It's a valid question. Do a Google search or check out Fiverr and you'll find plenty of companies and people willing to supply hundreds or thousands of likes to your page. If likes are the currency of Facebook, what's the downside? How is it different than spending money on advertising to get people to like your page?

There are a number of reasons why I feel buying likes on Facebook is a bad idea.

1. These likes have no ongoing value. The people who get paid to like your page are never going to be your customer. The fake accounts they use to like your account? Even less chance.
2. Facebook looks at the fan to engagement ratio when evaluating your page. In short, imagine ABC Corp's page has 500 fans and an average of 5 comments/update from fans. Meanwhile XYZ Co. has 1,000 fans, but it also has 5 comments for each update it posts. In this case, ABC looks like a more valuable, engaging page.
3. Facebook is smarter than you. You don't think it knows that people are paying for likes? I'm sure it's got algorithms up the wazoo to look for suspicious liking. A sudden surge in likes, a lot of direct traffic to the page (as opposed to people clicking around Facebook and ending up on your page), and the same random group of people who like a hair salon in Topeka one moment and a pet store in Portland, Maine, the next. I wouldn't be surprised if certain accounts have been tagged as "unlikes" because their liking is so spammy.
4. It's different than ad buys to direct people to your page. In the end, an ad can only entice people to visit your page, not to like it. You're paying for the opportunity to grab their attention, not get a like.

What do you think? Would you buy likes?
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