Consumers are seven times more inclined to trust a social media follower than a celebrity, according to a new study. There’s no doubt about it: Influencer marketing is effective. Many brands fail to take advantage of this strategy because they don’t have suitable partners to work with.
You don’t have to be an influencer to say you’re one. And what’s worse, anyone with a little money and shady morals can make it look like they are by buying fake social media followers. On social media sites like Twitter and Instagram, this is extremely prevalent.
Here are four indicators that an influencer may not be as influential as they appear to be. Let’s go for it.
Inadequate Profile Info
On every level, a fake influencer is intentionally unclear. Trying to figure out who they are or where else you can find them on the internet may be a frustrating experience. If they’ve got too many or too few posts, it becomes even more difficult to tell what they’re interested in.
Don’t waste your time looking for an influencer if their profile doesn’t link to their work as a content creator (Ex: blog) or if you can’t even locate a first name associated with their account, because it’s preferable to go elsewhere.
Sudden Spikes in Follower Growth
Most marketers are aware that followers may be bought, and that specific programs allow users to mass follow and unfollow many people at once.
Follow-unfollow is a foolproof method for manipulating social media networks, including Twitter. The idea is simple: a user will follow several other users in the hopes that they will do the same for them.
However, even if such accounts follow back, the primary account is going to unfollow them within days. As a result, the number of followers on an account appears to be growing, even if the newcomers are only bots or phony profiles with no real connection to the brand.
Follower-engagement Ratio
It’s as simple as reading the comments to see how engaged their followers are. Lots of comments, but little or no response from the “influencer” in question? That “influencer” plainly isn’t engaging with their followers.
A flurry of emojis or one-word responses from the followers may be a clue that many of their followers are bots or fake accounts, further demonstrating the absence of influence.
Fake, Inactive, & Bot Followers
Finally, look at the accounts that are following the aspiring influencer. When it comes to Twitter, the use of hashtag-specific formulae is particularly popular among bots. As a result, fake influencers draw hordes of them.
People with a lot of profiles with similar usernames or photographs, little or no followers of their own, or those that appear to be employing the same deceitful techniques like the ones listed above aren’t the people you’re trying to reach with your marketing.
FollowerAudit
While the above-mentioned techniques are effective in identifying fake influencers, manually analyzing them can be tedious and time-consuming. Although, with the help of third-party tools, you can automate the analysis of influencer profiles. One such tool is FollowerAuditFollowerAudit.
It is an amazing Twitter follower tracker that can help you track and analyze the follower base of any public Twitter account. Not only can it identify the influential accounts in the industry, but it can also further analyze their follower base and detect fake and inactive followers.
Key features of FollowerAudit
- Track Twitter follower growth in real-time
- Identify fake followers and bots
- Analyze Twitter followers
- Track Twitter unfollowers
The basic premium plan starts at $29.99 a month.
Wrapping Up
Too many brands still conflate follower counts with persuading power. It’s shockingly easy to manipulate the social media platform, but true influence needs someone to take time to cultivate a devoted fanbase. Trying to settle for any less is a proven method of killing your influencer marketing ROI.
To achieve the degree of success they have now, most influencers have worked for years. The outcome is a genuine connection between the influencer and his or her audience.
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