Yet these friends won’t meet you for drinks after work. In fact, they don’t even exist. They are pixels on a screen.
For start-ups a strong social media following can
boost business. A small mom-and-pop shop struggling to sell its wares can look
like a booming upstart thanks to a swollen Twitter account, or an artificially
high number of Facebook likes. For major international companies, an
underwhelming number of followers in the early stages of engagement with social
media can be galling at best and damaging to brand perception at worst. Buying
crowds of fans—even if they aren’t engaged with the brand—can give an artificial
boost to a business.
