In the digital consumer world, social media has become the center of a brand’s visibility, and consequently, businesses need to stay strong within online engagement. Buying social media likes is one method that companies are using to improve their online presence. This strategy can be beneficial to brands already, but they should understand the pros and cons before embarking on one. This article covers the pros and cons of purchasing social media likes for your brand so you can make an informed decision on whether or not to spend on likes.
Pro: Increases brand visibility quickly
Social media likes can be bought, and you may be able to give visibility to your brand on the same day, even positioning your brand as a trending one. When your content gets this kind of boost in likes, it will look more interesting to someone who is looking at what to follow, and a high like count can be an indication that your content is of quality. In particular, new brands seeking to create a big splash in a highly competitive market can find this approach very helpful. The high engagement rate gained by purchasing the likes can also create more organic engagement if the visibility provides users with the ability to see the same high engagement rate. In this way, buying likes can help your brand to take flight, to go big quickly, finding you more fans in the process, which could be addicts rather than bots.
Key Benefits
- Huge quantities of likes are useful when the content is to reach as many people as possible, excluding the number of followers of the brand
- Organic engagement increases visibility; effort tends to draw users out to content that is naturally gaining visibility, so further engagement should occur
Con: Risks decreasing engagement quality
At first, buying likes may help your content look popular, but far less so, engaging followers meaningfully. Most bought likes, which are occasionally purchased, are generated out of dead or incorrect accounts that do not help in providing actual interaction, likes, comments, and shares. The first is – a less authentic brand image; if your profile looks like you haven’t put much effort into the profile, then it will slightly diminish your brand image and make you look a little less trustworthy in the eyes of your potential customers. Furthermore, posts with high-quality interactions – i.e., comments and shares – receive more of an advantage on social media over just like counts. Consequently, the likes you buy might not serve to boost the visibility or long-term reach of your content.
Pro: Enhances social proof and credibility
Consumer decisions are influenced by social proof, and people usually take other’s instructions on what to do. Having lots of likes on your posts will give your brand more credibility and encourage new users to trust your content and follow your posts. But when your profile has a lot of engagement, it shows that your brand is reliable and engaged by people. That increased visibility and perceived trustworthiness come in handy when you are announcing your new products or services because it gives initial trust from organic followers who might have never heard of you.
Key Benefits
- It may appear as high like counts make us believe that the brand is strong, established, and will bring new followers
- Buying likes can be used as a quick way to get social proof, and it is good when you are launching new products in our services in the market
Con: potential violation of platform policies
If you buy social media likes (Instagram & Facebook likes), it can become a big deal depending on the terms of service of the platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Social media companies can keep an eye out for inauthentic activity, for instance, purchasing likes. If you find an account that violates the rules, it can suffer penalties, such as reduced organic reach, shadow banning, or permanent suspension. Not only will this risk affect your visibility of the account, but it could also hurt your brand reputation if consumers or competitors catch on that your likes are paid instead of earned. As such, engaging in this tactic is also potentially policy violating, and what the consequences could be is a critical consideration.
Pro: Cost-effective for brand awareness campaigns
Brands with low budgets and looking for quick exposure can take the lane of purchasing likes as it can be a cost-effective strategy. Compared to other forms of advertising or influencer partnership, buying likes would be a lower-cost method for boosting your brand’s image and visibility. This helps your brand to run awareness campaigns with a smaller investment and get seen without heavy advertising. Buying likes could get you visibility for short periods, so you can test various content strategies and find out what attracts your audience.
Key Benefits
- If you want to spend less on ads but get more reach, buying likes can be an alternate route to grow your reach without a never-ending paid promotion investment
- Buying likes is useful for short-term or seasonal campaigns, where you can generate quick and highly engaging actions, which make your brand stay on the market and visible during the period required without long-term commitments
Conclusion
Buying social media likes does speed up your visibility and give you social proof, but it also causes some risks as low-quality engagement and policy violations. For short-term awareness, this can be beneficial but may not lead to real engagement for sustained growth. While you probably can’t give up on organic strategies altogether yet, applying it as a supplementary strategy and not so overly before one above the other will allow you to balance the idea of visibility and credibility for your brand’s growth in a more sustainable manner.