Generally 'growth hacking' refers to the term whereby people experiment across various marketing channels in order to get the most growth in the shorter time as possible.
Growth is key.
For example, when used in a social media context it might be to get as many Twitter or Instagram followers as possible.
A lot of start-ups use various effective growth hacking techniques to get their product or service out there as quickly as possible. Due to the nature of their business they generally need to scale quickly if they are going to be successful.
So far so good.
No one is going to begrudge a business trying to grow.
However...
I have noticed a 'hack' which appears to be rife on Instagram at the moment, and it makes me wonder what exactly some people hope to achieve.
Take this scenario:
- A non-follower likes a few of your photos. Fabulous.
- They then leave a fairly ambiguous comment like 'awesome' or 'nice' under one
of your posts. Okay...you're all for engagement...who doesn't like a compliment? - The next thing you know they are following you. Woohoo! A new follower
So of course you follow them back.
But wait.... hold your horses!
You notice a few days later they have unfollowed you.
What happened?
You were 'growth hacked' is what happened.
I guess there are tools/bots out there which allow an automatic comment to be posted on your image once you use a certain hashtag. Alternatively people will seek you out 'manually' for using a certain hashtag...after all...that's what hashtags are there for...so you can be 'found'.
They follow you, you follow them back...and then they unfollow you.
Okay , fair enough...I get it.
But what is the point?
Surely the whole point of social media is to be social and to engage? Or to use the new over used buzzword...to be 'authentic'?
As soon as I see accounts which have done this to me I unfollow them straight away. They have gained nothing with this approach.
Maybe I am just old fashioned?
It Happens
And
Facebook Owns Instagram
Facebook Has put out some
Regulations in the Spring
Accounts Get Shut Down For Weird Reasons
Some of These Accounts Had Over 100K Followers
So They Open Up New Accounts To Try To Do It Again,
Get 100K Followers, And So Forth
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So it has been going on for a while.... I have noticed an increase..perhaps it is because it is where my focus is at the moment :-)
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Yes think that is lame as fuck too!
They "unfollow" so they don't have an equal amount of followers and followed. If they have more followers than followed they look cooler and more desireable. It gives the impression people genuinely like there stuff enough to follow.
I bet more people decide to follow them once they get to certain X number followers to (x-y) followers. And that's why they do it.
Everyone knows if someone has 10K Followers and 9 to 10K followed they got there by indescriminately following accounds and it's obvious is bullshit and fony. They don't want to look that way, at the expense of other people they fake follow.
It's shit marketing. Maybe it works for selling some things/people/ideas.
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Yes, it clearly works or people wouldn't do it. Ho hum...I am sure there will be another 'growth hack' around the corner. Thanks for commenting...appreciate it :-)
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"Hacked" yeeez.... There was no hacking involved.
If you want to avoid this, you shouldn't follow someone just to be nice.
Instead, check out what they are actually posting or aks what they are actually planning to post.
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'Hacking' in this context is quite different from the general term. I agree that you shouldn't follow someone back just for them following you, however to my mind this type of 'following' is fairly disingenuous. :-)
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It's marketing. It's basically saying "hey, I noticed you" and if someone is pleased enough with the fact that said profile did this, then they follow it back.
Sure, it's calculating. But it's not malicious and it doesn't hurt anyone at that stage.
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But where this is an automated response, said profile hasn't really 'noticed' you. I guess we all have different attitudes as to what is and what isn't 'acceptable' in marketing.
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Not necessarily humanly "noticed" you.
But why would you follow back someone or something if you don't know anything about it or it doesn't provide you any value?
If a person is "tricked" to follow back an algorithm, then that's likely because of unrealistic and perhaps even childish expectations. You can't blame that on an algorithm. It already works for a reason.
Sure, we all have our own ideas and ideals. I'm not saying that I like to get massfollowed by bots on twitter, but it also doesn't bother me much really. Theoretically, it could actually even end up benefiting me in the long run to have a couple extra followers, if they happen to stay on. If they don't, then no harm done.
Good talking to you.
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Ugh, I feel this so much! That follow-unfollow nonsense is the absolute worst. It’s like, why even bother? It doesn’t build real connections, just makes people feel used. Social media is supposed to be about genuine engagement, not treating followers like numbers.
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Growth hackers can be so over the top, right? That 'follow-unfollow' move feels so slimy like you're just a number. Drives me nuts when my notifications blow up for no reason. Social media’s supposed to be fun, not a mind game! If you’re looking for hacking tips, geethemes has some cool legit hacks. Beats whatever these spammers are up to!
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