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How do you spot fake likes online?

Is he/she really as popular as they appear?

How do you spotfake likes online?Is he/she really as popular as they appear?

Likes are a good measure of popularity but...

Facebook likes, Instagram and Twitter followers are one of the standards we can judge how popular a person is online. With the increase of focus on time spent online as well as a year by year increase in online advertising budgets


But just like how 'models' can use MeituPic to make their features sharper, eyes bigger or their skin clearer, some people are 'padding' their online presence with fake likes to make it seem like they are more popular than they are. Here's some tips on how to spot them. Keep it in mind just one or two of these doesn't mean that the followers/likes are fake, but it definitely makes it way more suspicious!

Facebook Facebook

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A sudden spike in followers, then a flatline

This is very symptomatic of fake likes - a sharp spike then a flatline usually means the likes were purchased from a like farm. There's nothing wrong with paying for proper exposure through Facebook ads, but taking a shortcut like this (buying fake followers to increase your numbers) will actually hurt your page - the more fake followers you have, the less real followers will actually see your content.


The Facebook News feed algorithm works like this - it shows content to a few people first, and if it is liked/commented, it is then shown to more. That's why although you might have liked hundreds of pages, you only see posts from a select few, and it tends to be the better posts.

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Low page "Talking About This"

1,800+ likes, but only 3 people 'Talking About This'? That's less than 0.2% of people engaged with the page! However this in itself doesn't mean the likes are fake, the person might just be boring...


If the person has bought fake likes, those accounts serve only to boost the numbers - they don't actually "see the posts" or interact with the page. The following things (but not limited to these) count towards 'Talking About This' of a page


  • like a page
  • post on the page wall
  • like/comment on or share a post
  • mention the page in a post / tag the page in a photo
  • check in on a page (for those with addresses defined)
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Dodgy followers/page fans with low/distinct activity

This page has 100,000+ likes. But a quick look at those that liked some recent posts show a lot of users have no personal images, no picture, or don't show their real profile pictures (cartoon character, pet etc).


In addition, their profiles are only sharing news or political/commercial image flyers.


A low number of friends on the individual profiles of page fans is also reason to suspect - remember, Malaysians have one of the highest number of Facebook friends in the world.

Instagram Instagram

"When you walk into a brand and you say 'what about her, what about him?' they now ask 'how many followers do they have?' " said Ivan Bart, senior vice president and managing director of IMG Models. - The Wall Street Journal
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Super Obvious - Followed by Fan Buying Services

These are the followers from the Instagram account of someone who has "17,000 followers". She is followed by Instagram user "BUYFANS" who offers 'cheap followers and likes'. It's a bit too obvious la.
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Followers with no profile pictures / no posts

If the person has many Instagram followers without profile pictures, and no posts and those accounts are followed by very few people...it's quite likely they are fake followers. There are some real followers here in this screenshot.
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Irrelevant / spammy comments

Not only followers can be bought, likes and comments can be bought too. If you see that the comments section is too irrelevant or spammy, there's a high chance that the comments are a creation of a spambot, not from actual users.

Twitter Twitter

Stephan Moskovic, co-founder and editor of Models.com, a website that ranks models, said, "It can be a big plus for a brand if they sign up a model that has a large following." Models.com began running models' latest tweets on the models' profile pages at the end of last year - The Wall Street Journal
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Check for spikes with TwitterCounter!

http://www.twittercounter.com will let you monitor your own statistics as well as others. Sudden spikes that don't continue growing usually mean fake followers were bought!
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Use 'Fakers' to check for fakers!

This website helps you find out who has fake followers on Twitter : http://fakers.statuspeople.com/. PS: You can run it on your own account too to find out how many of your followers are inactive!
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How many bad eggs are there?

Having a few new followers is one thing...but having too many followers who've just set up new accounts is very suspicious.

Now that you know how to spot fake followers and likes... Now that you know how to spot fake followers and likes...

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Get higher paying social media jobs!

From 4 figure to 5 figure to 6...
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There are over 6 million Malaysians on Instagram

It'll be great to reach out to them
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Your modelling career is meant to be seen

Have it be seen by more followers, & fans!
Let me show you a better way. It's not wrong to want more exposure online, but buying fake likes not only deceives your audience and potential clients, but also hurts your page virality and reach.
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Are you a model/blogger?

Great! You're one of the easiest things to like on Facebook after...cats and cute animals. (Sorry to those that sell industrial equipment, that's really hard). At RM0.03 to RM0.20 per like (best case, you have to be interesting also la), and starting from just RM150 for 2 weeks, it's not going to be expensive for you.
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Even 2 million likes isn't enough for her.

Leng Yein has over 2 million likes. However that doesn't mean she doesn't want her page to grow even further - and to the right audience. In fact, she isn't my only client in the 1 million + range. I've got clients in the 3, 4 and 5 digit range - who won't stay where they are for long :)
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It's awesome for E-Commerce too.

Check out the image to find out what Lucien from Belispree thinks of our service - we not only increased his page likes, but also increased product photo views from potential customers on his page.
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Contact me to find out how to get more real Facebook likes and become the bomb online...without it costing you a bomb!

I've helped models, bloggers and brands get real, targeted likes from as low as RM0.03. Facebook tells me through notifications that my ads perform better than 80-99% of other ads targeted to Malaysians. If you're spending more than RM0.30-RM0.50 per like, we should talk. WeChat : YourFavouriteJosh or use any of the contact methods below.

Email: josh.lim@advertlets.com
Website: http://www.facebook.com/joshlimitless
Phone: +60123995674
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thejoshlim
Twitter: @joshlim

I want to contact my new Favourite Josh
Drop me a message here on my page, and I'll get right back to you - or fill in the form below.
I'm ready to buy! (Details & Payment via M2U)
Or click here to see detailed case studies as well as my rates.
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