The BBC has conducted an investigation into marketers’ obsession with ‘Likes’ and how this is impacted by fake user accounts and advertising on Facebook. According to Rory Cellan-Jones, a technology correspondent for the BBC:

A BBC investigation suggests companies are wasting large sums of money on adverts to gain “likes” from Facebook members who have no real interest in their products.

“Likes” are highly valued by many leading brands’ marketing departments.

Once a user has clicked on a link the company it belongs to can then post content on their news feed, send them messages and alert their friends to the connection.

Facebook makes money by charging companies a fee to show adverts designed to attract new “likes”.

Some companies have attracted millions of “likes”.

But the BBC has been contacted by one marketing consultant who has warned clients to be wary of their value, and carried out an experiment that backed up his concerns.

The investigation took the BBC to an online marketing consultant who was having trouble with clients asking for refunds, after it had been discovered that most of their ‘likes’ were from obscure contries that would never have interaction with their product.

The BBC also spoke to a social marketing executive at one of the UK’s biggest companies who said he was increasingly sceptical about the value of advertising on the social network.

“Any kind of investment in Facebook advertising has brought us very little return on sales,” he said.

The executive, who did not want to be named, added that his company had found it could increase engagement with customers via the social network without buying adverts.

“The fans you get from advertising may not be genuine, and if they are genuine are they people who will engage with your brand?” he asked.

“The answer, more and more, appears to be no.”

Read the whole story HERE.