>joe b. scored 81 million likes from a story about being happy when black boys ere feeling him up
>and yet after, still barely only a few thousand followers
This resonates. Sold Nikken products decades ago; they're magnets for health. Was a multi-level marketing arrangement. To get to "silver" level, you needed to do $25k of business in one month.
So, one month, I bought $25k worth of product.
It was not sustainable. I hadn't built up a sales organization, and couldn't move that amount of product. I was "silver" for a bit but it wasn't organic.
Your description of "buying a bunch of likes, but no followers" sounds similar.