By: Sharon Aron Baron
One candidate for Broward County Sheriff just had a huge surge in new fans this week.
In Pakistan.
In just days, new “Likes” on Scott Israel’s Facebook page suddenly went from 592 to 20,584. Coincidentally, Israel has also become the most popular candidate in Islamabad, Pakistan.
It’s not just his Facebook page that has suddenly gotten popular. Israel’s Twitter account has suddenly gained a lot of followers as well. Israel is only following 297 people but over 100,000 people are now following him.
Looking a little closer there seemed to be something that many of his followers shared: Hundreds, if not thousands of his followers have the same amount of people they are following, yet they have no one following them.
I could have posted hundreds more of these “mystery followers”.
So how did Israel suddenly go from the local candidate to having twice as many followers as say… David Letterman?
My guess is his social media marketing person had to go to foreign websites to buy “followers” and “likes.”
There are tons of them online. Just Google “Buy Twitter followers” or “Buy Facebook Likes” and many companies are out there that will do just that. Unfortunately, instead of earning fans the old fashioned way, Israel and his team let their egos get in the way, all while losing credibility in his campaign.
Not to be outdone, Al Lamberti’s campaign isn’t safe from funny things online either. He had an ex-con who was arrested for strangling his wife managing his social media. Every day, hundreds of fans were fooled by what they believed were Lamberti’s reassuring affirmations of the day and having no clue that they were being deceived.
Both candidates seemed to have lost good judgment in the management of their campaigns in what seems like a never-ending election year.