Social Media Triage Series: What is it?
SMT Series: Part one: Too much promo
SMT Series: Part two: Brushing off the haters
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SMT Series: Why paying for likes on social media is just plain wrong

There are a lot of things writers get right. Characters that captivate, plots that pen us to the chair and won’t let us get up, and dialog that is dynamic enough to make us laugh out loud are all some of those right things. But there are a few things that writers get dead wrong. DEAD WRONG.

Buying likes for social media interaction is one of them.

What do I mean by “buying likes”?

Just what it says. You can go out and pay money to get an organization or company to send hundreds–maybe even thousands of people–to your site to “like” you (mostly on Facebook, but I think Twitter can be gamed this way as well).

What is wrong with this behavior?

It’s not professional. It is the equivalent of hiring a date to go with you to prom.

It just does not end well. When people see your popularity grow quickly by hundreds or thousands, it is pretty obvious to the savvy reader that you are just trying to make yourself look like a member of the big timers group. Not to mention that you may get booted from the social media site that you do this on. Facebook and Twitter and others are getting a lot more interested in people who scam their sites for evil purposes. And you are likely opening yourself up to a whole big world of spam mail and that could lead to viruses on your computer.

Won’t I be getting a lot more people interested in my work this way?

No. You will be getting less. The people who like you via a buy likes scenario could care less what you are selling. They probably are not even readers. They will not generate anything for you but a higher number of likes on the stats. What difference are stats on social media if they do not transition over to a sale?

So, what do I do then?

Glad you asked.

Instead of spending your money buying likes, why don’t you invest your time in writing better blog posts? Offering good solid content on your social sites. I know people who are out there trolling the Internet just looking for information about writing. You may have stumbled on this article from that very thing. See? Good solid content, free and interesting, will always bring in someone who may actually end up being a true fan. And I will take 10 true fans over 1000 fake ones any day.

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Part Four in this series coming soon!