Not all “influencers” you find on social media are authentic. A person is considered influential when they have a large number of followers. For example, a micro influencerhas a community of between 10,000 and 100,000 people. A macro influencer, on the other hand, can have millions of followers. In both cases, the two groups are called influencers.
For both small and large brands
the online community is very important. If an influencer is paid a sum of money to promote a certain product or service, that influencer will immediately reach thousands of people with their promotion . Considering that the influencer has built a relationship of trust with their audience, the public is more likely to buy the product or service being promoted.
However, this is an effect that is only achieved if we are talking about influencers with real or quality followers. Real or genuine followers are those users who have decided to follow an influencer authentically , because they are interested in their content and trust their recommendations. These followers actively interact with the influencer’s content, comment, like and participate in their posts. ghana phone number list Unfortunately, in the world of social media there is what we call “influencer fraud”.
Fake influencers are people or bots that pretend to be real influencers, even though their degree of influence in the community is zero. In fact, aUS Federal Trade Commission report(FTC) revealed that nearly 100,000 people lost $770 million in 2021 due to influencer fraud . A shocking figure that all businesses, brands, and agencies should be wary of.
In recent years,
The desire to prove that a social media account has a large reach has led to the birth of new fraudulent companies. These exist with the sole purpose of creating and selling fake followers for supposed influencers.
X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and other social networks have joined forces to detect and eliminate fake accounts. Until a few years ago, the number of fake followers on different effective influencer marketing strategies networks was so large that the official X account itself lost more than seven million followers.
Instagram also conducted their own research to identify and analyze data related to influencer fraud . They found that influencer fraud is on the rise again . Once news about fake influencers and low engagement rates became public, brands started to worry.
Instagram had introduced a measure where users using third-party apps were not allowed to like or comment on posts on the platform. Initially, the engagement rate of fake influencers dropped by up to 1.7% . This applied especially to fake, not real, accounts. However, after a few months, the engagement of fake accounts increased again by up to 1.2% on some Instagram profiles . This indicates that there are people trying to circumvent the restrictions imposed by social media platforms.
But that’s not all, because fake influencers or those with fake followers are not necessarily unknown. Some very famous celebrities, such as Taylor Swift or Jennifer Lopez, also have fake followers .A 2023 study revealedKaty Perry has 29% fake followers, Kourtney whatsapp number Kardashian has 28%, Justin Bieber has 27%, etc. Surprising, isn’t it?
Main characteristics of fake influencers
To know how to spot an influencer with fake followers, you need to know that they have very characteristic deceptive practices. Their main objective is to artificially increase their influence on social media.
One of the main signs is the rapid increase in followers. Real, authentic influencers build their community organically and gradually. However, a fake influencer shows a sudden increase in followers. Often without a justified cause such as a major collaboration or viral content. This artificial growth is achieved by purchasing followers, which allows them to appear to be more influential than they really are.
Secondly, we must look at thediscrepancy between engagement and number of followers.Real influencers maintain an active relationship with their audience. This is reflected in a good number of likes, comments and “saves” on their posts. On the other hand, fake influencers, despite having a high number of followers, have a low level of interaction . Comments on their posts are usually generic, repetitive, with the use of emojis and without a human use of language. In addition, their likes can come from bots or accounts that have no relation to the content.
Audience demographics are also revealing . Authentic influencers have an audience that is consistent with their interests and geographic location. In contrast, fake influencers fake influencers’ followers lack consistency in terms of demographics .
Finally, keep in mind that fake influencers often do not have a profile photo on their social networks. In addition, they publish posts that are inconsistent with the topic of the accoun. Or upload photos taken from image banks.