I have had numerous people throughout Facebook contact me about their profiles being HACKED. First, to truly hack your profile page, a person needs your login credentials. What is happening is that the fake Facebook profile is stealing your public information. In Southern Illinois, this is becoming a huge problem.
WHY DO PEOPLE SPOOF OR HIJACK FACEBOOK PROFILES?
When we go to a business’s social media page, we automatically look at how many people follow them. We all do it, and we subconsciously equate the higher number with it being more important or popular. The dark side of social media is that businesses/people pay or purchase followers to make their profiles look important.
If someone or some business wants to pay for targeted followers in a specific area (say Southern Illinois), this person does a search and finds a PUBLIC profile. They then download an image of the person, copy and paste their profile information, and then start sending requests to their followers. It is very time consuming, but a profitable business model. This FAKE Facebook profile is then used to LIKE the business page.
IS THIS ETHICAL OR RIGHT?
My personal opinion is NO. A business must organically grow, and it doesn’t happen overnight. If it’s easy, it is probably not legal.
WHAT HAPPENS IF I BUY FOLLOWERS?
If a business or person buys followers it is only a matter of time before Facebook does a purge of bogus accounts and permanently removes them. This happens at least once a year, but they are cracking down on them. Don’t waste your money and build your brand one committed follower at a time.
HOW CAN I TELL IF IT IS A FAKE FACEBOOK PROFILE?
- (Spidey Sense Goes Off) If your first instinct is that you already are friends with the person, you probably are. Do NOT accept the invite until you do one of the other steps.
- The profile has a blank image or one that you know is not the person.
- If you are unsure if you have already friended them or not – click on their profile. Look to see how many people are following them. If you have less than 10 mutual friends, and they have very little content on their timeline, it is probably a fake profile.
Don’t always trust your “mutual friends.” Many times people will blindly accept friend requests. So what should you do when you spot a fake account? Report the fake Facebook profile, and let the person know that there is an account setup under their name and image.
One of the reasons I started Harness Digital Marketing was to create an ethical business that genuinely helped businesses utilize Social Media to their fullest potential. Our team believes that the best way to grow a following is to provide great CONTENT, be CONSISTENT with it, and provide our clients and their following with the best CUSTOMER SERVICE. If you would like to know how we can help build your social media network, contact us at (314)-884-1192 #TurnTheLightBulbOn
Tom Harness | Twitter: @iTomHarness | Snapchat: tharness | Instagram: iTomHarness | 314-884-1192
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