Why Brands Should Be Wary About Using Bots to Grow Their Social Channels

By: Justin Joffe

May 17, 2018

In this age of troll farms and social media bots, it’s important to remember that every “pay to play” tactic is subject to ethical ramifications.

“Automation is the worst thing that has ever happened to social media,” says Manu Muraro, who founded the Atlanta-based agency Your Social Team to help small brands run professional social media campaigns (and spoke at The Social Shake-Up 2018). “The whole point of social for business is to promote the brand by creating community, and these bots today take that away.”

Muraro says that the value provided by these bots is also questionable, given how easy it is to spot when an account is using them. Red flags include accounts with lots of followers but very low engagement, followers that are not from the geographic area where the brand operates and comments that are generic or otherwise out of place.

Muraro adds that there’s no real way to get rid of the fake followers you acquire, either. “On Instagram, for example, you can block a few, but once you block a couple dozen, the app won’t allow you to take any more actions,” she says. “So if you have thousands of fake followers, you will have to just keep them or delete your account and start from scratch.”

All of this should be enough to cause a social media marketer to cringe when they see a “Social Media Growth Hack” company. “You will see these companies usually reach out to you with a compliment to your page and most times from a fake account,” says Muraro.

“The only real growth is the growth of your business. That bot-driven growth in numbers will not help anyone make one more dollar. On the contrary, they can hurt a brand’s reputation with potential customers, partners or investors. In social media today, it’s not only okay to grow slow, it’s also expected.”

Follow Justin: @joffaloff

Follow Manu on Instagram: @YourSocialTeam