Celebs, Brands & Fake Fans (Social Media Documentary) | Real Stories

can you remember when you actually knew all of your friends on social media you can be virtual friends with anyone it's not an understatement to say that we are going through a revolution even celebrities I found PR men who claim they use celebs to secretly plug products in tweets many people pay in love with this cleavage I've been given a secret list of 140 celebs and the price of their tweets who's paying for them while you're following celebs brands using their to get to you advertising is more effective if you don't know that it's happening and sell more products I'll show how marketing men fool you using poorly paid workers in a developing world to supply businesses with fake Facebook Likes Twitter followers and QQ peers tonight how do you know what to believe online Coronation Street is still one of the biggest shows on British TV with up to 9 million viewers a night the quarry studios in Manchester are a big draw the show's loyal fans millions of people also follow the show stars on Twitter some of these actors have massive personal politics today a few of them are nipping across the rope to a hope to help to pick up some free gifts and make a few tweaks thank you to Ozzie and Ollie for my lovely healing anklet seems harmless enough right but what they're not telling their fathers is that these tweets are in return for free goodies this event is all about promoting brands and driving sales but for this let's tweets you wouldn't always know what they don't know is that I'm handing out gifts as well filming impairments here to find out how brands use celebs to sell tips I'm Chris Atkins and I'm a filmmaker who spends far too much time on Facebook Twitter MPC sites began as the best way to meet your friends for a drink but now big business and some celebrities have been using to get rich Justin Bieber started out playing socks in his bedroom thanks to a genuinely massive following on YouTube he now makes movies so how easy is it to create an online sensation like fever and are there any shortcuts to success to find out I'm going to try and create my own youtube stars in just one day so what we're looking for is a name that sums you all are no direct squeeze me recently rather if you help me girls [Music] now it's edit video on Facebook page and stop [Music] the Internet's full of people offering to cheat social media stats battle so I go to some different sites than 200 pounds I buy a hundred thousand you to use six thousand Facebook Likes and forty thousand Twitter followers now they look more like the next one direction but it's all fake why should this affect you there's a real desire amongst many companies to boost their profile on social media and so all the time they're looking for more fans to prove that their brands are popular and bind other customers as well as a result where my grande by these fake fans one location comes up again and again Dhaka in Bangladesh I've come to the epicentral online fabrication not Silicon Valley but daca find out who's fiddling the figures while meeting the suppliers of bogus clicks I've also gone covert camera my cover story is I'm a businessman it means to both by popularity [Music] unique IT is down a colorful slide screen and wiring outside shows how quickly the incident has exploded hello this is Russell the head of their social media TV reality I mean really YouTube use I can support you 1,000 I mean park a three-dollar 1000 Facebook lights real-looking Facebook like what does it look like so we are basically in fifteen dollars adding fate lights isn't a need in Bangladesh but it does reach Facebook's Terms and Conditions does e Russell's click farm in action I pay him $15 to add a thousand likes to a page are set up to promote courgettes [Music] [Music] this is Russell's click find his team are manually logging in and out of Facebook using phony accounts and liking my courgettes over and over the fact is that labor is cheap in some of these countries like Bangladesh and people need money and so they are prepared to do boring monotonous work for many many hours for not much money and because of the internet Western companies can contract firms out in Asia to do this work for them and boost them there are over a billion Facebook users worldwide including nearly half of British adults when we see a Facebook like we want to take it at face value Dante's computer Russell shows me some of his other clients Russell claims he's added fake likes to a Facebook page promoting a version of monopoly plus an online gambling game why have fake likes on a social media page simple popularity sells 31% of consumers check ratings and reviews including likes including views including followers at this point before making a purchasing decision the fake likes appeared on the Facebook page of an online casino which sublicense the monopoly brand from Hasbro one of the largest games companies in the world these fake likes could have fooled consumers into playing the casinos game I ask a specialist lawyer for his opinion on these fake likes potentially a number of laws have been breached and their consumer protection not clear Trading Regulations could suspect to be misleading there the individual consumer Hasbro was unaware of the Facebook page until we contacted them and the page was then taken down swiftly Hasbro told us there any use of its brands including monopoly must comply with advertising codes and laws and it was appalled to hear of what had occurred the online casino Vera and John were greatly disturbed by what we've discovered and said that there is no benefit in paid for likes it was an issue caused by a consultant they had engaged and as soon as they became aware of the purchase likes the Facebook page was taken down Vera and John do not condone this type of activity and would like to work with Facebook to prevent it Russell said that adding likes was only a small part of his business and that some of the methods he used were legitimate in his view the blame should rest with those that commissioned the work we expect that by the end of 2014 10 to 15 percent of online ratings and reviews will be paid for this is because it's it's really so cheap to pay for them so you could go to a vendor and pay 75 bucks for an additional thousand Facebook Likes or you could go on a site like Fiverr or Craigslist or freelancer and pay anywhere from one to two hundred dollars for a review of your company but what happens when the Bangladesh click industry meets a light-hearted and colorful film starring and national treasure it's not just my cream clay fox sheriff Cobb is a Bangladeshi website the connects companies wanting to boost their social media stats the tens of thousands of people who supply the bits [Music] hello my friend how you doing sheriff al normally is the master behind sheriff or extender if you have 70,000 uses that is 25,000 so you have 25,000 in Bangladesh tens of thousands of Bangladeshi all clicking on Facebook pages intrusive grand fail how much they make [Music] [Applause] I'm signing up to share it as a clickable cash now I can see which brands are benefiting from paid you to use this big-budget coke commercial has racked up nearly 6 million views but some of these will have been added through sharing I thought sheriff claims they've inflated the Lighting's totus Facebook page as well we haven't talked with those guys somehow someone added to fan pages many brands actually outsource their marketing to agencies they'll say we didn't know anything we were handling it but the problem is they can't really claim ignorance for somebody that they hire so it's important that marketing leaders really recognize and communicate with their agencies that this is unacceptable practice several weeks later cokes YouTube video cassettes of private obscuring it from public view we told coke about what we'd found they said we do not condone the use of fake Fannie's we take these allegations very seriously and we have found no record of working with Shara calm if we were to find any improprieties who work to end them immediately by burning money like in the Facebook page and following the Twitter feed and animation feature third gold serve Billy the film has over sixty five thousand Facebook lights which is more than some major point of use nylon Facebook lists an unusual location the most popular through its fans if a moviegoers looking for something to watch on Friday night at the cinema and they go to a Facebook page and they see that sixty thousand people have liked a certain film that may persuade them to choose that film over another one the producer has a heart monopoly productions so that they can be working tirelessly remote civilians two thousand six they pay 271 pounds to advertise the film on share it a year ago a very small part of the overall marketing campaign the film had already gained 44,000 sites before this point they stopped using share it in February 2013 consider the impact to have been minimal Twitter told us that they've now blog Derek and that they regularly suspend fake users and blog sites where those services are advertised it is against Twitter's rules to buy or sell fake followers Facebook has also blocked Sheriff cop back in Bangladesh I seen in the paper of the number-one man of faith clicks indica dahlias gone [Music] pallies company is creative IT ally and his partners show me around their large office so it the main guy in the Kuna Facebook bodies able to hack facebook on an industrial scale using computer programs like this to generate fake accounts [Music] most of my repeated customers so they know my work is good if I gave the alleys got a spreadsheet that details dozens of pages where he claims he's inflated the fans I gave him twenty eight nine including an official-looking Facebook campaign promoting the Peak District the P district this is an area of outstanding natural beauty in the north of England which millions of people visits every year though it's unlikely that many foods were back possessions but according to this fan page that's where many of the peace fans are from over a coffee Ali tells me who paid him to fiddle these figures another word of the 5k worldwide John Hall what is the company again [Music] [Music] hello hi John so I look up sm4 be in Chevy I'm going to meet the boss John Horton my cover story is that I'm a PR man with clients in need of his services [Music] how quickly could you build an audience you know almost instantly people like Norma's don't Lee yeah I can get Paul fails to mention that he buys a fair bit of his whopping great audience from daca he claims he can draw an army of online fans his local business directories uses fear not million users yeah uh what are looking at these pages yeah I'm different Sheffield's I'm Manchester yeah we sort of District one or something it'll mean that oh yeah yeah Paul explains how he was able to leave with his audience and win public contracts so immediately we physically district we want part of 8-1 busy p district are in the government one basically okay partly to richer or convince the local tourist office which is half funded by the taxpayer to engage him to promote the peaks to his phony fans he demonstrates other ways he boosts social media traffic to drive sales logging onto facebook you see a fake female profile I'm not understanding - a fake profile I was gonna say use your Katie Pearson yes yeah that could be anyone you want me to we've got that many faith profiles as well but you have about 300 fake profiles that we used to seed campaigns all claims uses fake profiles to dishonestly generate traffic on the official Facebook page of a well-known restaurant chain by pretending to be a customer to prompt online conversations what will normally bang-won in the first couple now I just when it coming to like shares because Holy Grail is that a net he's telling her amazed that she liked just by talking to us it makes them much more interested yeah then what she's saying and interacting with them what ever they could be we've got we're saying yeah but ultimately that the view is that that sells more ice cream sundaes yeah I want a net come in bring a makes and tell mate when we lay to contact mr. hall he said that he has never used fake profiles to boost traffic on Grahams pages he admittedly has purchased lights and creativity and data but believe that this was the legitimate services however he later realized the lights with dubious and stopped using the service and attempted to remove them from his pages visit Pete district told us that they had acted in good faith based on John wall's representations only instruction sm4 be on a trial basis and that as soon as they were presented with our evidence they severed ties everything about communications is Wyant upon there being a contract of trust so and social media is no different there's another communications channel so people need to know that when they are hearing from brands or hearing from celebs these of these channels that that will be an honest communication Facebook told us this alike that doesn't come from someone truly interested in connecting with the brand benefits no one we investigate and monitor like offenders and if we find they are selling fake likes or generating conversations from fake profiles we will quickly block them from our platform [Music] what happens if we discover that some of Britain's up-and-coming celebrities and tweeting secret blogs brand we think that social media is about connecting with our mates but it's now being used by brands to connect to us I seen her fake clicks have ended up on the Facebook and YouTube pages of big brands but a far more powerful way to sell to us online is to select endorsements celebrity endorsement is nothing new friends and talent have been working together for years in social media talent now command audiences that are on par with any traditional media outlet Wayne Mooney has over 6 million Twitter followers his tweets are a powerful means for brands to connect to his fans last year the Advertising Standards Authority criticized Nike because one of Rooney's tweets was not obviously identifiable as a Nike advert just be transparent tell them that you've been paid for it if you've been paid for it and you're happy to put it up you know you should be telling your fan base and your followers that guess what I got paid for this there's nothing wrong with a celebrity tweeting their opinion voluntarily a Parenthood product but if they're paid to tweet positively then the regulator says they have to declare this in the tweet for example with a hash ad like these ones so everyone knows it's an effort I've done some digging and seen lots of celebrities who tweet about brands but don't use these hashtags several are linked to the same agency dynasty media [Music] in talking I'm pretending to be a PR who represents several brands including a large piece of chain and I asked if they can arrange paid celebrity tweets that's what kind of me and Ryan do we do a lot for Novus Lesha to get to me and we pay them kinda under the tables pin we make it look more like they've gone out for dinner and see that they've been paid do you not I mean they claim they regularly fool consumers about the popularity of some of the venue's owned by Novus Lesher this is a massive company that owns dozens of high-end bars in London and the Tyger Tyger chain I'm meeting Stephen and his partner Ryan to learn more about the tweets they claim to arrange Russell Cain was the presenter of a BBC three chat with over 400,000 Twitter followers he regularly sends them enthusiastic tweets about several novus bars Stephen shows me at glowing reference from novices head of marketing saying they've gone above and beyond their call of duty to help meet the bars of great success a spokesman for Novus legends and that they were extremely concerned about what we had discovered and then they had a very short professional relationship with dynasty media which terminated some time ago at no time did Novus leisure nor any of its bars or venues engaged in asti media to pay celebrities to tweet or advertise any other endorsements of its venues what's the price of celebrity tweets [Music] [Music] I asked them to send me their rate card they email me a list of a hundred and forty celebrities and the price for them to turn up and tweet an endorsement for my clients Pisa venues the cost depends on how many followers they have and some have well over a million the celebrity names work across all major broadcasters including channel 4 easy to write a list but is any of it true find out I create a website for a female monk it's his thing his followers are just obscene dynasty build me a thousand pounds into celebrity tweets and Steven chases for payment claiming he wants to pay less okay - straight away I paid in a C's bill in full and later that day just as dynasty promised he would he tweets an endorsement for wife fictional products in love with his cleavage during horological drop including a special link to my site with pious boxer flurry of interest among Kane's Twitter followers some demanding to know where they can find a watch they can you get this watch shop Russell Street dries 600 and his fans of my website know tweet from propensity Stephen emails to say that she's a little cagey about tweeting endorsements according to reports in the Daily Mail she had been warned some time ago by ITV against promoting products in tweets along with the entire Carson of Coronation Street car what is this is Fashion Week many surprises with a tweet from her three hundred ninety thousand followers have no idea dynasty has been paid for the tweet they flocked to my website generating over a thousand unique it's advertising it's more effective if you don't know that it's advertising then plenty of evidence that says that a natural endorsement of a product or service is multiple times more valuable [Music] - Steven again they claim their celebrity contacts they want to be seen over the doors on Twitter just gonna a it's it's a no-brainer and what have their menu these celebrities and their rates between Oxfam is it the case that these people have done this to you before or is the case that users confident they will yeah but accurate they're Catherine teens don't inspire consent and she'll treat while they go through the list highlighting 84 names who they claim have tweeted for payment in the part to test this out I pick a name at random the glamorous and versatile channel dynasty invoice me 350 pounds for wealthy and a 20 cent fee for them on top two days later Shaun tweets our exact words as promised we put the claims made by dynasty media to all three celebrities Russell Kane told us the while he was acquainted with dynasty it appeared that they had misused his name for benefit without his knowledge or consent he strenuously denied he'd received any payment or been offered or promised any payment in return for tweets about the brands or known as bars he said that any tweets he had made were entirely apology he said he'd worked for three years as a urologist and has a keen interest in watches and of the opinion he shared on Twitter was genuine and freely given John well be encouraged he'll be both confirmed they're known Genesis owners as friends and that both had agreed to tweet as a personal faith both insisted they'd never receive any financial payments for the tweets John well be set I'm appalled to find out they've used my name is a monetary vehicle without my knowledge or consent call a kill be set I'm deeply upset to be news dynasty media told us that there was never any contractual agreements with celebrities tweet about Nobles bars they claim the fees listed with the celebrity's personal appearances and not cheaply in relations decreed what they said as no fees were paid to any of the celebrities in return for their tweets the fees paid to dynasty media were to manage the project they said the celebrities they approached had an interest in technology and quick products and were asked to take a look and if they showed an interest we are come to mention this across Twitter as I'm about to leave Ryan and Steve and tell me about another service then the spike events that we put together ourselves yank group brands along to a central location so everything coming they're introduced to the brands themselves get a chance to have a chat and erm if their [Music] celebrity buggers off or sticks around as a dream they are slips to tweet as well on the day you give the gift you get a tweet that's just understood yeah they've got that's just an effect on Twitter to my surprise the next event they are running is mostly aimed at the stars of Coronation Street so how easy is it to get them to tweet and return for freebies there's only one way to find out [Music] guess my stuff Debbie I've been looking at how consumers are being hoodwinked by grams on social media our investigative dynasty media's claims about their ability to secure celebrity tweets for brands for a fee they've also told me about another service arranging celebrity evening Suites where they claim celebs and brands exchanged tweets for freebies the advertising regulators state did anyone tweet positively about the product the payment which can include gifts this must be clearly declared as all advertising must be obviously identifiable the ultimate responsibility device with the prat dynasty have invited me to their new event where they claim as a general rule the celebrities attended or we have to tweet I'm going to find out what really happens so I sign up the event represents bacon Brown these bottles cost 55 P and I'm filling [Music] Kuras Canada [Music] these photos are going on a website promoting of mystique spray containing magical health water from the Pali I'm also launching design eight bracelets which I'm claiming Antioch slows your body and restore your magnetism in fact they cost seven pound each from account of modesty the brand's name is deliberately ridiculous putana as he and I which meets corporate Hall the gifting event is in the penthouse of the Manchester Hotel just opposite ITV's Coronation Street Studios I set up shop with my able assistant Victoria Bouchard alongside several real brands including a word game a fashion Lee baby panning from Steven explains how to get the tweets from celebs gives us a note when the celebs to write down their Twitter addresses Steven advises us to send the celebrities a tweet as soon as we've given on the gift to remind them to send other tweet in return just as we finish setting up Corey actors venture out across the street energy bracelets of each different stone soon if you've got joint aches or anything like that Debbie rush is so taken with our magic energy bracelets she even asked for one for a relatively really nice to meet got my bracelet thanks so much so that's how it appears to work she gets her goodies we get a tweet in return but would her followers really be aware of that is my stuff Debbie and it's good what are they they all know that that's that's the score they score they come they - yeah as the day goes on Coronation Street actors alike [Music] ready to collect their freebies it is quite good to leave them out in the Sun [Laughter] does appear from what's happening the celebs are aware tweets amazing thank you miss Leakes pray with mat Buddha I've slept with my bracelet I love them the sleds also appear to be tweeting the many other brands in return for their free products summer wheat wheat summer and some look like casual chat plan celebrities are so incredibly powerful on social media that even a casual conversation between a celebrity and a brand will absolutely have an impact that could be in follower numbers it could be an actual purchases over 80 tweets are made today and while a handful make the context clear most or not however if any of the tweets great a si rules its the brands that will be held accountable I are some of the brats how they've done today and are they quite good about it yeah and it's just pro quo say can you send a tweet I do you know which anyway it's great because obviously a lot of people have come to know you know our stuff they go there's your refill yeah yeah we already separated syllabus with love our Rangers so we'd have our celebrities in come back to it first which is our big promotion the girls have gone into red carpet the one thing we asked factors to have addressed where you know it was just it was a tween yeah every cell is to dress [Music] it isn't just Coronation Street actors who are most Twitter users follow a number of people at any one time scrolling through tweets quickly so being transparent within it we don't all the more important a younger celebrity may have younger fans it's one thing for an adult to think critically about a tweet that they see and another thing for an impression of teenager to see a tweet coming through and want to purchase the product because the celebrity that they look up to has endorsed it just as we're shutting up shop Brooke Vincent writes these are stones that have come from barley mined out ground instead of worked on by Buddhist monks the rebalance of chakra it's nothing Brooke snaps up our magic bracelet and works a whole new look Twitter name they're in that song website as well and Steven had told us to give Brooke some extra goodies as we have so many fun thank you to Ashley and Ali for my lovely healing antler Brooke tweets or products as well as promotions as several of the other brands as she leaves the perhaps awaiting on the story appears in the mail online with our logo proudly displayed given their previous bad dress surely the Coronation Street present a dim view of just I'm representing some products that we've got here from barley today yeah well those we discovered the head press officer together with some of her colleagues is invited along with the actors she helps herself to goodies from our store and from several of the other brands [Music] you'll say is a few tweaks in return we wrote the celebrities in ITV Lisa George deleted her entire Twitter feed and Debbie Rush locked her tweets to private Debbie Rush and sherry Houston and deleted some of their tweets dynasty's tweets now greatly use the hashtag [Music] lawyers for ITV the Coronation Street press office and the actors told us that the claims made were false and misleading they told us that Brooke Vincent and Catherine Tilt's Lee have never received direct payment in return for tweeting about any product and they do not have an ongoing commercial relationship with dynasty media all the actors including Sinead Moynihan said that all the tweets were made voluntarily and there was no agreement with the grams or dynasty media to make them tweet in return for the three gifts the tweets were not endorsements for the products but were expressed as thanks for gifts received which would have been clear ITV said the conduct was entirely innocuous and did not amount to a breach of the advertising rules and therefore there could be no criticism of the press office Seanna X told us that there was no agreement with dynasty media all the celebrities where they were expected to tweet or endorse the three gifts provided to them if as a result of any gifting the celebrity chooses of their own volition to tweet about a product this was done of their own free will banana grounds told us that they had no prior experience of such events and didn't realize that they might be responsible for dealing with any legalities around the celebrity's tweets they are now reviewing their social media marketing activity in policies lipstick booty declined to comment dynasty media told us that the giving of tweets was not a prerequisite of attending or receiving gifts at the event they said the majority of tweets received from celebrities to brands are thank you for the gift and that it would be perfectly clear that celebrities had received free gift social media allows us to connect to each other in ways not even dreamed of a decade ago but it's in danger of being corrupted by the pursuit of science we're at the very start of the social media revolution power we are essentially we're broadcasting was at the early part of the 20th century so we're now looking at what does the next hundred years behind and how well social media in the dominant media of the future how will that form how will it behave how we mate this is my circles Center boy North divide I mention what is the right direction so wrong well I've decided to make them famous the old-fashioned what about Harvey Nicks the other day pop topics [Music] if you help me girl we can [Music] my hygiene supervise [Music]

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 62,708

Rating: 4.6670518 out of 5

Keywords: real stories, social media, social media documentary, fake instagram followers, fake news, celebrities, fake fans, funny film, instagram followers, social media addiction, Real Stories Full Documentary, Real Stories Documentary, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic

Id: ZP_9smX-x7E

Length: 46min 41sec (2801 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 23 2019