clients. Bot nets work. For now. Does Twitter want to kill them? Maybe not, active accounts is a big number that they love to tell people.
  - apocalyptic0n3 10y ago
    It was highly effective. Catapulted a few local businesses (I believe one gained enough exposure to open a second location) and a few temporary internet celebrities owed at least some of their fame to it. That said, the latter example on YouTube was not effective at all, but that was probably because the content wasn't great.
wmil 10y ago
I've bought fake followers before. It's actually fun. You'd be surprised how much of the "chattering class" will check your follower count before they decide if they should read and respond to your comments. If you enjoy chiming in on national conversations then it's a cheap way to appear prestigious. Of course, you need to be able to argue well enough to not out yourself as some random joe.
- will_pseudonym 10y ago
  I wonder what proportion of the chattering class will pay attention to measures of retweet:follower ratios. It's a good proxy for a fake account.
  - problems 10y ago
    Go over to google and put in the words "buy retweets". That's really not a problem. They have full control over the accounts (via either fake signups themselves or script kiddie iStealer means), so anything like that in demand enough is probably something you can buy. A look at the history or content of mentions is probably the best bet to detect a faked account. Still, a clever person might slip by a cursory check.
    - andai 10y ago
      Can you buy retweets from accounts with human followers?
      - problems 10y ago
        Yes, if you can get those stolen accounts rather than generated ones.
    - ryanSrich 10y ago
      Hell there are even Chrome plugins for free that'll get you followers, retweets and likes all automatically. Twitter is a joke. Anyone that takes their user count and interactions seriously on that platform is in for a bad time.
problems 10y ago
The answer probably isn't satisfying - pranks on friends, it's cheap and is usually a good laugh. 20k followers for around $10 found on a blackhat SEO site. 19.5k of which are still around after about a year. You could totally use it for business purposes too - as a really shitty form of advertising or just to make your popularity look higher. I doubt it'd be too effective, but hey, it's cheap.
- andai 10y ago
  I see... Could someone buy 200k for $100?
  - chillydawg 10y ago
    I'm not sure, but I expect it gets harder to hide the fakes at larger scales.
- nickfromseattle 10y ago
  I'm familiar with this space and I think the biggest benefit is providing 'social proof' to new websites / startups / brands. I know from my own experience when doing research on a company - whether it's a prospective client, vendor or competitor, I'll click through to their social properties to gauge their traction. I definitely look at their engagement ratios to determine whether their social following is organic or fake, but I think typical consumers miss this.
edoceo 10y ago
Use fiver. You can buy followers on Twitter, IG, FB, G+ (is it still around?) and other networks
pluma 10y ago
Marketing and credibility. It's not about the followers, it's about the metrics. Whether it's Twitter followers, Facebook likes, GitHub stars or Hacker News upvotes -- if the metrics matter to someone, there's a market for manipulating them. I'm actually surprised this is news to anyone. Some of my first Twitter followers were blatantly fake (unless vacuous Russian models are really into JavaScript programming all of a sudden) accounts trying to appear legitimate at a glance -- following random people and posting credibly arbitrary nonsense to avoid easy detection when they later follow/like whatever someone paid their owner to.

tmaly 10y ago

I would much rather get an amplified retweet than get followers for the money.

userbinator 10y ago

This reminds me of when I first heard of people buying "traffic" or "visitors" to their site --- being the type to not see the Internet in any commercial sense, the idea of paying to increase the bandwidth to your site (back in those days, bandwidth was not exactly cheap) was a bit puzzling... and then after seeing that many sites had ads and analytics, it all suddenly made sense.