Ways To Determine Whether An Account’s Growth Was Organic Or Automated
By Michael Gary Wirth
2021-08-27T04:00:00Z
Flipping social media properties for income can be a gamble. Sometimes buying an account with high metrics ends up being a losing prospect. However, knowing how to spot an account that was grown organically as opposed to relying on automation is a great way to minimize the risk and keep you away from those more dangerous properties.
Organic Vs Automated
Growing a social media account happens in one of two ways; either organically or through automation. Organic growth is based on how other users find the account through natural means, such as appearing in the user’s timeline. Following and unfollowing other accounts, liking and sharing posts, and commenting and replying are all ways to grow the account organically. (I discussed ways to grow an account organically in a previous post, “How To Monetize Social Accounts.”) To grow an account organically, the most important aspect is the user’s activity.
But there are ways to grow an account through automation, meaning the user uses bots and other tools to draw followers and likes to their content. These programs scour the social platform for any hashtags or interests that the account user specifies and will follow users who show interest in those topics, like posts, or even leave comments on posts using those hashtags, all automatically. This, in turn, draws attention back to the account and could lead to new likes or followers.
Which Is Better?
There’s no right way to grow an account; if something gets results you are happy with, then by all means, continue to use that method. However, if you are looking at an account to flip, you may be concerned whether or not it was built through organic means. In many cases, an organic following is more likely to continue to support the account by liking and sharing its posts, while those who followed based on the results of automation may not continue to engage in the future. So, in a way, an account that was grown organically would have more value to a flipper.
There are a number of methods out there to determine if an account’s growth was organic or automated. Sometimes it’s easy to tell if an account posts organically just by looking at it. Twitter, for example, shares within each tweet the method in which the tweet was sent. Next to the timestamp of a tweet you’ll see “Twitter for Android” or “Twitter for iOS,” denoting the device the user used to make the post. This is a sure sign of an organic post as it required on-the-spot input to create.
Keep in mind, though, some social media managers will use a type of automation to maintain their content, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the account itself is automated. Generally, larger companies will rely on a social media manager to create and curate content for each of their platforms, and the media manager will then use a tool to schedule the posts so they don’t have to be online 24/7.
One example of this is AMC Theatres’ (@AMCTheatres) usage of a tool called Meltwater Social. One benefit of Meltwater is that it allows brands to stay on top of what other people are saying about them. Social managers can tell Meltwater what keywords they want the program to track so whenever someone discusses that brand, AMC Theatres in this case, the brand can jump into the conversation if they wish.
Tools like Meltwater and Hootsuite allow social media managers to schedule posts for certain dates, times, and across multiple platforms to make keeping up with conversations easier. After all, it takes a lot of time to consistently stay on top of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and the myriad of new platforms that emerge almost weekly. So, just because someone used HootSuite to build their following doesn’t necessarily mean that the account doesn’t have an organic following. Just like with the example of Meltwater Social, AMC Theatres is able to automate tracking of who mentions them, but they still rely on organic engagement in order to grow.
There are also tools available to determine an account’s automation strategy. For example, Snoop Report will read an Instagram account’s posting schedule, likes, following and unfollowing strategies and deliver all of the metrics in an easy to read report. And tools like these are simple to use: just enter in the account’s handle and determine the amount of time you want the service to track the account. After that, it’s just a waiting game to see if the account’s activity is organic or if it was built using automation.
The Difference Between Paid And Organic Reach
There are, of course, a number of ways that an account owner can pay to increase their account’s value. I discuss many of them in a previous post, “How To Grow Your Social Media Accounts To Make Them Irresistible To Buyers,” many of which could potentially bring down the value of an account. However, one that I didn’t touch on is paying to boost a post.
All of the social media platforms offer some sort of Pay-To-Play option (with Facebook being the most egregious of them). Users can pay the platform to boost a post, which will put it in the timelines of people outside of the account’s organic reach. This helps put more eyes on the post, and could lead to more interaction and engagement.
Boosting posts through payment is still considered part of the organic reach, though if you’re unsure whether an account has paid to boost, you can always request more information from the account holder. Most social platforms will provide the account with statistics and metrics surrounding the boosted post, such as impressions, engagement, and even how many new followers were gained from the post. You can ask the account holder for a screenshot of their paid promotion dashboard and investigate these metrics yourself. Any account holder on the up and up will be more than willing to provide this information to an interested buyer, so if the seller refuses to share that information, tread carefully.
Knowing whether an account was grown organically or through automation is a good way to gauge how much value you should place on the account. Though some flippers are looking for high numbers, like followers and likes, others want a more engaged audience. Being able to spot those accounts quickly, and buy them cheaply, can certainly help increase your profitability as a flipper.