We Caught VICE’s EDM Blog THUMP buying Facebook Likes (and we think it’s awesome)

THUMP, “the world’s newest authority on electronic everything” is part of the VICE Empire and a partnership between them and Recreation Worldwide. Recreation Worldwide is a creative agency made up of executives from AM Only and Complete Control Management.

Basically THUMP represents the perfect combination of longtime dance music advocates and pioneers combined with the media network that’s capable of producing content and coverage the scene deserves. Forget EDM if you haven’t watched VICE on HBO yet, stop what you’re doing and binge watch the first five episodes. It’s absolutely riveting. 

For lesser dance music blogs like us, their entry benefits us as we’ll hopefully experience the trickle-down effect with sponsors who are eager to advertise to our market.

THUMP’s Youtube Channel launch included a video series “The Arrival” which featured the likes of Kill The Noise, Tommy Trash and 12th Planet.

I’m surprised that they’re the first to market with this type of high quality and engaging content. Where you at SPIN and Rollingstone!?!?!

Even for a VICE outlet it takes time to get your message heard, but it looks like someone is trying to speed up the process by purchasing Facebook likes for their sponsored posts. This exploits the EdgeRank and allows more people to see the post than they naturally would.

EdgeRank is Facebook’s algorithm to determine what you see in your news feed. It tries to hide all of the boring stuff so you only see exciting things and spend more time on Facebook.

It appears that someone is purchasing Facebook likes for the posts that THUMP sponsors. They’re not purchasing them for the page directly (very obvious), but individual posts.

This is much more advanced than jumping on Fiverr and loading up on Facebook fans. We’re looking at a real internet marketing gangster here.

By sponsoring the post (paying for views), they’re telling Facebook, “Hi, this is important!!!” And then by artificially inflating the number of likes EdgeRank sees that and says, “Wow, this is really important!!! I need to show it to more people.”

More people see it and THUMP wins without faking it. The sponsored post with a high number of likes looks natural until you start scrolling through the names.

Whether THUMP is intentionally doing this or not, someone is aggressively trying to exploit the Facebook EdgeRank algorithm to increase their exposure.

Why we think this is awesome:

1. The amount Facebook wants you to pay for sponsored posts is RIDICULOUS.
2. This games the algorithm for exposure, but still focuses on organic growth by providing value.
3. For appearances it was really smart to sponsor the post first, then add the fake likes.
4. They’re not buying “fans” like that one guy… they’re contributing to the conversation.
5. THUMP is covering EDM better than 99% of the rest of the world.

So in the end; Facebook fails to ripoff another customer, THUMP wins at product launches and VICE is out talking about this girl who took acid at the Kentucky Derby.

As for me, I’m hoping someone at VICE / THUMP may be reading this and is considering offering me a job.

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