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  3. If you think money can’t buy you friends, think again. In the online world, it’s possible to purchase a crowd of fans. One thous

If you think money can’t buy you friends, think again. In the online world, it’s possible to purchase a crowd of fans. One thous

admin2014-03-21  46
问题     If you think money can’t buy you friends, think again. In the online world, it’s possible to purchase a crowd of fans. One thousand cost only $18 on average, according to estimates by Barracuda Networks, a network security company. Yet these friends won’t meet you for drinks after work. In fact, they don’t even exist. They are pixels on a screen.
    A large share of social-media followers of the biggest companies are not human, believes Marco Camisani Calzolari, an entrepreneur and professor at Milan’s ILUM University. In a recent study he quantified the proportion of computer-generated fans or inactive users following big brands on Twitter. To decide whether a follower is human, Mr. Camisani Calzolari used various criteria, including the number of posts from a fan’s Twitter account and the use of correct punctuation in tweets. According to this research, by June 2011 nearly half of Twitter followers of computer maker Dell—about 700, 000—were bots.
    Some politicians also seem to have many fake followers. Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential candidate, became the focus of media attention when his Twitter following swelled by 17% in a single day in July. On close inspection, a significant proportion of Mr. Romney’s followers appeared to be fake profiles. In Italy Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement lost the driving force when Mr. Camisani Calzolari made a similar claim about the followers of the comedian-turned-politician.
    There is no indication that any of the companies mentioned in Mr. Camisani Calzolari’s paper have bought followers—rogue bots often attach themselves to people and brands without payment. But some firms do buy a social media following. Fake profiles are at the centre of a very vibrant and growing underground economy, says Barracuda Networks. On eBay, the e-commerce site, for instance, the firm’s researchers have found 20 sellers offering to set up such profiles.
    For start-ups a strong social media following can boost business. A small mom-and-pop shop struggling to sell its goods can look like a booming upstart thanks to a swollen Twitter account, or an artificially high number of Facebook likes. For major international companies, a small number of followers in the early stages of engagement with social media can be embarrassing at best and damaging to brand perception at worst. Buying crowds of fans— even if they aren’t engaged with the brand—can give an artificial boost to a business.
    For now, the trick works. "Normal people don’t know yet that there is this black market. Most have total trust that a brand’s followers are real, " says Mr. Camisani Calzolari. But brands are already finding diminishing returns. When everybody has a large following, the impact is much diminished. And consumers are starting to cotton on to sharp practices. "The number of followers is a superficial measurement unless they are engaged, " argues Carly Donovan of Ogilvy Action, an arm of Ogilvy & Mather, the advertisement and public relations agency. Money can buy you friends—just not very good ones.
What does the passage mainly discuss?
选项 A、The purchase of followers.
B、The research on Twitter followers.
C、The effect of social media.
D、The fake followers of social media.
答案D
解析 主旨题。文章开篇提到网络粉丝是可以买到的，但都不是真人。然后表明企业家兼教授卡米萨尼的观点，即大公司的社交媒体粉丝中有很大一部分并非真人，以及他对这一方面的研究。接着指出米特·罗姆尼和毕普·格里罗等政客似乎也有许多假粉丝，并以易趣为例说明伪造粉丝资料这一业务的发展。文章还谈到大量的社交媒体粉丝，不论真假都会给公司带来一定影响。最后表明人们已逐渐意识到假粉丝这一问题。由此可见，[D]“社交媒体的虚假粉丝”为正确答案。而[A]“购买粉丝”、[B]“对推特粉丝的研究”和[C]“社交媒体的影响”分别只是文章讨论的一方面，而非文章的主题，故均排除。
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