Follower buying (Global)

Follower buying 🌍
Location: Global
Definition: Increasing the number of one’s online followers by paying an intermediary supplier
Keywords: Global – Cyberinformality – Concealment – Entrepreneurship – Trade – Status – Influencers
Clusters: Market – Camouflage – Creating facades
Author: Christina Zimmermann
Affiliation: Alumna, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK

By Christina Zimmermann, Alumna, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK

Follower buying denotes the acquisition of online followers by purchasing them from an intermediary supplier. Followers are online supporters, admirers or disciples and a feature of user accounts on social media platforms or blogs. They indicate the user’s degree of popularity, since the information about the number of followers is usually public. Buying followers bypasses the investment into slow and arduous gaining of followers by purchasing an agreed-upon number of follower accounts, thus faking the follower interest. Follower buying gained attention after The New York Times exposed that accounts of high-profile public figures were linked to fake followers (Confessore et al. 2018). It is possible to buy fake followers for most of the online social media, video and music platforms, for instance Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or the Chinese Sina Weibo.

Follower buying is closely related to shuahaoping, the purchase of positive comments and user reviews about a good or service, but differs from it in that it does not necessarily include online interaction (Liao 2019). Ordinarily, a ‘real’ follower that subscribed or followed a user account out of interest, engages with the content by commenting or liking. A ‘fake follower’ or ‘zombie fan’ (jiang shi hao) is either a computer-algorithm (a bot) or a human operator who is not genuinely interested in the content (a troll).

Follower buying differs from façade-creating strategies, like the Potemkin villages or window dressing, in that the spectators of the façade are attracted to become a part of the façade itself. The aim of buying fake followers is often to create a bait for real followers (Gianna Christine 2018). An increase in real followers is a multi-factor process that nearly automatically entails an increase of user’s ‘credibility’ and functions as ‘social proof’ (see Cialdini 1987). This can incite a positive bandwagon effect (Colman 2003) further ignited by the platforms’ recommendation algorithms that tend to suggest users to follow accounts with a high number of followers (Confessore et al. 2018).

The reasons for buying followers are monetary, non-monetary or hybrid. Most commonly, follower buying is pursued to increase revenue by businesses and entrepreneurs by attracting new customers via positive signalling. A high number of followers is especially attractive to novel market entrants who have still to prove their credibility and quality of their products. Follower buying in this case is a form of deceitful marketing, legally grey and offering an unfair competitive advantage to those accumulating followers through the development of unique selling points, special knowledge and competence.

The non-monetary motivation is to improve one’s social standing, increase one’s influence and is typical for private persons, athletes and politicians, who are trying to conceal a lack of public interest or prevent “losing face” (see Lim and Bowers 1991) that adversely affects personal self-esteem, national pride or authority (see also vertical crowdsourcing).

The hybrid motivation combines monetary and non-monetary interests. Actors, musicians, pundits and influencers may buy followers to boost their personal self-esteem, but the resulting success of self-branding and increased popularity boosts their market value and their income. An influencer with a sufficiently large group of followers is more likely to get sponsorship deals from companies or other engagement opportunities. In influencer marketing, accounts with 1000 to 10,000 followers are known as ‘nano’ influencers, while those with more than 1,000,000 followers are ‘mega’ influencers (Mediakix 2019).

Although paying internet users directly for following is possible (see 八婆BESTIES 2019), the more efficient method entails paying specialised online services since it minimises organisational and monetary costs. Suppliers specialise in particular social media websites and countries and offer diverse follower-bundles. Common online follower suppliers for Instagram include Buzzoid, Stormlikes, and MrInsta. In 2020, 100 followers could be purchased for about $3; for $300 one could receive 100,000 followers within 48 hours.

Follower buying involves informal or illegal cyber practices that make use of identity fraud, spoofing or theft, such as catfishing or sock puppetry (see Stone and Ritchel, 2007). Despite promises that the suppliers deliver ‘real’ followers, purchased followers are usually trolls or computer-generated bots using fake, hacked or inactive user accounts (Aarsand 2019, Biaheza 2019, Groeper 2019, Cooper 2019, Gianna Christina 2018, itsSeabass 2017). Depending on the sophistication of the algorithm used by suppliers, bot follower accounts can host posts with images, profile descriptions and they can engage with the client’s content via likes and standardised comments.

Follower buying is not geographically bound, however, it is more common in countries where online reputation and social media marketing gained importance and in greater demand among the upper and middle class. The fake followers’ accounts, on the other hand, tend to be supplied by labour from emerging economies (Biaheza 2019, itsSeabass 2017). Countries such as China (where the practice is known as mai fen si) and India have large socio-economic disparities that produce both demand and supply for follower buying (Ady Rain 2017, Dropout Engineer 2019). It is often unclear how the fake accounts were created and whether they are operated by computer bots or human trolls. Trolls are often under-aged workers using personal accounts or working with multiple accounts on clickfarms (Associated Press 2017). Known underground groups creating bot-accounts and using trolling are the (supposedly shut down) Chinese Internet Water Army (wǎngluò shuǐjūn) and the Russian Troll Army (Armia trollej Russii) (Lawrence 2015, Low 2018). Large follower-supplying businesses, such as Rantic (formerly SocialVEVO and Swenzy) and Devumi, were registered in the United States of America but provided a global service that connected ‘first world problems’ of striving for more followers and attention with earning an informal income in emerging economies to fulfil one’s basic needs .

Since follower buying is a strategy of gaming the system, its extent depends on local legal frameworks. Chinese fake profile-creators were affected by the cybersecurity laws introduced in 2011 and 2017 (Shanghai Daily 2011, Zheng 2013). American follower suppliers, such as Devumi, were shut down in 2019 because they sold “fake indicators of social media influence” (Federal Trade Commission 2019).

Strategies to increase the number of followers changed since 2008, when the online self-promotion and influencer marketing first emerged (Brown and Hayes 2008, Tuten 2008). Large-scale follower buying began in 2012 with the founding of SocialVEVO, the first big intermediary company specialising in follower buying (Alfonso et al. 2014). From 2019-2020, follower accumulation strategies substantially changed once Instagram influencers started promoting ‘organic follower growth’ and followers genuinely interested in the produced content (Ady Rain 2017, Gianna Christine 2018, Groeper 2019, Ward 2019, Perkins 2019). New trends include purchasing trending hashtags to increase one’s exposure and online visibility among real potential followers (Ocie 2019). Followers are attracted by utilising social media platform recommendation algorithms instead of faking the followers’ existence (Ward 2019).

The practice of follower buying creates mistrust and confusion about the validity of ‘informational and normative influences’ of social media (see Burnkrant and Cousineau 1975). Companies that hire an influencer to promote their goods online rely on the influencer’s network of followers as potential customers. If this network is a simulacrum of genuine interest, the company’s consumer estimations are flawed, causing financial damages. An estimated $1.3 billion was lost in influencer-marketing in 2019 (Graham 2019). In response, social media platforms modified their terms of service and their algorithms to detect fake followers and bots and to ban participation of fraudulent third parties. In turn, follower suppliers quickly adapted their algorithms so that lawmakers lagged behind. As not every social media platform could cope with the emerging formal constraints in this technological race, a market emerged for third-party auditing and vetting tools, such as IGaudit or Hypeauditor (Cooper 2019, Forsey 2019).

Moreover, businesses and consumers are becoming increasingly aware of follower buying and drive demand to examine the authenticity of user accounts statistics (Biaheza 2019, Groeper 2018, Perkins 2019, Gianna Christine 2018). Influencers themselves have communicated how the practice of follower buying may ruin reputation and trust in the long run and promoted ‘organic growth’ and ‘honest work’ instead (Groeper 2018, Perkins 2019).

Entries in the online encyclopaedia linking to follower buying

• Catfishing (Global) ‎ (← links)
• Travel influencers (Global) ‎ (← links)

References

Aarsand, T. 2019. ‘I Bought 100k Followers on Instagram - THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED...’, Youtube, 1 January, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjJZCE7WiU8

Ady Rain 2017. ‘Instagram Tips│一招增加IG追蹤人數 像開外掛般 難道我要達到百萬粉 絲了嗎│ADYRAIN’. Youtube, 5 January, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EfJ4tjDMJw&t=8s

Alfonso, F., Covucci, D. and Sadeque, S. 2014. ‘Hoaxsters bought us 75,000 fake followers in a new kind of Twitter attack | The Daily Dot’. Dailydot, 4 January, https://www.dailydot.com/debug/socialvevo-swenzy-fake-twitter-followers-spam-attack

Associated Press. 2017. ‘Inside a click farm that helps fake online popularity’, The New York Post, 8 January 2020, https://nypost.com/2017/06/13/inside-a-click-farm-that-helps-fake-online-popularity/

Biaheza. 2019. ‘Buying Instagram Followers Experiment | What Happens??’, Youtube, 8 January, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri1OhWTBYYQ

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Brown, D. and Hayes, N. 2008. Influencer marketing. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann

Cialdini, R.B., 1987. Influence (Vol. 3). Port Harcourt: A. Michel

Colman, A. 2003. Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press

Confessore, N., Dance, G., Harris, R. and Hansen, M. 2018. ‘The Follower Factory’. The New York Times, 8 November, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/27/technology/social-media-bots.html

Cooper, P. 2019. ‘Want to Buy Instagram Followers? Here's What Happens When You Do’. Hootsuite Social Media Management, 4 November, https://blog.hootsuite.com/buyinstagram-followers-experiment

Dropout Engineer. 2019. ‘Get Real 10k Instagram Followers In 200 Rupees | Buy Instagram Followers In Low Price.’ Youtube, 5 December 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2EUAEREs0I

Federal Trade Commission. 2019. ‘Devumi, Owner and CEO Settle FTC Charges They Sold Fake Indicators of Social Media Influence; Cosmetics Firm Sunday Riley, CEO Settle FTC Charges That Employees Posted Fake Online Reviews at CEO’s Direction.’FTC, 15 December, https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/pressreleases/ 2019/10/devumi-owner-ceo-settle-ftc-charges-they-sold-fake-indicators

Forsey, C. 2019. ‘Tips & Tools for Detecting Fake Followers on Instagram’, Hubspot, 27 November, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/fake-followers

Gianna Christine. 2018. ‘Does Buying Instagram Followers ACTUALLY Work?’, Youtube, 18 January, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZIcr8nIpQk

Graham, M. 2019. ‘Fake followers in influencer marketing will cost brands $1.3 billion this year, report says’, CNBC, 5 January, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/24/fakefollowers-in-influencer-marketing-will-cost-1point3-billion-in-2019.html

Groeper, A. 2018. ‘Buying Followers On Instagram. What happens? Should you? (Buying Instagram Followers)’, Youtube, 18 November 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml33s3x-63o

itsSeabass. 2017. ‘Buying Real Instagram Followers Experiment, Does it work?’, Youtube, 1 January, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdcXMV2XRAo

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Ward, A. 2019. ‘How to Gain Instagram Followers Fast in 2020 (Grow From 0 to 5,000 Followers EASILY!)’, Youtube, 7 January, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnJ_xFPoFR0

Zheng, L. 2013. ‘Social media in Chinese government: Drivers, challenges and capabilities’. Government Information Quarterly, 30(4), 369-376

八婆 BESTIES. 2019. ‘街頭實測】一個粉絲兩塊錢？一小時可以買到多少粉絲？│八婆 BESTIES’, Youtube, 1 January, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhrSRTKHUyY