It can be concerning when you notice your Facebook page is suddenly getting an influx of likes from accounts that don’t seem to be real people. This article will explore some of the common reasons a Facebook page may get fake likes and provide tips on how to deal with it.
What are fake likes?
Fake likes refers to likes, followers, shares, or comments on social media that come from bot accounts or services rather than real human users. These automated accounts are created to artificially inflate metrics like likes and followers counts. Some common signs of fake likes include:
- Likes coming from accounts with no profile photo, content, or friends
- Hundreds or thousands of likes in a very short period of time
- Likes coming from accounts in foreign countries unrelated to your target audience
- Continued likes from suspicious accounts even on old, inactive posts
Why do people buy fake likes?
There are a few main reasons people may be tempted to buy fake likes, followers, and engagement on Facebook and social media:
- Vanity metrics – Higher numbers make an account look more popular and established. Fake metrics can inflate these vanity numbers to make an account seem more influential.
- Algorithm manipulation – Accounts with more engagement can get boosted by social media algorithms, getting more visibility in feeds, suggested content, and search results.
- Social proof – People often look at metrics like follower counts and likes to gauge an account’s trustworthiness and credibility. More followers and likes suggest an account is popular and reputable.
- Monetization – Influencers and businesses with larger followings and engagement can earn more money from sponsorships, ads, and other monetization methods.
Where do fake likes come from?
Fake likes and followers usually come from bot farms or click farms. Here’s an overview of how these operations work:
- Bot farms – Bot farms use automated scripts to control thousands of fake accounts that can like, comment, and follow at scale. The bots mimic human social media activity to seem real.
- Click farms – Click farms hire many low-wage workers to manually like, comment, view, and follow accounts through fake profiles. The manual work makes the activity harder to detect.
- Black market services – Underground marketplaces exist where fake engagement can be directly bought and sold. Providers offer packages of thousands of likes, views, and followers for various social platforms.
While bot activity used to be easier to detect, these services are constantly evolving to seem more human and avoid detection by platforms like Facebook.
How to spot fake likes
Here are some warning signs that can indicate fake likes:
| Warning Sign | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Sudden spikes in likes | Seeing hundreds or thousands of new page likes in a short period is often a giveaway, as that level of growth is unlikely to be organic. |
| Likes from suspicious accounts | Fake accounts tend to have no profile photo, friends, posts, or other signs of authentic activity. Look out for too many likes from accounts like this. |
| Irrelevant geographic sources | If you see likes from countries or regions that are totally unrelated to your target audience, that indicates bots or click farms at work. |
| Activity on old posts | Real users are unlikely to dig up and like old posts in mass. Fake bots will interact with any post indiscriminately. |
| Repeated identical comments | Bots can leave copied or template comments on posts. Look for repetition or generic comments. |
Negative impacts of fake Facebook likes
While fake likes may temporarily inflate your page’s metrics, there are some significant downsides:
- Once detected, fake likes can be removed and result in your page’s metrics dropping suddenly.
- Too many fake likes makes your page seem untrustworthy to real users.
- Fake activity distorts your analytics and metrics, making it harder to track real reach and engagement.
- You could get banned or penalized by Facebook for violating their terms of service.
- Real audiences can tell when engagement is not authentic and lose interest in your page.
In most cases, fake activity does more harm than good in the long run. Any temporary vanity metrics boost will fade once the inauthentic activity is removed.
How to remove fake Facebook page likes
If your page is receiving suspicious likes, here are some steps you can take:
- Turn off the ability for people to like your Page – This prevents new fake likes from coming in while you deal with the issue. Go to your Page Settings > General > Page Visibility > Disable options for “Show Page to Non Supporters”.
- Report fake accounts – If you spot any profiles that are clearly fake, report them to Facebook by clicking the three dots next to their name and selecting “Report this profile”.
- Contact Facebook support – Use Facebook’s support forms to submit details about the sudden influx of likes. They may investigate and remove any policy-violating activity.
- Use social media analytics tools – Services like SocialRank and Likeanalyzer can help identify suspicious accounts so you can report or block them.
- Avoid any tactics or services offering fake likes – Stay far away from anything sketchy offering to boost your metrics. It will cause more harm than good.
With some proactive management, you can clean up any fake activity and maintain the integrity of your Facebook community.
How to prevent fake Facebook likes
Here are some precautions you can take to avoid fake likes in the future:
- Avoid buying likes or followers from any third party service. This is always risky.
- Be selective about liking or following back accounts that engage with your page. Look for signs they are real people.
- Use Facebook’s analytics to understand your audience’s demographics like location, language, age, interests. Look for anomalies.
- When running ads or promotions, target specific demographics less prone to fake account creation.
- Proactively block or hide comments from accounts that appear suspicious.
- Hide old posts from your Page’s timeline if they are prone to attracting fake likes.
- Engage your real community to stay active and drown out any fake activity.
Focusing on growing an authentic community naturally makes your page much less susceptible to fake likes.
Conclusion
Fake likes can be frustrating, but staying vigilant makes them manageable. Focus on high-quality engagement from real humans instead of vanity metrics. You want real fans, not bots. With a little effort to clean up fake activity and prevent future issues, you can keep your Facebook community genuine and build lasting growth.