When I talk with businesses about building leads using social media one question is inevitable. 'Can't we just open a whole bunch of Facebook and Twitter accounts to say nice things about our company?' If you wear any kind of marketing hat you have likely heard the same question, and probably more than once?
It usually does not take long to explain why this is unwise and the question is often a good starting point for conversations about the value of social media. Here is my list of favourite reasons not to use fake accounts.Perhaps you can add more?
Audience
Some of the reasons businesses choose to invest in social media are search engine placement, brand awareness, community building, public relations, promotion and lead nurturing. Progress in any of these areas needs an audience to see your online messages and building that audience takes investment. First you will need to decide which of the many online channels on offer works best for you. You might choose Twitter, Facebook, your own blog, LinkedIn, specialist forums or online industry publications. Reaching your audience using any of these channels requires worthwhile content and regular updates. I would rather build this audience on behalf of my brand to present positive messages and useful content than spend my time on fake accounts.
Authority
The best online 'brands' have built excellent reputations as authorities in their field. They usually achieve this status through useful, unbiased content, produced by recognised contributors. The better ones attract a significant audience, called followers, friends or subscribers depending on the online channel. Such authorities typically guard their public reputation carefully. In the best cases their online content is amplified by a knowledgeable audience who add comments, link to the content or repeat it in their own channel. Fake accounts can hope for this kind of authority.
Authenticity
The social media audience is very quick to judge the authenticity of an online presence. When we began using Twitter to reach out to customers of a large telecom client we received constant questions about our credentials. Thankfully our profile links to a legitimate website, consistent ‘bios’ and genuine human voice eventually won over our audience. These are some of the points visitors will check, whether they find you on Twitter, Facebook, your own blog, a forum or a directory site. They will also look at your content to see whether you are interesting, informative or just plain entertaining. Only then will they decide whether to follow you, ‘like’ your content or subscribe to your social media channel. Fake accounts rarely pass these tests and if no-one is listening what's the point?
Time
Building audience and authority takes time. Even authenticity can rarely be achieved overnight. You presumably want your online presence to contribute to your marketing goals and this requires planning and content. Building fake accounts that can never truly deliver audience or enhance your company's online reputation will take a lot of time. Can you afford to spend your time this way?
This list turns around neatly to make a checklist for online interactions. Are you reaching the right audience? Is your content authoritative? Is your online voice authentic?
Finally a quick look at the other side of this issue. Are you concerned about your competitors using fake social media accounts to discredit you? Please take heart. The list above applies to any fake account your competitor might try to use. We know this goes on and have seen it happening, but it is rarely successful. A large international PR agency recently illustrated the pitfalls of chasing the wrong ball using social media. In their case Google (their target) received significant publicity for a product that had been, until then, largely ignored, while Facebook, their client, earned another dent in its online reputation.
Social media is a very public arena. Honesty is always the best policy.