5 quick tips to spot fake influencers

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Social Samosa shares few tips to spot fake influencers which can help brands from burning their cash unnecessarily.

According to a report by DigiDay, Viral Nation, a social influencer talent agency, received 50-100 influencer applications on a daily basis, and 20-30 percent of them have used bots on Instagram.  The issue is much graver than it appears and to spot fake influencers at the very beginning is essential.

Reports suggest that fraud is turning out to be a big problem in the influencer marketing industry, which is valued at over $1billion. According to a study done by Mediakix, brands today end up spending money on influencers, who have artificially inflated their followers.

There was a report on Mediakix, which claimed that anyone can become an Instagram “influencer” for $300 or less by buying fake followers, likes and comments. Social Samosa shares few tips to spot fake influencers which can help brands from burning their cash unnecessarily.

1) Keep a tab on the engagement rate

Fake influencers act smart in order to increase their follower base. However, a close look at the engagement of their posts will be able to tell, whether the influencer is a genuine one or not. For e.g. those with more than 50,000 followers, but getting only 50 likes on a photo, is an alarming sign.

2) Look at the quality of the posts

It can't be that the quality of the posts are low and are of poor taste, but still the follower base is increasing. If such is the case, then surely something is wrong.

3) A genuine influencer will increase followers at a consistent basis

One can refer to free tools like socialblade.com, which throws open the data on the influencers for the last 30 days. One should look for signs like drastic increase of followers all of a sudden. InfluencerDB, the free influencer marketing and management tool is a great way to find and know about the follower loss and gain.

4) Read the comments carefully

If you look the at the comments carefully, you will be able to find if it is a genuine or fake influencer. A genuine influencer will have people commenting related to the particular post or pertaining to the brand. A fake influencer tends to buy comments as well, because they know that brands look at comments as a sign of engagement. These fake comments can have irrelevant stuff and people posting it will have no identity or a picture on their profile, with excruciatingly flowery language.

Reportedly, comments should represent about 2 per cent of total engagement on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. In fact, a skewed ratio of the comments and likes to the follower base is also a reason where you need to be alert.

5) No social media presence on other platforms

It is very unlikely that a influencer who is very active on Instagram, won't have his/her presence on the other social media channels. If you spot such an influencer profile, then it is time to be alert and do the background check closely.

These are some of the tips, which marketers can keep in mind before investing in any influencer marketing campaign. Do let us know, if you know of any interesting tip to spot fake influencers by writing to us at team@socialsamosa.com or in the comments section below.