With US companies estimated to spend over $1.3 billion in social media in 2010, one 25-year-old social media entrepreneur is taking advantage of the fact that online businesses are willing to invest large sums of cash to buy “friends” and fans on Facebook. Leon Hill, founder of social media marketing company uSocial.net has been selling targeted Facebook fans to celebrities, governments, small businesses and Fortune 500 companies since late 2009. And according to the young entrepreneur, the ability to buy potential customers on the site was something that people were certainly looking for.
“We simply couldn’t have estimated the response to this service if we’d tried,” said Hill when asked about the launch of the new Facebook marketing service. “It was simply overwhelming.”
The service provided by uSocial allows anyone to buy packages of fans — or “likes” — on Facebook targeted to the specific interests or geographic location a client requires. The company then delivers these fans to a specific Facebook profile by advertising it on the site, and through a myriad of other profiles.
“When put simply, all we do is to advertise a customer’s Facebook account to relevant and possibly interested people within the site, which drives traffic to their profile,” said Hill. “From there it’s up to the user to decide whether they want to become a connect.”
While one might question just how many companies would be interested in the practice of buying fans on Facebook, uSocial’s figures reveal a substantial number. The company says that they’ve so far delivered over 90 million Facebook friends and fans to customer accounts, which accounts for almost 20% of all users on the site.
Further reinforcing just how popular this practice is becoming, an early estimate by uSocial puts global spend on buying Facebook fans at $30 million for 2011.
