Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott "follows" Modi: Accused of buying up Facebook likes in India

By Our Representative
Australian prime minster Tony Abbott is under attack for “following” Prime Minister Narendra Modi – and for strange reasons. He has been accused of springing a surprise by “buying Facebook likes in India”, like Modi has been doing. SmartCompany, which calls itself a “completely free news, information and resource site for Australia's entrepreneurs”, with contributors including Australia's top entrepreneurs, experts and advisers, has reported that a surge in "likes"on Abbott's Facebook page driven by new fans living in India has “prompted social media users to question his newfound popularity.”
A report quoting an internet tool, Status People, launched by a group of engineers in London, said in 2012 Modi's Twitter account had “46 per cent fake and 41 per cent inactive users.” It added, “The website through an algorithm measures false and inactive followers of a Twitter user. Modi started using Twitter in 2009 and in 2010, had one lakh followers. About a year ago, in November 2011, he had four lakh followers.” But his following on Twitter increased “exponentially” ahead of 2012 Gujarat state assembly polls.

Social media expert Dionne Lew has told SmartCompany that it is very difficult to determine whether followers are real or bought and dangerous to make assumptions in this area. It says, “But Lew is clear that businesses should not buy social media followers. 'It’s definitely not something that business owners should be doing because it’s in a sense misleading', she says. 'My own view is that all of the followers that you gain should be gained as a result of people actively choosing to follow and engage with you'.”
Lew has been further quoted as saying that buying likes and followers means social media then becomes “a numbers game”. “You could only have 100 followers but if it is core to what you stand for and your business, those 100 followers are more influential and important than having 17,000 who don’t know what you are and what you do.” She adds, social media has moved away from looking at numbers as a sign of social importance.“Whilst those scores are flawed the measures themselves are really focused on the quality of engagement rather than a simple numbers game.”

Writing for SmartCompany, Cara Waters in her story titled “Tony Abbott accused of buying Facebook likes in India: should your business do the same?”, also quotes Kylie Bartlett, social web branding strategist, as saying that buying followers and likes is "really, really hard to prove", adding, Abbott's sudden popularity is "strange" but could be a result of the recent G20. "My opinion is that it is definitely a no no to buy likes," she says. If they are not your target market I question as to why you would want to do it."
Things have gone so far, says the site, that “comedians The Bondi Hipsters took a break from dressing like Kim Kardashian to ask whether the Prime Minister had bought likes from overseas.”. It adds, “The Bondi Hipsters posted a screenshot of Abbott’s official Facebook page showing it was most popular among Gen Ys in New Delhi. 'Hey Tony brah... Have you been buying Facebook likes?...Either that or you're really popular with 18-34 year olds from New Delhi', the post said.”
Coming out in defence of Abbott, his spokesperson said his social media surge in "likes" or advertising had not been purchased for the Facebook page."It is no secret that the Prime Minister hosted a number of world leaders in recent times, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi," the spokesperson said, adding, "These visits attracted large international audiences to the Prime Minister's social media channels, thus generating a spike in organic engagement with the page."
According to SmartCompany, “Last week Modi posted a selfie with Abbott on his Facebook page which garnered over 700,000 likes. Modi is extremely popular on social media with over 25 million Facebook fans and 8 million Twitter followers.” It regrets, “In comparison, Abbott lags behind with just under 400,000 Facebook fans and 300,000 Twitter followers.”