Let’s say Skechers is launching a new memory foam waterproof sneaker. They decide to create a new Facebook Page to promote the shoe. Once they publish the page, it will have 0 likes.
If you are a fan like me, the less a million likes for a big brand like Skechers is a red flag. It might well be a fake page.
They will need to solve this quickly. One way is to buy Facebook Ads and get a fan for let’s say around $1. Another -faster and less ethical- way is to hire a click farm, where they could get probably 1,000 fans for $1.
After all, they don’t need to be real fans, all that Skechers needs is to increase the likes count so the real customers can trust the new page.
Big brands supposed to have lots of fans. Having lots of fans makes you a big brand.
In the long run, all that matters is how loyal your fans are (whether by spreading the word about you, or buying what you offer), and measuring loyalty (i.e., LTV) is far more important than measuring vanity metrics.
