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How Fake Social Media Followers Can Hurt Your Practice

We live in a time when social media is king. Virtually every business is present on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, and you’re able to not only learn more about their services, you’re also able to book an appointment, shop their online store and much more. Yes, we live in a time with seemingly endless possibilities when it comes to social media, but it can come with its drawbacks if not utilized properly. Fake followers are seen in droves on social channels, and their presence can be detrimental to your business. Here’s how fake social media followers can hurt your practice.

What Are Fake Followers?

First off, let’s discuss what exactly fake social media followers are and how they impact a practice online. Fake followers are typically computer bots and are technically considered “ghost” followers, as they’re just there and not adding any value to the page. These are obtained by buying “likes” and “follows” from third-party sources for the sole reason of building up a social presence. Fake followers can also be people you ask to follow your page just to get more followers. These can be family or friends who have no desire to learn about or retain your services and thus will likely not contribute to the engagement of the content on your page.

How Fake Followers Can Do Damage

Computer or bot followers are against the rules of many social platforms, which means having these types of followers can actually get your practice suspended or permanently removed from the platform. This can be extremely detrimental to your practice. In addition to this risk, fake followers also hinder the progress of your page’s content. For example, if most of your page’s followers are fake, chances are when you post something on your page, they will not be commenting, liking or sharing your post. This means that the platform’s algorithm will deem your page’s content as not worthy enough to receive priority, resulting in less people seeing your posts. Social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook will analyze which page is getting enough engagement to be considered relative content and will thus push this relative content to reach more people.

How to Fix or Avoid This Problem

The key to a successful online profile is to target organic followers. These include the following:

  • Real people/companies
  • People who are interested in your practice
  • Those who want more information about your practice
  • Followers who will like, share and comment on your posts
  • Those who may become patients in the future

Gaining followers this way may mean you have less of them, but the quality of followers will be much better. You don’t want to simply look like you have a lot of followers, you want to actually have followers who want to know what is happening at your practice and have a desire to keep up with your news, products and more. Buying followers isn’t the way to achieve a successful online presence. A successful online presence takes a bit of work, including targeting the right people for your practice and providing them with relevant content.

A Strong Social Presence

As you can see, choosing to allow fake followers to be a part of your practice’s social channels can lead to consequences which can hurt your practice. When utilizing social media, you want to position yourself in front of an online crowd and turn them into patients. Be sure to go about this the right way for maximum success.

To learn more about how to build your practice, please contact Ortho Sales Engine at (843) 544-9616.

Ortho Sales Engine specializes in marketing solutions for orthodontists, combines more than 20 in-house services to create customized, repeatable marketing systems, and serves as a trusted partner to doctors and their teams. To learn more or schedule a free consultation, visit orthosalesengine.com.