How cheaters are faking it on LinkedIn

Imagine a world where nothing's as it seems. Welcome to LinkedIn, a place teeming with fakers.

Yesterday I wrote about click farms, where workers monitor thousands of phones to cultivate likes, comments and shares for purchase.

Read about it here.

But the latest techniques to cheat are leaving click farms in the dust.

🎨 A profusion of options

There is a slew of cheating options, available at different prices. And oh, you can stack them too for even faster results.

1. AI commenting bots: These tap into AI to help increase organic engagements by commenting at a frenzied pace. As fast as 1 comment per minute, fully automated.
2. Auto-pods: Bots running off browser extensions add scores of likes or comments to every new post within the crucial first hour, effectively gaming the algorithm.
3. Private pods: Concerned about auto-pods bringing in irrelevant engagements? You can sign up for private pods and only joining select groups.
4. Rent-a-pod: Want to make it impossible to get caught? Why not rent 50 accounts that look real? Use LinkedIn mgmt software to control them and "like" your posts to your heart's content.

⚠️ A rampant problem

Sadly, cheating is rampant on LinkedIn. I have a theory that engagements are dropping due to the proliferation of cheaters diverting impressions their way.

Indeed, D A N I E L H A L L have been busy documenting their use by business influencers, celebrities, and even top content creators - complete with evidence.

Yup, even those with 500 likes per post might be cheating. Or did they get there through cheating? 🤥

Note: In case it isn't clear. The use of automated bots can result in your account being permanently banned.

❇️ You can be authentic

Cheaters are everywhere. But you don't have to join them.

Having random strangers like or comment on your post might bring in more impressions, but it also pretty much guarantees that you are not reaching your ideal audience.

And you can be sure your feed will end up being a flow of irrelevant content.

As a wise person commented, vanity metrics should never be your end objective on LinkedIn.

📢 Tell me

I have a question though. What do you measure your content against?

I do have a personal response to that, which I'll share in a comment later.