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Tangential to the article, but on-topic to the title: I saw the Dutch documentary #followme [0] the other day, about the incredible fakeness of Instagram, wher
by humanetech 8y ago
Tangential to the article, but on-topic to the title:
I saw the Dutch documentary #followme [0] the other day, about the incredible fakeness of Instagram, where for a couple of dollars you can buy 1,000's of Likes / Followers. And everyone - up to the kids in high school - is doing just that, to buy popularity (the metrics have actually become the determining factor for real-life popularity for many people).
Apparently one of the big shots in this shady industry is a Dutch guy (multi-millionaire now), who manages tens of popularity-boosting websites directly or indirectly (and not only for Instagram). He caters to celebrities as well, who sometimes buy millions of followers. For these high-profile actions they arrange special events, according to the docu, like publishing 'fakish' news articles to established news sites (Forbes was mentioned) to coincide with the artificial boost in popularity.
This can be considered fraud too, as 'popular' users benefit from influencer marketing deals (free clothing, travel, tickets, money, etc.) and there is a continuous cat and mouse game between illegit popularity boosters and marketeers. Professional investigative companies jumping on this train to filter out the bad apples, etc.
[0] https://www.instagram.com/tv/BqcnFY8gEgH/ https://www.instagram.com/tv/BqcnFY8gEgH/
- speps 8y agoIs there an English subtitled version of the documentary?
- humanetech 8y agoNot yet, that I know of. But I have sent a inquiry / request to the producer Nicolaas Veul. I agree it would be great if that was added.
- swongel 8y agoNot sure if available outside the Netherlands, however there's a version on the NPO 3 website with 16:9 aspect ratio: https://www.npo3.nl/followme/22-11-2018/VPWON_1291086 https://www.npo3.nl/followme/22-11-2018/VPWON_1291086
- choot 8y agoHe only lived in Netherlands, he wasn't dutch. I think you talk about this guy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenzo-green-86161610/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenzo-green-86161610/
- humanetech 8y agoI don't know, could be. He was masked, anonymous and spoke Dutch.
- dkarl 8y agoMy wife recently had an event that caused significant organic growth in her Instagram, and immediately afterwards she was followed by approximately 1000 accounts with no connection to her profession. Then she got an email saying, "I just gave you a free boost. Would you like to buy more?" I can see buying followers being a status symbol for a certain set of teenagers. It's just another way of spending your parents' money.
- theNJR 8y ago3-4 years ago this would have been a huge opportunity for an emerging brand. Back then high level execs knew followers mattered but were not themselves on platforms like IG. Now, everyone is aware of this. When doing influencer deals you get their story open rates and swipes. Everyone knows to look at the ratio of comments + likes to followers. Kids who do this for their personal IG, certainly, get called out. A guy I used to work with bought around 10,000 followers and boosts all his posts to 500-700 Likes. It's so ... obvious. Like bad plastic surgery. Humans are funny.
- rightbyte 8y ago"Everyone knows to look at the ratio of comments + likes to followers" If likes can be fake then so can comments, right?
- rapnie 8y agoThis was actually in the documentary too. There is a Russian site or app called Commenter, where you can buy positive on-topic comments. Also common practice to do this to e.g. boost some products in SMB webshops, etc.