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Some bots are not technically bots. There may be real people behind them, but they are "employed" by various agencies as proxies for RT/likes. Some do it manua
by mv4 9y ago
Some bots are not technically bots.
There may be real people behind them, but they are "employed" by various agencies as proxies for RT/likes. Some do it manually, others employ automation.
Also, many of the more prominent accounts are almost fully scripted - these people aren't really "there". Here's an example of a Salesforce exec (Verified account, btw) employing "automation":
https://twitter.com/iTrendTV/status/738375663229505536 https://twitter.com/iTrendTV/status/738375663229505536
We've done some twitter fraud analysis in the past, and it's terrifying.
- blowski 9y agoExactly. I know some people that are indistinguishable from bots even in a face to face conversation.
- theseatoms 9y agoHa. But the bots aren't viewing advertisements, which is what matters to shareholders.
- nkozyra 9y agoHow does accounting reconcile users who have ad blocking enabled? Do they even bother?
- kaybe 9y agoNow if you can trick the bots into viewing the ads and change their behaviour...
- Spivak 9y agoFacebook is defrauding advertisers by including ad block users in their metrics!
- mv4 9y agoBots generate engagements. "Engagements are new followers from Promoted Accounts and/or clicks, retweets or likes on Promoted Tweets. You will never be charged more than your maximum bid and you usually pay less." https://business.twitter.com/en/help/overview/twitter-ads-glossary.html https://business.twitter.com/en/help/overview/twitter-ads-gl... The bulk of all engagements now are fake/automated. P.S. as a bot, you don't need to "see" a tweet to engage.
- mv4 9y ago... here's a current example. Just saw this promoted tweet from Prudential on my timeline. It's already generating engagements (10 RTs, 38 Likes): https://twitter.com/Prudential/status/918475795479351296 https://twitter.com/Prudential/status/918475795479351296 Click on the Likes below the tweet (will show you list of accounts engaged), and tell me this is real human engagement. You will see accounts like this: https://twitter.com/Electriflyy https://twitter.com/Electriflyy Twitter won't consider this a bot, yet this "person" already liked 192,000 tweets: https://twitter.com/Electriflyy https://twitter.com/Electriflyy Here's another account who engaged with this promoted tweet, for which Prudential is getting billed: https://twitter.com/JonTheGr8 https://twitter.com/JonTheGr8 Again, look at the number of tweets this "person" liked (72,000). Other "engagements" come from: https://twitter.com/RobertT70111579 https://twitter.com/RobertT70111579 https://twitter.com/TeghanJustin https://twitter.com/TeghanJustin https://twitter.com/brandon_gorsuch https://twitter.com/brandon_gorsuch ... Notice the pattern? Prudential is getting ripped off right in front of us. This is happening now across all brands, at massive scale.