4 ms·
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 wo
by 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 agowhat was the result? did it work out?
- monk_e_boy 10y agonot 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 agoIt 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.