Reality Check: 10-15% Of Brands? Social Media Fans, Likes And Reviews Will Be Fake By 2014, Says Gartner

Fake fans, fake "likes" and fake reviews are some of the worst aspects of social media -- or at least for those of us earnest enough to take user-generated content and the will of the crowd seriously. Now, new research from Gartner lays bare the fact that it's only going to get worse, as paid social media interactions become a more established industry unto themselves. The analysts predict that by 2014, some 10%-15% of all?social media reviews and other forms of engagement will be fake, paid for by the companies getting endorsed. Gaming social media is not exactly a new concept, but given it's a space that in theory relies on the goodwill of the masses, doing so is a pretty sleazy art. What makes it more difficult to parse is that a lot of it is hard to pin down. The Mitt Romney U.S. Presidential campaign, for example, got an earful earlier this year when it was revealed that he had?thousands of fake Twitter followers?-- but Zac Moffatt, digital director for Romney's campaign, last week told an audience at TC Disrupt that the campaign "had nothing to do with that."

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