Social Engineering on Social Media

There is a business for nearly everything. With the rise of a new market and a new platform, a new entity, so to does the many niche services and businesses arise along with it. With social media becoming a way of life for many users of the Internet, if not the vast majority of users, it’s not so surprising that we would see the inevitable monetizing of it. With social media being highly dependent on the quality of content being produced, users have to discover a way to find followers even if they buy active Instagram followers. This is an actual service that provides users with active, real Instagram profiles that will follow their account and engage in the content that they post. This service has grown over the years in order to match Instagram’s automated bot sniffers; it was rather simple to locate those profiles that were clearly botted to help boost actual user’s exposure on the website.

It’s an interesting tango that has been in play ever since there has been technology. One side attempts to squash a specific technology while the other side continues to improve upon their methods and design in order to overcome it. It’s a cold war that’s left unspoken. Now this user provision service has grown to the level of being able to hire actual users with active profiles; it’s their job to be social. The more followersthey have themselves the more money they’re able to charge to have them follow a profile. Indeed, they have as much clout as the celebrities and power users on the website. Shadow users who know people and who have a keen eye for great content thus attracting plenty of followers of their own without having to provide their own unique content. It’s true social engineering at its finest.