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| Facebook campaign |
I was so excited to receive the following in my comment section of a recent post:
Anonymous has left a new comment: buy cheap facebook fans buy facebook fans cheap buy facebook likesI no longer have to work at making friends or earning fans. Now I can buy them. And I can buy them cheap. I can pay to get people to like me on Facebook. What's more, these fans are guaranteed. Wow! If this is true I can probably buy followers and friends for my blog.
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We've all heard the old saying about how money can't buy friendship, but now we know that money can buy friends--guaranteed friends. Cheap friends. Friends that will like me because I paid for them to like me.
A mere $654.30 will buy you 5000 Facebook friends. Or for just $1167.30 you can get a whopping 10,000 friends. This is according to an article from Business Insider. I'd been seeing these "buy fans" ads on all of our blogs. I know you've seen them too. How could you not? I became curious about this rather odd phenomenon and decided to search Google to see what this was all about. There it was--several stories about the nutty concept and actual sites dedicated to selling "friends".
Here I've been going to all this effort of networking and commenting on blogs. I've been wasting my time I guess. I could have just shelled out the bucks and built a huge blog following in no time. And they would have been cheap, guaranteed friends.
I wonder if they would have been guaranteed to read my blog posts and leave comments. And I don't mean cheap comments. Maybe I'd have to pay extra for that.
Have you ever wondered about these ads? Do you know anything about why people would do this? Do you know anybody who has done it? Do you have any cheap friends?
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That's crazy! I didn't know you could buy friends like that, but I guess I don't understand why you would want to. I'm wondering if people actually do it. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteThese ads are annoying but someone somewhere must make use of the services offered or they wouldn't keep coming around.
ReplyDeleteSad that the society we now live in dictates that you 'need' lots of friends to be successful (or feel superior!) - but you really need just a few, who stick by you through thick and thin, when you're nice to know as well as when you're not!
Hi Lee .. to answer you - No! They irritate .. and get deleted.
ReplyDeleteSheer stupidity .. aren't people cracked in the head?!
No - definitely not.
Probably .. but they don't resort to these tactics .. and they probably don't blog.
I love proper blog friends, who enjoy reading others posts, writing their own .. and entertaining - as well as those real live friends I see regularly.
Cheers to a real blogging friend .. what a waste of space those people are .. I did change my comments by eliminating anonymous - but some people couldn't post .. there has to be a way round.
Hilary
I've also seen these ads and have removed, or rather, my spam filter notices them and they don't make it through.
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that blogging means interacting and talking about things. I doubt the friends you pay for will actually comment as well as friend you. It would definitely cost extra and they wouldn't necessarily have an interest on the blogs theme and have nothing to say anyway. A complete waste of time, I can't believe people use it!
So far I haven't seen the ads. I can't see the point in a bunch of useless, no name followers. Maybe if you were a business it might make your sight look more active and exciting to a person browsing around.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why anyone would pay to have fake friends. Couldn't you just create more accounts and like yourself?
ReplyDeletemood
p.s. the itemized check for this comment is in the mail.
I've never seen any of these ads but what a bizarre concept.
ReplyDeleteThe followers can't possibly be real people anyway, otherwise they'd have to pay each one for the amount of sites they followed.
I just had to do the math...that's less than .12 a friend! Woohoo! I wonder if anybody actually does that. I suppose so.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds really shallow! Not on Facebook, so I haven't seen any of those ads.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen those ads, but I can actually see some naive or lazy people going for them. Don't know any personally. The whole point is to network and create synergy through the real online connections we make. People with no interest in you, who never comment or support you are useless.
ReplyDeleteI'm on Facebook, but I have a program on my comp that blocks all the ads, so I haven't seen them. I guess I'm not surprised, but it surely makes the concept of "liking" and "following" rather meaningless.
ReplyDeleteI've seen these ads and wondered about how "true" they were or if they were just a scam. If they are true and people do "buy" friends, then I can't imagine how helpful that would truly be especially if you're a writer wanting people to buy your book or spread the word about you. Maybe having 5000 friends would look good to a publisher but what happens when your book is published and none of your 5000 "friends" buy it. Seems to me that it would do much more harm in the long run than good. But in today's society very few people seem to think they have to actually "earn" anything, even friends. It's sad the way our society seems to be going.
ReplyDeleteAs you say money can't buy genuine friendships. The other evening I was on my Iphone on the internet,
ReplyDeleteI saw "Welcome To My World Of Poetry " advertised. Along with the title of one of my poems plus one of my photo;s of a Las Vegas hotel. I put my laptop on only to find commercials. I got in touch with Alex who informed me to stay away from that site , I am wondering what else goes on with our blogs and are they safe.
As for facebook I have a few friends who are Daniel fans and a few blogger friends.
Have a good day,
Yvonne.
Miranda -- I guess some people apparently want to buy "friends" and have money to spend on it. Making friends takes time and some people have more money to squander than they have time to invest.
ReplyDeleteSue H -- These ads must be directed to a different sort of facebook user than most of us would be.
Hilary -- My spam catcher is good at keeping the ads from showing up on my blog, but I still get email notification about them and see the notifications that other blogs get when I'm subscribed to the comments. The ones in Russian or other languages are the ones that look the most nefarious.
Rebecca -- If people would use this "service", I don't think they care that much about getting comments.
Delores -- From my investigation I think they are aimed at business that use facebook. Probably the MLM type business that don't really have that many clients, but want to have the illusion that they do.
Lee
oooh, where can I sell myself as a Facebook fan? How much will my price be? :PPP
ReplyDeleteMy daughter just got that on her blog.
ReplyDeleteSo...maybe I shouldn't be jealous of some of my facebook friends that have friends that number in the 1000's, while I have a measly 145 of real friends? :-) Maybe money can buy love!
Mood -- I have enough to keep track of without creating 1000 or more fake accounts. A writer could create accounts for all of their fictional characters and they darn well better like us.
ReplyDeleteJuliet -- You may have anonymous commenters block perhaps? I allow anonymous comments, but in times when I've blocked them I stopped getting the comments. They are probably real people, but who knows how they have been gained. Who knows maybe you and I are being sold as friends without even knowing.
Laura -- That is a cheap friend! But a lot of cheap friends sure can add up to a lot of money.
Alex -- I'm surprised you haven't seen any of these ads. They are all over the blogs. If you don't allow anonymous comments or don't subscribe to comments you probably never would see them. Then again you wouldn't see my reply to your comment either.
Isis -- I guess some blogs and Facebook pages want to create a facade of the appearance of a lot of friends and followers in order to impress new visitors and entice them to follow as well. It is shallow as you say, but I guess this sort of thing is meaningful to some people.
Donna -- There is actually a Facebook group devoted to stopping this practice of buying and selling friends. See the link to the image I've included on my post.
Dafeenah -- I don't think the practice would be at all helpful to a writer or someone who wants actual interaction with the blog or facebook page visitors.
Yvonne -- These scammer spammers will do crazy things to lure us in to their wicked games.
Dezmond -- You'd be cheap just like the rest of us. You'd be priced at wholesale and sold in bulk and no one would know who you were. How sad.
Guatami --Looking at bookshelves is fun, but have you ever looked through someone's Facebook friends to see how many were fake.
Laura -- I guess one might be suspicious to see a bank of friends that number in many thousands.
Lee
I bought a blow-up friend once but the heat from the sun through the dashboard popped my friend. :)
ReplyDeletePeople are doing this Lee for page ranking, don't know why but that is the jest of it.
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow
Yeah, there's opportunities to buy followers on Twitter too. It's humorous, but I also find it tragically sad.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I would never sell myself as a follower, but I can be rented rather cheaply.
I have only seen this for Twitter followers. Some paid "author services" are seriously offering this kind of sham along with editing, and trailer production.
ReplyDeleteThe ones offering Facebook "friends" for 12 cents probably have people in developing countries doing this work. There are companies employing youngsters in countries with low wages to play games to earn virtual currency for people in wealthier countries.
Google for the term "virtual sweatshop" and you will find out more about the underbelly of the digital revolution.
Following up, I just found this article which explains that not all these digital workplaces in low-wage regions are bad sweatshops. Sometimes the jobs and pay are okay. At least according to the article. Interesting in any case.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2005/mar/13/games.theobserver
ha. what kinds of friends are those...that is the problem i have with google friend connect...out of the 900 people how many do i comment with regularly...i guess it is all in how you define friend...
ReplyDeletesounds like the twitter messages I keep getting... what a crock
ReplyDeleteFirst, let me say I do have some cheap friends, however they dogmatically claim they are merely frugal and prudent.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I haven't even see these ads, let alone wondered about them. I must not really be paying attention to FB. But I keep wondering why I "cruise" FB anymore. I am getting tired of all the urban legends being promoted, the the boohoo tear jerkers and such.
Third, I don't know of anyone who has bought "cheap" friends." Nor do I know why people would do so.
Maybe there is a problem with the terminology. I consider 'friends' to be those people who have shared events with me, who choose to be involved in my life, who are present, etc... I think I knew it was all bogus when my Dad 'befriended' me on facebook - 'do you know this person?' I was asked. uh...yes.
ReplyDeleteIf we get confused and think our facebook friends are our friends - except for those ones who really are - then we're in serious trouble - the kind no money will relieve you of.
As for followers or 'bird watchers' or 'my karass' - I know it is all interesting but as my sweet patootie said to me, soon after we 'met' online - we won't have really met until we see each other. True dat.
Meh, only a matter of time before something like this cropped up. Sucker born ever picosecond. And apparently, fake suck-ups, too.
ReplyDeleteJules -- I guess page ranking is more the concern of marketing blogs than it is for the folks like us. Is there a way to find page ranking without paying to do so? I've looked up to find my page ranking but always find sites that want to charge me to show me. Sorry, I'm not THAT interested.
ReplyDeleteLi-- You can be rented cheaply? Um, I'm not sure what to say about that...how much?
Marcus -- I'll check out those articles. This sort of stuff fascinates me.
Brian -- Followers vs. readers is an oft debated topic. I see those followers much like friends in real life--they come in degrees. And it also has a lot to do with how much maintenance we do to keep in contact with followers. 900 or any large number is virtually impossible to maintain contact with, but cosmetically it looks good on the blog page. To me a large number of friends or followers is fine if they have been gained by my own efforts and not bought off.
Baygirl-- I guess the Twitter messages come from the same source as the blog messages.
Gregg -- I rarely look at Facebook. I go there when I get an email that someone has posted something pertaining to me or on rare occasions when I'm just surfing through to see what my daughters have posted. The messages I'm talking about have been appearing on Blogger. If you haven't gotten them or seen them yet, I'm sure you will eventually.
Jan -- I don't like the terms "friends" or "followers". "Members" is better. I think many people these days don't understand the true meaning of friends and friendship just as the term "love" is often misunderstood and misinterpreted.
Lee
Suze -- Some people are just too lazy to invest in relationships. To them people are just commodities and those are "friends" I don't need.
ReplyDeleteLee
I have seen where people charge to leave comments on your blog. X amount of dollars will buy you so many comments. I imagine the comments are cookie cutter comments like Great Blog! or Thanks for the post!
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of "buying" FB friends (or them being for sale). My question would be, WHY? I don't get it. Really. Someone please explain it to me.
ReplyDeleteStephen --- Yes, I recall when you did a post about this. It is really bizarre to think someone would pay for comments. It kind of goes against the normal purpose of wanting comments.
ReplyDeleteE.R. --- I think it's more something to do with folks who do multi-level marketing schemes and want to create an image of being "big". It's a bizarre concept that most of us probably can't relate to.
Lee
My friends come at a very dear price--my time. I don't give my time to just any effort, but to friendship, yes. So far I haven't been asked to pay for friends and I don't know anyone who has.
ReplyDeleteThat's so weird! I've never heard of that before, but i wouldn't buy friends. Thanks for stopping by my blog!
ReplyDelete-katie @ magic is in words
ARLEE BOID ~
ReplyDeleteActually... to be forthright and honest... my blog "STUFFS" currently lists 57 "Followers". 53 of them I bought.
It may sound crazy to some, but the reason I did it is because I began to feel kind of inferior and not up-to-par ...well, OK, to be more blunt... I felt kind of like a "loser" when I saw how many "Followers" you and so many other bloggers who interact with you have.
So, I felt that I needed to "ramp up" (to borrow a term from Sarah Palin) my blog following. And if the quickest way I could do that was to buy "Followers", then so be it.
But I did get a really good deal on them - it didn't cost me an arm and a leg - so I still don't feel all that bad about it.
Until a person has walked another man's shoes, they shouldn't pass judgment on him. So I think you could have toned down a little bit the condescending tone of this blog bit.
But no hard feeling, Friend.
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
Gee, I want to buy friends or fans or both. That could be the answer to all my problems...buying because I love shopping. I'm just saying this opens up a whole new world. :)
ReplyDeleteEvery day there is some kind of scam out there hoping to make people feel more insecure about themselves. I think it's important to take FB with a grain of salt and not to get too caught up in it. It took me a long time to reach 100 followers (over 50 of them are thanks to you) and I think I appreciate them more because of it. Julie
ReplyDeleteI was curious as to if they would really work.
ReplyDeleteWhat I've found the most frustrating is that even with the small number of FB 'fans' that I do have, mostly pulled from my circle of "friends" on FB, only 2-4 comments about once a week.
I'm grateful for the "fans" I do have, but I'm always hoping for more of an interaction between my "fans" and myself. That's why I got a fan page.
So if I truly sell out and pay money to get 5000 fans, will they be more likely to comment and interact with me? Will they actually read my blog? Will they let their other FB "friends" know about me and to start reading my blog?
I have a sneaky suspicion that they will not. For me it comes down to that I don't care for the numbers so long as there is plenty of interaction.
That's crazy. I've spent way too much time networking, I didn't know I could just buy friends. LOL. Well, I'm not paying that. :)
ReplyDeleteC. Lee-- You're right, real friends don't come cheap, we invest in them.
ReplyDeleteKatie -- Thank you for stopping by today and leaving a comment. That's how real friendships are born.
Stephen McC-- But you could have gotten your friend much more cheaply if you had bought them in bulk--and they would have been guaranteed. Are your friends guaranteed?
Teresa -- Problem is with buying friends like this you never know what you're going to get--it's like a cheap box of chocolates.
Julie -- I think it's usually the case that we more greatly appreciate that which we have worked to earn. Sadly there are many who fall for the scams that make big promises that are never delivered or not as good as we expected.
Cap -- I think you're right. Even if you paid for a bunch of fans they are unlikely to ever comment on or look at your blog and will not even know you exist if they even exist.
Ciara -- The networking is the real point of it all. Numbers without some sort of tangible relationship is like money with nothing to back it up.
Lee
I get those darn things all the time. I kind of defeats the whole purpose of FB, blogging, etc...
ReplyDelete>>...Are your friends guaranteed?
ReplyDeleteYeah, they're guaranteed not to read and "comment".
I like the arrangement: It looks for all the world to see that I have some "Followers" but I don't actually have to interact with them and respond to them. It seems to me to represent the best of both worlds.
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
Apparently there's this misconception that you can buy friends with money. Not me. The true friendships I've forged come with no price tag. These friends know who I am and what I'm about.
ReplyDeleteI did not join Facebook on purpose because I do not want my daughter or my neices or nephews to think that I am prying on them. Also when it comes to blogging I follow more blogs than I have followers because I feel that I am enriching my self by reading as much as I can.
ReplyDelete"We can never buy real friends" The only way we can have friends is buy sincerely being nice to human beings, friendship comes as a reward or may be not, but if we look for a reward then the good deed becomes selfish !
I have never even heard of those ads until you mentioned it. Why would anyone pay for that? That absolutely makes no sense!!!
ReplyDeletePat -- Where do these darn things come from anyway and does anyone really fall for it?
ReplyDeleteStephen McC -- Well, I think you're just joshin' me. I think your friends are there because they really like you and they're paid with your brilliant writing and acerbic wit. What more would any of us need?
Jeffrey -- You have stated it well. So true. By the way, I copied the message I used in my post from your blog notification. Like me, you get the message, but it gets filtered by Blogger before it hits the comment section.
Munir -- And that's one of the reasons I visit Facebook--my daughters put up pictures of them and their kids. I can also keep up with a lot of my friends. But I rarely go on the site actually. And what you said about friends is very true.
LaVie-- I figured everyone must have been seeing those ads since I've been seeing them on a lot of other blog notifications. As I mentioned above, the message usually gets filtered as spam, but when you subscribe to comments you see the spam before it gets filtered.
Lee
I haven't seen those ads, but that's so not for me. I want to make real friends, not have friends just to build up my followers numbers.
ReplyDeleteYes! my prayers have been answered! Now I will have real actual friends! I won't have to eat lunch in the girl's bathroom like I did in middle school. I'll get invited to all the cool kid parties (assuming the friends I bought are cool, of course...).
ReplyDeleteThat is just about the silliest thing I have ever heard of. No thank you I'm more than happy with the followers I have. I don't know why anyone would buy "friends" maybe so that they could get sponsers? We are living in very strange times my friend! <:O/
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Joanne
How bizarre. But it makes me think, I am a good "friend" maybe I could sell my self - $8 and I will like your page. LOL - just kidding. Why would someone want fake friends.
ReplyDeleteYou've got real friends and fans Lee, and that's what's important!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea about "buying" fans - that's a sad commentary on the already impersonal use of the Internet.
Yvonne- I don't mind a large showing of followers, but I want to have built that following based on the merit of my being a friend and having good blog content.
ReplyDeleteCrystal -- I've known people in my lifetime who have attempted to buy friendships through what they gave others monetarily or certain prestige incentives. I think we probably all have. It's kind of a sad statement about those people.
Joanne -- Their strategies are apparently based on appearances and not any actual networking or relationship building.
Rhonda -- We live in a society where a lot of things are fake. Making and keeping real friends takes work and why work if you can just pay to make you have things that others worked for.
Paula -- The concept of buying friends is very impersonal and it's not for me. I want to get to know people and have them know something about me.
Lee
Yvonne- I don't mind a large showing of followers, but I want to have built that following based on the merit of my being a friend and having good blog content.
ReplyDeleteCrystal -- I've known people in my lifetime who have attempted to buy friendships through what they gave others monetarily or certain prestige incentives. I think we probably all have. It's kind of a sad statement about those people.
Joanne -- Their strategies are apparently based on appearances and not any actual networking or relationship building.
Rhonda -- We live in a society where a lot of things are fake. Making and keeping real friends takes work and why work if you can just pay to make you have things that others worked for.
Paula -- The concept of buying friends is very impersonal and it's not for me. I want to get to know people and have them know something about me.
Lee
Weird. I haven't seen that advertisement before. I wonder how long it took them to create 10k fake profiles, farm pictures and set up a script that cycles through every day to make it appear they are real. Hell, I doubt they went that far.
ReplyDeleteHow you mine Facebook?
They have such things in Facebook & blog-world..?? I didn't know that..but then again there are lots of things I don't know of..haha..!
ReplyDeleteBut honestly..I rather have a few readers (friends) who really take the time to read my blog & hopefully comment (conversation)..rather than to have a large number of 'followers' but no one really reads or take note of what's going on in my blog..
That is so bizarre. The sad thing is there are people out there who will "buy" friends.
ReplyDeleteThat's crazy. I have been having kids in order to get more followers but maybe shelling out the money up front might cost me less in the long run.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 14 and geeky and an object of mild bullying I would have thought the notion of buying friends was a dream come true. A few years later, the only way I could get a date for the prom (all-girl school) was to ask my dad to ask a friend of his if the friend's son might consider . . . It wasn't far from renting an escort. I can see young and desperate folk being willing to buy friends, but where are they going to get that kind of money?
ReplyDeleteAnd then there's that marketing thing.
SBJ -- My guess the friends are all real people who have been fished from other sources. I'm pretty certain that none of them get paid let alone know that their names are being used.
ReplyDeleteGray -- I'm sure there are more things than any of us imagine out there in web world. You will get readers as long as you are consistent in posting quality material on a regular basis and continue to comment on other blogs so that people know you're there.
Bish -- I think there have always been people who were willing to at least try to buy friends. I don't think those kinds of friends come with any true guarantees.
Tom -- To have as many kids to match those followers who are for sale I think you will need as many wives as King Solomon had. You're gonna need a lot of money to support that.
Roxie -- I think you were not the only one in your situation in high school. It seems like a lonely time for many although probably not really as lonely as we thought.
I think this friends-for-sale Facebook thing is definitely all about marketing. It would be really sad if it wasn't.
Lee
I saw this for Twitter too! Apparently you can buy buckeloads of twitter followers. Weird, I don't get how it works!
ReplyDeleteI guess if all you want to do is look like you have a big following then that's the way to go. If however, you're looking for relationships, then I guess it's going to be the hard route. I wonder how you prevent your friends from unfollowing after you've bought them.
ReplyDeleteWho'd pay for something like that? Weird. Mind you, you haven't received our bills for all our commentings yet, have you!!
ReplyDeleteI've got to pay more attention to sidebars and ads. Look what I missed - the opportunity to buy followers and friends. LOL
ReplyDeleteWow, I've never seen those types of ads. I'd have to say that you're doing incredibly well without their help, though!! :) ~Scarlett
ReplyDeleteWow! I've never heard of this until now. That's pretty tacky to buy followers and friends.
ReplyDeleteLydia -- I don't know how it works either, and I'm not going to shell out any money to find out.
ReplyDeleteJ.L. -- I guess since they are "guaranteed" they'll never unfollow you.
Rosalind -- That's alright-I haven't received any money for any of my comments either, but I've been repaid many times over with comments on my blog and many kind words.
Giggles --If you are ignoring your spam you're missing out on a lot of great offers like these. I'm not sure what the ones in Russian are offering.
Scarlett -- Yeah, but 5000 or 10,000! Wow! So many guaranteed friends.
Donna -- I don't know if "tacky" adequately describes the absurdity of it.
Lee
I prefer to get my friends the old-fashioned way. I earn them :)
ReplyDeleteLOL! This made me laugh. I love to earn my way through. I don't buy anyone off! :)
ReplyDelete♥.•*¨Elizabeth¨*•.♥
Can Alex save Winter from the darkness that hunts her?
YA Paranormal Romance, Darkspell coming fall of 2011!
Lee,
ReplyDeleteThings get more and more bizarre.
First of all, who would come up with a concept like this? I'm picturing a nerdy little guy who is now a millionaire (and still has no friends).
Money can't buy you love.
Surprisingly, I have not seen those ads (or maybe just didn't notice them...I ignore ads quite thoroughly these days). I know some people push that you need a bunch of fans on your blogs and such to be able to use that as part of your platform, but I don't see why you'd want to put work into it just to have people reading who don't care what you have to say. How depressing. And paying for friends on Facebook? Pretty ridiculous. I feel like I have too many friends on Facebook and frequently think of cutting them all out. When you have to filter what you say to specific readers, it's too much. Fake followers & friends. ~shakes head.~
ReplyDeleteJan -- I with you. True friends can't be bought.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth - I'm glad you laughed because I intended it to be funny. It made me laugh when I saw the spam message.
Dawn -- If somebody has become rich from this scheme then I am truly disturbed. I hope there are not that many people who would fall for this.
Shannon -- I am surprised that so many people haven't seen these ads. I thought I was writing about something that just about everyone was familiar with. Well, now you know it's out there.
Lee
Lee,
ReplyDeleteFantastic post... I don't want to buy friends or likes... heehee got a few I would gladly give away... all joking aside I am grateful... I have met some really cool people on the social media networks and we have extended our friendship ... I guess you could say to the real world... but not only that we support each other by tweeting and promoting each other... so I am blessed! Have a super day!
Lisa
LisaFF -- I guess that's what networking is all about. These are the friends we really need, not fake friends who are bought.
ReplyDeleteLee
Pathetic. Just shows how out of touch Facebook really is from reality.
ReplyDelete