Marketing spam and manipulation terms

Astroturfing, fake followers, fake reviews and vote manipulation, and how to spot them. 12 terms, each with what it means, why it matters and what to do about it.

AstroturfingBlack hat

Astroturfing is faking grassroots support: posts, reviews or comments made to look like they come from ordinary people when a brand is behind them.

Buying email listsGrey hat

Buying email lists means purchasing contact data from a vendor to email people who never heard of you. It is legal in places and risky everywhere.

Buying followersBlack hat

Buying followers means paying for followers to inflate a social account’s audience. They are fake or uninterested, and it breaks platform rules.

Comment spamBlack hat

Comment spam is posting promotional or irrelevant comments, often links, on posts, videos, blogs and forums, usually at scale or by bots.

Engagement podsBlack hat

Engagement pods are groups that agree to like and comment on each other’s posts to game the algorithm, inflating engagement artificially.

Fake followersBlack hat

Fake followers are bot or inactive accounts that inflate a profile’s follower count without being real people interested in the content.

Fake reviewsBlack hat

Fake reviews are reviews that do not reflect a real customer’s honest experience: written by the business, paid for, or posted to attack rivals.

Follow for followGrey hat

Follow for follow is agreeing to follow accounts that follow you back, to raise follower counts without real interest in each other’s content.

Review gatingBlack hat

Review gating is asking customers how they felt first and only inviting happy ones to post a public review, hiding negative feedback.

SockpuppetBlack hat

A sockpuppet is a fake online identity used to praise, defend or vote for oneself or a brand while pretending to be someone else.

SpamBlack hat

Spam is unsolicited, irrelevant or bulk messaging sent without regard for the recipient, by email, in comments, DMs or community posts.

Vote manipulationBlack hat

Vote manipulation is artificially changing votes on a post, by buying upvotes, using multiple accounts or asking groups to vote together.