The problem with social media is that the phrase “fake it till you make it” is taken too literally. From manipulated images to bogus followers and engagement, there isn’t anything yet to be seen. Some influencers curate their account to the point that they restrict their content and they will constantly purge their feed. Others turn to buying followers, likes and comments just to boost their popularity and clinch more deals with brands.
Such behavior results in the apprehension of brands towards engaging influencers for their marketing campaigns. After all, large sums of money is involved. You wouldn’t want to partner with influencers who fail to add genuine value to your brand. Transparency is just as vital to consumers as it is to brands. According to CNBC, fake followers in influencer marketing will cost brands $1.3 billion this year. Fortunately, there are measures you can implement to verify the authenticity of influencers' follower count.
5 ways to verify the authenticity of an influencer’s followers
1) Follower demographics
Checking up on an influencer’s followers is one way of diving deeper into the issue. Things to look out for include country of origin and gender or account type (particularly for brands selling feminine products). It should raise an eyebrow if the bulk of an influencer’s followers stem from countries they have no presence in. That said, mega and macro influencers are special cases who are bound to have followers globally.
Another red flag to note is whether the accounts following the influencer belongs to an actual person. For instance, having a large following consisting of accounts with strange names in foreign languages or accounts with 0 posts. Though the ratio is relatively low, keep in mind that there are some who do not have the habit of posting photos of themselves online.
2) Unusual peaks in follower numbers
Image: Socialblade
Socialblade is a free tool that you can use. Simply enter the Instagram handle of any influencer and you’ll have access to some data such as their engagement rate and daily follower growth to name a few. Another useful tool in the market is the Upfluence plug-in on Google Chrome.
A telltale sign if an influencer bought followers would be the stair-like spikes. Of course, there could be other contributing factors such as influencer going viral or influencer running a giveaway. To avoid unnecessary confrontation, we suggest 1) doing a quick search of the influencer to check for news to justify their increase in followers 2) check if they’ve promoted/ been featured by another page with a large following count under photo tags and 3) if they have ran a giveaway/collaboration coinciding with the dates of the unusual spikes.
3) Engagement rate
Having a large follower count doesn’t necessarily equate to high engagement. Fake followers bought only contribute to the follower count, but do nothing for the engagement rate (likes, comments, shares) unless the influencer puts in the effort to purchase likes and comments as well - both of which differ in pricing and again, is easy to spot. In case you are interested, it is pricier to buy comments than likes.
A low or suspicious engagement rate often means that the influencer’s content is uninteresting or it hints at fake followers - both of which are not ideal for a brand. To give you a rough gauge of the engagement rate influencers garner, sponsored posts generally receive an average of 2.4% in engagement rate, according to Search Engine Journal.
4) Irrelevant comments
As aforementioned, comments contribute to engagement rates. However, spam comments do not actually benefit brands. If your Instagram account is set to public, chances are you’ve seen random comments such as these:
Even if one does not buy comments, fake bots and random accounts are bound to leave generic comments like “follow for follow”, “nice!” and emojis. To avoid these, individuals can choose to hide comments with specific keywords (i.e. followers, #f4f) under their Instagram settings. It’s on brands to conduct their own checks on an influencer before collaborating with them. Here’s how: check the accounts of those that left comments, and look out for their post frequency as well as type of photos posted. As many fake accounts are life-like, it is better to be safe than sorry.
While there are guidelines and the occasional Instagram purge in place to minimize the procurement of fake followers, it is impossible to completely eliminate fake accounts. But, all hope is not lost. According to strategy and consulting firm Convince & Convert, Influencer marketing has proven to still be the most effective method of acquiring customers online. If that isn’t enough to convince you to embark on influencer marketing, almost two-thirds of marketers plan to increase their influencer marketing budget this year.
Nano influencers have the highest percentage of genuine followers as they are most likely a regular everyday person like you and I. However, for extra precaution, our team of experts at Partipost do vet through the profiles. On top of that, Partipost conducts community events where we share about the code of conduct they should adhere to (i.e. abstaining from buying fake followers and engagement).
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