I see fake marketers

If you own or manage a Facebook page for a brand, cause or personal reason, you are bound to get spam messages from people claiming to get you more Facebook likes for cheap or free, something like the below:

What is more annoying is how they try to convince you that their services are legit. Check out the below conversation that occurred on one of my client's pages.

To begin with, I do not allow any of my clients to purchase fans or likes on any platforms. If you know anything about marketing, you would know that purchasing bulk followers does not get you anywhere, for the following reasons:

• These users approach uniformed or uneducated page owners to take advantage of them.
• These "companies" work by hiring a bunch of underpaid people in China, India or Egypt and stuff them in an overcrowded room to create fake Facebook accounts with randomized named and their only job is to like "client" pages. (Side article: 83 million Facebook accounts are fakes)
• Even if it is as this advertiser claims (that you pay advertising on their other pages), there are many things wrong with this "ideology":
• ever heard of targeting? The advertiser admits herself that their fans come from all Arab countries and a wide range of. This is the equivalent of advertising your product in Sudan when it's only available it Kuala Lumpur or advertising for pregnancy boob cream in a children's magazine.
• ever heard of tracking? The adviser admits herself that they stop the "campaign" when the number of requested likes are reached. What if the majority of the likes are due to actual fans liking the page or people searching for the page or a like box on an external website or any other source? Basically, you are paying for a lump sum of likes that may not event be due to this advertiser's services.
• ever heard of common sense? People know that you actually bought these followers. For one, they will not interact with your page whatsoever, will not build your online equity or even boost your sales. I can easily point you to hundreds of Lebanese pages that have bought likes and you can see their fate. 
• ever heard of future planning? Even if you decide later on to properly advertise using Facebook advertising, especially if you are using features such as sponsored stories, sponsored posts and promoted posts, it will be an extreme mess. You will be paying for fans that you don't want on your page.
• ever heard of unliking? If, as this advertiser claims, the fans are actual people, what would stop them from unliking your page after a while when they find out that your content in not relevant to them?
• and if that's not enough, this will make you appear as cheap and desperate to actual fans and to marketing critics (like me) and it will cause a negative impact on your brand equity and company image.
• BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE...

How would you trust someone who posts the above with your pages? Would you hand your traditional marketing to someone like this? So why would you do this for social media? Why would you give the most important tool for your company's image to an intern? Why do you cave in to your financial department that tries to convince you that $100 is enough for a social media budget per month?

You should realize by now the importance of social media in marketing and how any slight screw up can cause your business to suffer. Be wise and do what's right for your company's sake.

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