Detecting if a podcaster has purchased fake followers, downloads, views, and comments can involve a combination of qualitative and quantitative assessments. First, examine the engagement-to-follower ratio: if a podcast has an unusually high number of followers but consistently low likes, comments, or downloads, it may suggest inauthenticity. Second, assess the quality of comments and reviews—fake engagements often lack substance, with generic or repetitive content. Lastly, observe the growth pattern: a sudden spike in followers, downloads, or views without a corresponding increase in genuine engagement or external factors (such as a notable event or collaboration) could indicate artificial inflation. These signals collectively provide clues about the legitimacy of a podcaster's online presence and help discern between organic growth and potentially purchased metrics.
Disadvantages
- Inauthenticity: Paying for followers and engagement creates an inauthentic online presence. People may eventually notice the lack of genuine interaction, leading to a loss of trust.
- Algorithmic Impact: Social media algorithms are designed to prioritize content based on genuine engagement. Artificially inflated metrics may not result in better visibility over time, as algorithms prioritize content that genuinely resonates with users.
- Poor Engagement Quality: Paid followers and engagement are often not genuinely interested in your content, leading to low-quality interactions. This can negatively impact your brand image.
- Risk of Exposure: Many social media platforms actively work to identify and remove fake accounts and engagements. If your account is flagged, it could face penalties, such as reduced visibility or even suspension.
- Waste of Resources: Investing money in buying followers and engagements may not provide a significant return on investment in terms of genuine business outcomes or brand growth.
- Legal and Ethical Concerns: Some platforms explicitly prohibit the use of third-party services to buy followers, likes, or engagement. Violating platform rules can result in consequences, including account suspension.
- Reputation Damage: Once discovered, the act of buying followers and engagement can damage your reputation. It may be seen as an attempt to deceive or manipulate, which can lead to negative perceptions among your audience.
In the long run, it is generally advisable to focus on building an authentic and engaged audience through meaningful content and genuine interactions. Building a real and loyal following takes time, but it is more sustainable and beneficial for your online presence and reputation.
Thanks so much for listening, I really appreciate it so much. If you need any help with your podcast, feel free to reach out. My email is podtasticaudio@gmail.com
[00:00:00] Imagine that you are a marathon runner.
[00:00:03] You've trained your entire life
[00:00:04] to be this amazing marathon athlete.
[00:00:07] Every year there is a major marathon
[00:00:09] which you sign up for.
[00:00:11] You go to the race, you enter the race,
[00:00:13] you are at the starting line of that race.
[00:00:16] The race starts, you run,
[00:00:18] and you continue all the way to the finish line.
[00:00:21] And during the last mile of the marathon,
[00:00:24] you notice a new runner running next to you.
[00:00:27] Now this runner came out of nowhere, the original Chris and Christine Show podcast. You can find out every single thing about that show on a website which I built. Yeah, you can check that out at chrisandchristineshow.com. If you can't remember that, don't you worry there's a link to it. In the show notes of this very episode, you scroll on down and there it is.
[00:01:41] But here is Podtastic Audio which is a show which I have created to help you create your
[00:01:47] show.
[00:01:48] Do you love podcasting? an audience. Now, I know in previous episodes that I have done, I've mentioned about paying for downloads, paying for followers, paying for comments, paying for ratings and reviews. And surprisingly, I found out that it's more popular than they really are. So let's just say you're observing a podcast or a podcast show and you kind of wonder like, dude, did they really like pay for their followers? Do they really get that many downloads? Do they really have them any followers on say social views. This can be a huge red flag. You see, genuine growth tends to happen gradually, organically, as a podcast, or we all know this, you know, typical organic growth usually happens at 1 to 2%. So a sudden spike in anything usually
[00:05:40] is a total red flag, whether or not they actually purchased downloads or followers or so on and so to actually write all these great, wonderful five-star reviews. And they were all basically the same thing. Until one day, for whatever reason, the podcaster that was paying decided to either stop paying them, miss a payment, or perhaps maybe switch to another promotional team to take care of these writing these posts for them.
[00:07:01] Well, the original podcast promoter company
[00:07:06] decided to write all kinds of negative hate mail are based solely on your downloads or your YouTube plays or your comments and so on and so forth. All of those things, that's entire package, more than just your downloads. You're looking at everything, your social media following, your interactions, everything, take all that into consideration. A podcast sponsor might decide to do business with you
[00:08:23] based on those factors.
[00:08:24] And if you're going after may only go on your show if you appear that you're bigger than you really are. Like you have bigger downloads or you have bigger viewers on YouTube or bigger Instagram
[00:09:40] following.
[00:09:41] They may see that as like, oh, engagement rates indicates credibility and success. It's all a smoke and mirrors really is what it is. So like I said earlier, that sponsor that wants to sponsor you, they may say, oh, you
[00:11:02] look like you have a massive audience.
[00:11:05] You've got a hundred thousand followers on Instagram.
[00:11:08] You've got a hefty number. Now two to 3% on a much lower number is a much lower number. So the company, they're going to see the results from people to actually do business with them. And if they're posting on for downloads, you are the only one that can see that. So now that we know some of the advantages and what to look out for and things like that. So if you did pay for stuff, here are seven disadvantages to you as a podcaster and content creator,
[00:13:40] seven disadvantages on why,
[00:13:43] if you decide to pay for podcast promotion,
[00:13:46] these are things that can and probably will happen to you then it's gonna be hard getting them back. And I don't think you'll ever will get those people back, which turns around, you're gonna have to go back and find new suckers to follow your stuff, to follow your content. It's a cycle going around and around, finding new people to follow you because of the real ones, people that found out about you, they left.
[00:15:01] Okay, so moving on to number two,
[00:15:05] algorithmic impact. you're paying for these kind of things. You know, these people, you know, or even if they are real people that are getting paid to download your stuff, they are not generally interested in your content. What do they care? They get paid to play it. They're just clicking a box, clicking a box. So they're not interested in your content because they're not interested in your content.
[00:16:21] There is a low quality of interactions
[00:16:24] if there's any interactions at all
[00:16:26] which can impact your entire brand in a negative way. has reduced visibility or even the dreaded suspension where you are blocked, banned, kicked off, sign-on-air, you're out of here. And that's not a place that anybody wants to be. If you're trying to build a brand, you're trying to build content, you're trying to get followers and viewers and listeners, if you are physically blacklisted, that's the
[00:17:42] worst place you can be. And if you do legal and ethical concerns. Hey, do you ever read the rules and regulations
[00:19:00] when you sign up for any social media platform? Do you ever look at that stuff? Now this is a big one, it's probably the biggest one of all. And that is, if you do these things, you could damage your reputation. See, your reputation is massive and you do not want to screw things up a regular basis, then 1 million fake nobodies that never, ever commented anything, at least anything relevant anyways.
[00:21:40] There was no real connection, no real conversations.
[00:21:43] Hey, I want to say thank you once again for playing this episode and listening all the