Does Lady Gaga really have 20 million followers or are a lot of those
fake? I've heard she's got a lot of fakers. --Stormy S., via Facebook
You speak of a widely circulated report indicating that a whopping 30
percent of Lady Gaga's Twitter monsters are fakes--or, as she might
put it, creations. The allegation comes courtesy of a British company
called StatusPeople, which claims to have a system for ferreting out
bots, inactive users and other not-so-real Twitter followers. (You can
see the app--and look up Gaga's current Twitter stats--for yourself
here.) But does that mean that the Lady isn't exactly Gaga for the
truth? Well, not so fast. According to social media marketing experts,
an increasing number of celebrities are recruiting fake followers, and
they probably don't even know it. (Don't know if this is the situation
with Lady Gaga, a request for comment from her camp wasn't immediately
returned.) Instead, members of some celebrities' teams--publicists,
managers, record labels, agents--are often purchasing fake followers
on their behalf. The reason? "It's bragging rights, it demonstrates
how hot your career is, and those followers are an important tool that
can be monetized for marketers," a social media marketing expert who
consults with celebrities explains to me. "So, yes, celebrities can
profit from fake followers, directly and indirectly." Directly, as in
a celebrity getting paid thousands of dollars to Tweet about a product
to their so-called myriad followers. Or indirectly, as in charging
more for an endorsement deal based on overall perceived popularity.
"I, in fact, have recently counseled my own celebrity clients against
using paid or fake accounts, but they are getting a lot of pressure to
have them," my expert adds. So what are these followers, and where do
they come from? "They can be bots, or they can be a group of 'zombie'
accounts created by a very smart programmer," the social media guru
explains. Those zombie accounts can then be 'ordered' to follow a set
of Twitter accounts that make them look like a certain
demographic--say, young moms, or teen metal fans. Lady Gaga talks
about Prince Harry's naked photos Those accounts are then sold by
brokers--yes, really--in bulk. "Depending on the quality of the
follower, you are probably looking at 50 cents to $2 per follower,"
the social media marketer dishes. (Many brokers offer followers for
much, much less.) If a third of Gaga's followers really are bots or
zombies, she's not alone. StatusPeople's faker score for Justin Bieber
claims that 22 percent of his followers, too, are fake.
