How to Remove Fake Facebook Fans

Why Fake Facebook Fans Are a Big Deal

In April 2014 Facebook announced an update to their news feed algorithm that challenged Facebook page admins to improve their marketing efforts.

Find out how you can remove fake Facebook fans from your Page.

The bottom line? Pages with higher engagement and quality content are rewarded with greater visibility in the news feed, while pages with limited fan engagement and poor content lose positioning in the news feed.

What does this mean for you? If you have fake Facebook fans, they aren’t engaging with your content, and that is likely hurting your news feed visibility—there’s a good chance your real fans aren’t seeing your updates.

Buying likes is a sure way to end up with fake Facebook fans.

A few ways you can end up with fake fans—intentionally or unintentionally—are buying fans, not targeting giveaways or ads and even creating viral content. You may end up with 50,000 Facebook fans, but if 25,000 of them are fake, Facebook has probably already penalized you.

#1: Decide if it’s Worth the Effort

Ultimately, you want to remove fake Facebook fans and avoid the Facebook penalties. You have a few choices: remove the fake accounts, transfer your brand to a new Facebook page or simply ignore the fake accounts.

Depending on the number of fans you have, finding and removing fakes can be daunting—especially if you have thousands upon thousands of fans.

My rule of thumb: If your page is performing well and your posts are appearing in the news feed, don’t stress about the fake fans right now. If you have 50,000 fans and only a small percentage is fake, it might be best to ignore them.

However, if you have noticed poor reach and limited engagement, it’s time to make a change. Whether you have 50 fans or 50,000, you need to find, remove and ban the fake users.

#2: Find Fake Fans

Go to your Facebook page and click the Fans icon and select See All. The list you see only shows you up to 500 fans. If you see any fake accounts within this list of 500, click the gear next to the name and select Remove.

You can find fake fans via your page.

If you don’t see any fake fans or have coasted past the 500-fan mark and need to see a longer list, you’ll need to use Facebook’s Social Graph. Finding fans via Social Graph is extremely tedious and time-consuming (I recommend giving this task to an intern), but you can find just about every single fan using this method.

Open a new tab to use Social Graph (keep your page tab open as well). Simplytype “Fans of (insert page name)” in the search box and you’ll get a list of your current Facebook fans. As far as I can tell, this is the full list of your fans.

You can narrow the search results using the search filters on the right side or by typing the filter into the search bar (as in the example below).

Use Social Graph to find even more fake fans.

I suggest filtering the list by geographic location first to weed out potentially fake fans from countries with the highest number of fake accounts (Chile, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Brazil and the Philippines, according to Business Insider).

When you find a fake account, the simplest task is to report the spam account to Facebook. Click the arrow in the upper-right corner of the account result and select Report.

Filter your Social Graph results by location.

Of course, if you’ve tried to report someone before, you know that Facebook is slow to respond, if they take notice at all.

#3: Ban Fake Accounts for Good

This method requires a little more work on your part. You’re going to find the fake user’s Facebook ID and use it to replace one piece of code behind the scenes. Don’t worry, though, I’m confident you can do this.

Go back to the open Social Graph tab. Find the fake account you want to remove within the Social Graph and open up that fake user’s profile. At this point you should have two tabs open: the fake user profile and See All fans.

Now you need to find the user’s ID. Copy the profile’s URL then go to http://findmyfacebookid.com/ and paste the link into the box. The number you get back is the ID you will use to ban this fake account from your page. Copy the ID and go back to your See All fans tab.

In Google Chrome or Firefox right-click the gear next to the user and choose Inspect Element.

Use the Inspect Element feature.

A box will pop up with programming language and one line will be highlighted.

Find the highlighted line.

Right-click the highlighted line and select Edit as HTML.

Choose Edit as HTML so you can change the ID.

Select the user ID from within the coding box and paste the fake account’s user ID to replace the original one. Click on the coding box grey border to save the new user ID.

Switch out the IDs.

Head back to the People Who Like This tab and select Remove under the Settings arrow. A pop-up box will appear asking you if you would like to ban the fake account. Make sure it uses the fake account’s name. Select Ban Permanently,Confirm and you’re done!

To confirm that you have in fact removed the fake account, go back into the People Who Like This box and click the top menu. Select Banned and you should see the removed user.

Check to make sure the user is banned from your page.

If you’re looking to clean up your Facebook page without completely starting over, this is the workaround that can help you out.

Conclusion

A page with thousands of Facebook fans might make a powerful first impression, but if those fans aren’t interacting with updates, that page will have a horrible time positioning itself impressively in the news feed.

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7 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Engagement

#1: Use Facebook to Highlight Employees and Reach Out to Fans

Your company is only as good as your hardworking employees—so don’t be afraid to highlight them.

SEOmoz uses Facebook photo albums to highlight their employees.

The SEOmoz Facebook Page does an excellent job of this. Two examples in particular really jump out.

The “Then and Now” photo album: Employees provided photos from their youth along with recent photos of themselves. This is a great way to show fans the human sideof SEOmoz. Plus, the baby pictures are adorable.

SEOmoz does a wonderful job of featuring employees, like in this “Then and Now” photo album.

The “What are Mozzers listening to?” photo album: All it took was snapping photos of employees with their headphones on and asking them what they were listening to. The result is an inside look at company culture.

The MLS team Seattle Sounders FC creates Facebook Events and invites their fans.

The MLS team Seattle Sounders FC creates Events for both their games and promotional events like player meet-and-greets.

Is your company holding an event that’s open to the public?

Then create a Facebook Event so followers can RSVP and add it to their calendars. This is a feature that is often overlooked by businesses—even many professional sports teams don’t create Facebook Events for their home games.

To get your juices flowing, here’s a short list of the types of gatherings where a Facebook Event could be perfect:

• Seminars
• Webinars
• Open houses
• Charity events
• Conferences

In the example below of the 500px Facebook Page, they use Facebook to feature their fans.

For the photographers who are lucky enough to be featured, it means tremendous exposure to the Page’s almost-300,000 fans. As for everyone else, this type of post makes them feel part of a community with the possibility that they could someday be featured.

As a photo-sharing service, 500px is a natural fit to share user content on their Facebook Page.

Social media gives companies the ability to easily recognize their customers and fans.

Depending on your company’s niche, there are numerous ways to feature your customers and fans. For example, you can highlight contest winners orencourage users to submit their own photos and videos.

#2: Get Personal on Twitter

Get creative by using video to connect on Twitter.

You can use Twitter Vsnap to send personalized videos. Vsnap is a tool that allows you to record a video message with a maximum length of 60 seconds. Use this to send a personal video message to a follower on Twitter.

Every new follower Vsnap gains on Twitter is sent a personal video message through the service.

Making these short video messages personable is easy. Look at your target’s Twitter bio to see if something interesting jumps out and use this to craft your message. Or say thanks to someone who shared your content or became a new follower. Or answer a question someone has about your company.

Businesses have already found several creative uses for Twitter’s Vine app, which allows you to take 6-second video clips.

These short videos can be fun to watch and encourage viewers to connect with you further.

Your Vine videos don’t have to only be about your products. Here are some other uses your company might want to consider to connect with your audience:

• A tour of the office
• Individual Vine videos for different teams
• Encouraging customers to Vine about your business

Let people know who’s tweeting.

Have you ever noticed companies who include the initials of the person tweeting at the end of each tweet? Or companies who include the Twitter handle of the person(s) tweeting in their bio?

Both of these strategies are a great way to make a branded Twitter account feel a little more human and the interactions more personal.

Time lets you know who is responding to their account on Twitter.

The TIME Twitter account includes information on who is authoring the account’s tweets in the bio section.

Be part of the conversation.

Don’t ignore people who take the time to tweet to your company.

The Whole Foods Market Twitter account makes it a priority to respond to tweets.

Sometimes just acknowledging a tweet can make someone’s day—potentially making that person loyal to your brand for a lifetime. If you take the time to tweet, take the time to respond to complaints, compliments and questions in a timely manner.

Use humor to make your followers laugh.

Old Spice is known for their quirky marketing and branding, and it shines through on Twitter as well.

You never want to force it, but humor can be an effective way to make your company seem less robotic. And with the constant stream of information on Twitter, breaking it up with a laugh is always appreciated.

#3: Use Google+ Circles, Communities and Hangouts to Create Valuable Conversations

Create and share Google+ Circles your followers will find useful.

One Google+ feature that is sometimes underutilized is the ability to share Circles.

Your company can become a resource for users looking for more people to follow related to your company’s industry. After sharing the Circle on Google+, you can copy the link and share it in a blog post or on Twitter.

This is an example of a recent Circle featuring almost every speaker at SMX West.

Furthermore, this allows your company to connect with the people in the Circle you’ve created and build your audience. They may see the Circle you’ve made and decide to share it on their own profile.

Here are some examples of the type of Circles your company could create and share:

• Industry leaders
• Speakers at conferences
• Favorite writers

Get active in the right Google+ Communities.

Google+ Pages are able to take part in Google+ Communities like any other user: Pages can create, join, moderate and participate.

Chances are there’s already a Community that fits your company’s industry. If so, join the discussion. If not, make a new Community and invite others to join.

Use Google+ Hangouts.

With Google+ Hangouts, your Page can start a video chat with up to nine people. This is a great opportunity to connect with your audience.

This Google+ Hangout with chef Nigella Lawson isn’t just solid content; it’s a fantastic way to have followers interact with The New York Times Google+ Page.

This New York Times Hangout featuring Nigella Lawson is a perfect example. It features a host—Lawson—and three home cooks who wrote in describing how they fared making Lawson’s pasta recipe and why they wanted to be included in the Hangout.

#4: Participate in LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Company Pages can feature up to three groups on their page in an effort to have more people join the group(s).

Much like Google+ Communities, participating in LinkedIn Groups is another opportunity to join the discussion in your company’s industry and answer questions. As an added bonus, more professionals in your field will see your company.

This is a great opportunity for you to get more visibility for your company and tointeract with people who may be interested in your products and services.

#5: Use Pinterest to Invite Others to Pin on Your Boards

Your company’s Pinterest boards don’t have to be limited to just company pins.Collaborate with other users to give your account a more personal feel.

For this style challenge, Home Depot invited others to pin.

To invite other Pinterest users to pin to a specific board, go to the board and click Edit. Next to “Who can pin?” type the users’ names or their email addresses (Note: in order to invite someone, you must be following at least one of that user’s boards.) Click Save Changes.

Once the invited users accept your invitation, they’ll be able to pin to the shared board. However, you can always remove the user and remove their pins. Moreover, invited users cannot change a board’s title or description.

Pinterest is just as much a community as any other social network. So remember tomake the time to interact with other users by commenting on and repinning their pins. While you’re at it, follow users’ boards that fit your company’s industry so you have a fresh stream of related content every time you login.

#6: Don’t Forget to Engage on Foursquare

Use Foursquare to leave tips.

When a Foursquare user visits a location page, they’ll also see tips from other users.

If your company has a location (or multiple locations) on Foursquare, leave tips at your own locations to show users the personable side to your company. These can be simple, or perhaps even offer an inside joke.

Leaving tips at other businesses in your area provides a way to offer your authority on your industry. Best of all, Foursquare users get insightful tips and tricks.

For example, maybe you own a travel agency and leave tips on the feedback you’ve heard about particular attractions. Or maybe you own a food website and leave tips at popular restaurants.

You’ll find fun facts from the History Channel in the tips section of several landmarks.

In the above image, the History Channel provides some fun facts.

Again, you’ll be actively adding to the community.

Use Foursquare to create interesting lists.

Creating lists of places based on a general theme can help your company be seen by more people on Foursquare.

Lists are something Foursquare users appreciate because they act as a resource that’s easy to save. For instance, your company could create a list of its employees’ favorite lunch spots. Or the list could be the best places for company outings.

The Travel Channel has some food tips galore from Adam Richman.

Travel Channel has a list with the places Adam Richman has visited on the show “Man v Food Nation.” Over 8,000 users have saved it.

If you do decide to create a Foursquare list, login using the desktop version of Foursquare and make it from there. Compared to doing this on your phone, it’s much easier to find and save places to your list with more screen real estate.

#7: Get Creative With Your Hashtag on Instagram

Creating a hashtag and encouraging users to submit their photos is a smart way tostand out and be personable on Instagram.

The NBC News Instagram account recently asked users to tag their winter storm photos with the hashtag #NBCNewsPics. After the weekend passed, they chose four of their favorite user-submitted photos and featured the photos as a single image. In the description, they gave credit by including each user’s Instagram username.

By creating a hashtag, NBC News encouraged users to submit content AND was able to feature their favorite user-submitted photos.

Featuring user photos in this fashion on your company’s Instagram account adds to the community. It also shows that you’re on the social network to contribute more than just your own photos. There are several examples of companies doing this, including those in industries like journalism, sports and travel.

The easiest way to feature another user’s photo is through the use of third-party websites like Statigram and Webstagram. Both websites have the option to repost underneath all photos. Before reposting, don’t forget to obtain permission from the user first.

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3 Unconventional Ways to Boost Your Facebook Engagement

If you’re looking for some creative ways to boost your brand’s profile on Facebook, here are three ways to do it that don’t involve giveaways or advertising.

#1: Crowdsource

Crowd sourcing is a term credited to Jeff Howe, who wrote about the phenomenon for Wired magazine back in 2006. He defined the concept as a “new pool of cheap labor: everyday people using their spare cycles to create content, solve problems, even do corporate R & D.”

In friendlier language, crowdsourcing is when you ask your community of users to offer their suggestions for how you might solve a problem or address an issue.

Crowdsourcing can be a great engagement tactic. Image source: iStockPhoto.

In the years since Howe’s story, crowdsourcing has been adopted by many multinational companies and organizations, such as the mining company Goldcorp and NASA. And with the growing popularity of social media, crowdsourcing has spread to Facebook, too.

Social networks including Facebook and Instagram have made it easy for businesses to reach out to their community of friends and fans, and recruit new ones. It’s a way for companies to get relevant information from users and target audiences.

One reason crowdsourcing is effective is that it gives a business’s audience a voice and an opportunity for recognition.

Of course you don’t have to be a huge organization to use the concept. A few years ago, vitaminwater invited its Facebook fans to choose a new flavor via an app called “FlavorCreator.” It was wildly successful and the company ultimately called the winning flavor vitaminwater connect.

vitaminwater's FlavorCreator app allowed fans to contribute to the first vitaminwater made by the fans for the fans.

Another example is the t-shirt company Threadless, which depends entirely on crowdsourcing. They asked graphic designers to submit designs for the community to vote on. Threadless uses a basic poll to crowdsource.

Threadless invites its users to vote on their favorite designs. The shirts with the most votes go into production and are sold on the website.

The designs with the most votes win, and limited runs of the t-shirts are sold online.

The bottom line is that your customers have great ideas and chances are good that they’d love the opportunity to share them with you. So why not take advantage of the wisdom of your crowd? Invite them into the conversation and you shouldincrease engagement.

If you want to learn more about crowdsourcing and how you could incorporate it into your business, check out this crowdsourcing industry resource.

#2: Introduce/Highlight Your Employees on Facebook

Brand likeability is more than product favorability. Publicly acknowledging the people behind your brand—your employees—on Facebook and beyond is a great way tobring them, and your business, recognition.

People like to do business with companies that they feel they “know,” and there’s no better way for them to get to know you than by introducing them to your employees.

Plus, when your employees get a nod, your brand may have greater exposure to their friends and friends of friends.

Adding this human element can also boost EdgeRank if your posts get more posts and comments than usual.

Last week, one of my employees put a funny photo on Facebook of me eating a donut that was nearly as big as my face. It got 66 likes and 18 comments… pretty good for a random status update.

Our fans like to see that we have real employees and that they do human things, like eat huge donuts.

There are other easy ways to give your employees shout outs* on Facebook. Since Facebook is one of the most personal social networks, and the place where your employees’ friends and family are most likely to be, it’s a great public place tohighlight employees’ accomplishments.

This inspires a sort of positive cycle because they, of course, want to share their kudos with their friends, and in turn it shines a light on your business. You canhighlight an employee every week or every month, making it a regular feature of your Page.

In the image below, ToolSelect shows it’s not a one-man operation but a tight-knit group of professionals. Now you can know exactly who is bringing the website to you.

ToolSelect highlights all of their employees on a Meet Your ToolSelect Team app.

Use a Q&A as a low-maintenance way to get the information you can use to share on Facebook and bring focus to individual employees. Create a simple questionnaire—What’s your proudest accomplishment? What’s your favorite non-work pastime? The best book you’ve read lately?—and ask every employee to fill it out.

Get a spontaneous photo of the featured employee or a photo of him/her receiving an award, and give a shout-out to different employees on a regular basis.

In the image below, Moment Skis posted a photo of their Production Prep Pro in their factory.

This simple concept brought them a large amount of engagement.

One word of caution: Not everyone likes to have a light shined on them, so just be sure that your employee is comfortable with public kudos.

Highlighting your employees’ accomplishments is a great way to boost likeability and engagement in your Facebook community.

#3: Reveal New Products and Features

Fans of your brand always want to know what they can expect next from you. Whether you own a bakery or a car parts manufacturing company, people who use your products want to know what you’re working on and Facebook is a great way to inform them.

You can design a Facebook app that reveals a new product, service or special offer every day for a month. This gives your business the chance to show off the products or services that are not as well-known to your fans and customers.

Here are some examples of companies that have made announcements in innovative ways.

Nescafé

Earlier this year, Nescafé in Greece did a campaign that involved the unveiling of some new packaging. They filled an aquarium with coffee beans, buried the new package in it and then told fans with each like, they’d reveal a little bit of the package.

Within 22 hours, the company had received more than 3000 new likes and fans got to see the whole package.

Many people would say “Who cares?”, but obviously people who were curious played along. The aquarium became the brand’s cover photo, at least for a day.

People love new products. Using interactive photos and apps to launch a product draws more attention and engagement for fans.

Medal of Honor

In July, the folks behind the super-popular Medal of Honor franchise invited fans to like poll questions on Facebook in exchange for the early unveiling of a new multi-player gameplay trailer featuring an all-new map.

The excitement of the reveal of a new game is an easy way to get fans to engage with a brand on Facebook.

To encourage sharing with a campaign like this, you could say something such as “The more likes we get, the more we’ll show you.” This won’t violate Facebook’s terms of service. Anyone who knows a gamer knows all about the anticipation for a new game.

The Medal of Honor app is another example of putting the release of a product in the hands of the fans.

Iron Man 3

Films have also been promoted this way. Iron Man 3 gave fans a glimpse of what to expect once they had liked a relevant Page.

Iron Man 3 used the simple act of liking to reveal a trailer, making it easy and fun for fans to get involved.

You don’t have to be a huge brand to use some of these innovative ideas. What they’re doing can inspire your own “reveals” on a much smaller scale and increase engagement with your community on Facebook.

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