Facebook, Twitter plagued with fake accounts

The competition for advertising and users between Twitter (TWTR), Facebook (FB) and  upstarts like SnapChat is revving up, with social media players fighting expand their reach as much as possible.

Yet while social networks are trying to prove their worth to advertisers, the proliferation of fake accounts can make it hard to figure out exactly how many users are tuning in online. Indeed, many social media users buy fake followers from people who run automated Twitter accounts, or bots (short for robots). Automation in the form of software can outwardly act like a social network user:

Some researchers estimate that there are 20 million fake accounts on Twitter. The bots are rented out to multiple customers, which makes them seem more real.

Another problem for social networks: dormant accounts. Both Twitter and Facebook talk about active users in a month, but what that means exactly is unclear. If you click a Facebook "like" button on a third-party site eve only once a month, you're considered an active user, even if you never log in to the social network. It's likely one reason Facebook pushes to be used as a way to authenticate users on other sites. Not only does it get more information, but it helps plump its official user base, which is a key ad metric.

Here's who Twitter counts as an active user: "We define [monthly active users] as Twitter users who logged in and accessed Twitter through our website, mobile website, desktop or mobile applications, SMS or registered third-party applications or websites in the 30-day period ending on the date of measurement."

That would seem to include people who use Twitter to verify their identity on third-party sites, though there isn't the same type of "like" button mechanism that could more broadly suggest activity that is negligible.

Combine bots and inactive people on Twitter and the results can be eye-opening. Justin Bieber in April had an estimated 37.2 million followers. But fully 42 percent of those consisted of either bots or inactive accounts, according to Forbes. For Lady Gaga, the number of real followers was only 22 percent.
Most advertisers are aware of this problem, as the low ad rates for social networks suggest. But it present another obstacle to growth even as these firms try to demonstrate their value.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com