College Underground Magazine Issue 2 | Page 5

Page 5 SHOULD I BUY TWITTTER FOLLOWERS? By: Ely Torres Before you go ahead and decide that it’s worth it because, hey, they only charge 8.95 per 1000 followers, so why not? Put down the debit card and read this before you purchase! While this may be a quick and easy way to see an attractive increase in your followers in 24-72 hours, once you look into who is actually fol- lowing you…well…things may get ugly. One of the beautiful things about social media is not only are we able to build our fanbase with normal music fans, but you can also network with other people in the industry who are relevant to your brand and can help you further. When you purchase these followers, you realize you have a lot of inactive “eggs” following you. Not helpful in the long run. Plus, these new followers will vanish in a year. Not to mention that there are sites now specially designed to point out accounts with fake or inactive accounts. Embarrassing situation if anyone checks out your account. Read the fine print, friends. As far as likes and views, check out the numbers. If an account has low Subscriber numbers, high Views and Likes and no Dislikes (most people opt to not buy Dislikes as they’re more expensive) then you may have someone on your hands who is trying to pull a fast one on their real followers. Now I understand labels buy social media acceptance for their mainstream artists to look more popular, faster, than they really are. But why take shortcuts that will bite you in the ass later? Build your following the honest way, this way you will truly know how successful you are. I’ve read cases where it was reported that a certain hip hop star released a new song and in a weekend, had over 300,000 views. A visit to the video clued me in that it was in fact, 40,000 views. But this is a whole other issue (that also incriminates the media) I will touch on another day. Think carefully before you make your purchase.