Facebook - why am I getting a ton of "likes" on my CFI "business" profile?

RussR

RussR

En-Route
Joined
Jan 12, 2011
Messages
4,391
Location
Oklahoma City, OK
Display Name
Display name:
Russ
It feels like a scam, but I'm not sure what the scam is.

Yes, yes, Facebook is awful, etc., etc., I know. But it's a useful tool when used the right way. So here's what's happening recently.

I have both a "personal" FB profile (my name), and a "CFI business" profile (my name followed by CFI). I started the business profile many years ago when I thought it might be useful for marketing my CFI services. I don't think it ever really made any difference, and I haven't posted anything to it in over 3 years. It's effectively dead as far as I care.

But for the last few months, every couple of weeks or so I will sporadically get 5, 10, or more people "liking" my business profile all at once. Sometimes they will like the profile itself, other times they will like individual posts I made - remember, none more recent than 3 years ago.

As far as I can tell I have no connection with these people, nor do they appear to be involved in aviation in any way. I am sure it's likely that these "people" aren't really people at all.

What I'm puzzled by is, if this is a scam, what's the scam? They don't send me messages or try to get me to buy products or click links or anything. If it's not a scam, why are these non-aviation people liking a defunct aviation page and its posts?
 
As far as I can tell, this happens often with public pages and groups and is primarily about expansion of targets. If I "like" something, I may end up liking or contacting or accepting contact from another liker.

I see it a lot in public groups and when I've made the mistake of making one of my personal posts public. It's mostly automated - it's not really about you.
 
RussR said:
It feels like a scam, but I'm not sure what the scam is.

Yes, yes, Facebook is awful, etc., etc., I know. But it's a useful tool when used the right way. So here's what's happening recently.

I have both a "personal" FB profile (my name), and a "CFI business" profile (my name followed by CFI). I started the business profile many years ago when I thought it might be useful for marketing my CFI services. I don't think it ever really made any difference, and I haven't posted anything to it in over 3 years. It's effectively dead as far as I care.

But for the last few months, every couple of weeks or so I will sporadically get 5, 10, or more people "liking" my business profile all at once. Sometimes they will like the profile itself, other times they will like individual posts I made - remember, none more recent than 3 years ago.

As far as I can tell I have no connection with these people, nor do they appear to be involved in aviation in any way. I am sure it's likely that these "people" aren't really people at all.

What I'm puzzled by is, if this is a scam, what's the scam? They don't send me messages or try to get me to buy products or click links or anything. If it's not a scam, why are these non-aviation people liking a defunct aviation page and its posts?
Click to expand...
FB's algorithm for suggesting stuff is opaque. But my guess is that someone (a real person) stumbled onto your profile, either suggested by FB or by pure chance, and for whatever reason they liked it (even though no recent posts). By them liking it you got a boost in FB's recommendation algorithm so it started suggesting it to other people (most likely starting with his/her friends or other people with overlapping attributes -- e.g., aviation/pilot).

From what I understand there's also a lot of bot accounts out there that mimic human activity in order to evade detection. If you see a bunch of likes from profiles with clearly foreign names who have no relationship to your area/aviation, it's likely bot accounts. Not a scam, just not genuine interest either (until they ping you telling you about your dead Nigerian uncle who left 400m$ to you and just need a wire xfer from you to help get the ball rolling on moving your inheritance to the USA).
 
Maybe you just have good CFI skills and the word is out.
 
Do most of the like-rs have two first names? I wonder if all of the scammy for-sale activity creates likes on aviation stuff to try to borrow legitimacy.

Tons of scams happening in the aviation for-sale groups lately, it's almost comical. I don't think I can buy anything on FB without transacting in person.
 
schmookeeg said:
Do most of the like-rs have two first names? I wonder if all of the scammy for-sale activity creates likes on aviation stuff to try to borrow legitimacy.

Tons of scams happening in the aviation for-sale groups lately, it's almost comical. I don't think I can buy anything on FB without transacting in person.
Click to expand...
Are you suggesting his posts and or profile is attractive to serial killers?
 
Can you resist buying a Cessna 182 for 25k cash by western union to someone’s dying uncle?

FB and those platforms are all about numbers, some platforms such as Yelp will purposely visit your page, and Yelp will actually call businesses to use these “visits” as lost opportunities and try to turn it into a premium sales package.

I imagine that FB and IG do the same. Also there are many people who make accounts with lots of following in hopes you will follow back, then they may sell the profile later (change name and photo) and wa la now you just bought a social media account with 1million followers.

Stuff like that, and there’s more. There is a reason why people are doing that and it is simple, to monetize it or have a tool to use later on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top