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Almost every Facebook friend and Twitter follower you have is imaginary

If you’re on Facebook or Twitter, take a good look at who your friends and followers are.

Take a look at who you’re following yourself.

Chances are, YOU DON’T KNOW EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE PEOPLE IN YOUR CIRCLE OF CONTACTS IN REAL LIFE.

Yup, IRL doesn’t apply to your social network.  It’s just a bunch of names of people that you have no idea who they really are.

Should you be surprised about this?  Probably not.

Learn to Use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn: The How-To Guide
Learn to Use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn: The How-To Guide

And why not? MOST FACEBOOK AND TWITTER ACOUNTS ARE FAKE OR EMPTY.

One guy, Kevin Kelly, decided to run some numbers himself to see just how many fake accounts were out there.  After all, the word on the street is that anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of all social media accounts are either fake or completely inactive.

What Kevin found was 36% of users hadn’t even filed out a profile.

They were people that just didn’t exist… or at least, their accounts were invalid.

He compared his experience to two other reporters, who confirmed that just 25% of their Twitter followers were real people.

So what’s the big deal?  So what if there are fake Twitter or Facebook accounts out there?

Well, if you’re concerned about how many LIKES or how many FOLLOWERS you have — guess what?  These numbers are now completely useless to you.  You have nothing to compare these to.

You have 3,000 followers?  It doesn’t matter anymore if 2,500 of them are fake accounts.  Somebody LIKED your photo 9,543 times?  We suppose it’s ok… as long as you’re fine with discounting that number to a more likely 800.

In other words – if a large number of accounts are fake, then it really doesn’t matter what numbers you have… so why bother hanging out and promoting your Facebook page at all? When it comes to online promotion, don’t put all your eggs into one basket.