Some users of Twitter have thousands of followers. Clearly, they are 0 fascinating people. But some of their followers are pretty silent and 17 ; in fact, they don’t seem remotely interested in the 18 of the person they are following. And there’s a reason for this: they are 19 , added to the person’s account by companies that sell fake social media followers to anyone hoping to boost their reputation.

The number of followers a user has is often seen as an indicator of their social influence or 20 . Therefore, people such as artists or aspiring musicians might not find the idea 21 . Having thousands of followers could enhance their image as a 22 commodity and even lead to offers of work. Although it’s not 23 to sell followers, and it can be lucrative, somehow it feels 24 and unsatisfying. If your followers are fake, they don’t care about you – and certainly don’t read your comments. So what’s the point of tweeting at all?