MA Social Media

Everything is for sale nowadays, including friends. On Facebook and Twitter at least, if not in real life. The Usocial company, specialised in online marketing services, offers packages of up to 5,000 targeted Facebook friends and up to 10,000 Facebook fans for businesses that own a Page. As regards Twitter, one can buy an overwhelming number of followers (up to 100,000) with guaranteed delivery in 365 days. Incredible. Needless to say, the individuals interested to buy fans and friends are brand owners, looking for online human brains to market their products and services to. It is bad manners to spam your friends, but the social media ethics are still under development, so creatives take advantage of the lack of regulations and sell everything, including cyber friends. However, the contacts bought are not random names that will appear in the friend list out of the blue, Usocial claims, but “targeted” contacts according to such criteria as country, industry and interests. One Twitter follower is worth 0.10$ per month, according to Usocial, whereas one Facebook friend can bring more revenue, 1$ per month. Therefore, Facebook friends are far more expensive: $197 for a 1000-friend pack, gradually increasing to $1167.30 for a 10,000-fans pack. Twitter followers, on the other hand, who can be bombed only with short snappy promotional messages, cost $87 for a 1000 pack delivered within seven days, and $3,479 for a 100,000-follower offer.
What are bought fans and friends going to say? Are they part of an opt-in system, or will they be spammed without their consent? What if later on they will just get pissed off and click “remove myself from fans”? Usocial is quiet about these insignificant details. Hmm, by the way, what is your price?