The Underground World Of Fake Twitter Followers [Infographic]

Why would anyone want fake Twitter followers? Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of being on Twitter? If the followers are fake, how can you expect to build a reputation, increase your retweets or get to know anyone? That’s not even to mention the false sense of social media influence that comes from building a following based on fake Twitter followers.

Apparently through, it’s a multi-million dollar business, and many people are willing to pay their way to a lot of followers (whether they are real or not). The business of fake Twitter followers is apparently so prevalent that Twitter even recently posted a revised version of the Developer Rules of the Road which addresses any strategies used to gain a fake following (including automated and bulk following methods).

This infographic called The Fake-Follower Factory by Judith Ohikuare at Inc. Magazine gives a glimpse into the underground world of fake Twitter followers. According to this, “Because social media is such a young market, a lot of people are trying to cheat the system.” My question is, does it really matter how many followers a person has? There are many people who treat their Twitter like their Facebook, meaning they only follow people they know, and they keep it low key. Why would having a low number of followers reflect poorly on a person? Twitter is not a popularity contest.

For brands though, it’s very different. The number of Twitter followers a brand has definitely reflects on their social media influence and standing. If a brand has a high number of followers on Twitter, it implies it is well liked by the community, which can directly impact sales. However, it’s not worth doing it this way.

Building a following out of fake Twitter followers is like building a house out of sand…eventually it’s going to wash away. It’s not solid. It may look good in the short term, but it won’t help your long term goals. This infographic is nuts. I almost feel dirty after reading it.

The Underground World Of Fake Twitter Followers

(Click Infographic To Enlarge)

Via: [All Twitter]