Influencer selection is increasingly crucial to the success of a campaign as influencer marketing becomes more widespread on different social media platforms, especially Instagram. And many influencers use fake Instagram followers to increase their chances for sponsored posts.
For those brands that work with influencers to take their brand marketing strategies to the next level, checking for fake followers is critical when choosing an Instagram or TikTok influencer to collaborate with. So, you can either do it by hand or choose an Influencer marketing platform that does it for you.
These influencers need an engaged and enthusiastic following. But what if their followers are fake? It can be hard to tell the difference, but there are a few ways to identify fake Instagram followers.
What are fake followers?
Fake followers are the term given to an account formed for unsolicited purposes and don’t actually participate in social media.
In a nutshell, a fake Instagram account is one that is not truly managed by a single person. Some of these accounts are created in bulk by humans, while others are created in bulk by bots. Some are used to spam comments, likes, etc., while others are left dormant.
How to find Influencers with real followers to collaborate
Lots of Instagram influencers use fake Instagram followers so they can charge more for the collaboration. This makes their promotion almost useless and doesn’t result in any benefit for the brand.
But how can you detect fake followers on Instagram? The best answer is Ainfluencer.
Ainfluencer is a free influencer marketing platform that runs multiple tests and examines each influencer’s followers and conversion rate before letting them sign up. This platform has a team that validates the influencer’s credibility before they are allowed to collaborate with brands.
With the assistance of various AI tools, Ainfluencer’s validation team assesses the value of each influencer’s collaboration and determines a price based on the number of their followers, likes, comments, and engagement rate.
What is Ainfluencer
Ainfluencer is the first free DIY influencer marketplace in the world. It connects brands to the right influencers in their niche. With Ainfluencer’s advanced search filters, you can filter influencers according to their location, niche, language, number of followers, budget, gender, etc.
This platform has a very large database and responsive customer service. So, even though everything is simple and easy on Ainfluencer, if you feel anything is holding you back, don’t hesitate to contact customer service.
So what are you waiting for? If you don’t want to be worried about fake followers on Instagram, sign up on Ainfluencer and start utilizing social media marketing!
Top reasons fake Instagram followers could be a problem
Instagram has become a powerful tool for many people and businesses to express themselves and promote their products or services. With the power of social media, the ability to acquire followers is often tempting, however, having fake Instagram followers can be problematic.
Fake followers not only hurt your credibility but could also impact your bottom line. Here are the top reasons why fake Instagram followers are a problem.
- Fake Instagram followers don’t engage with your account.
- Your engagement is inconsistent compared with genuine accounts.
- They hurt your credibility.
- They may even get you banned from Instagram or get you into trouble.
- IG fake followers bring spam with them.
- You won’t earn money using fake followers.
How to identify fake Instagram followers?
Instagram fake follower check really matters. There are a number of warning signs to look out for when attempting to determine whether or not an account is fake, even though fake Instagram followers might not always display the same warning signs. These signs include:
1- Keep an eye on follower spikes
Fake Instagram followers are visible to the eye. But how?
For the majority of people, it is normal for follower counts to increase gradually. Most fan bases will grow steadily unless someone suddenly attracts a huge following after appearing on a TV show or film. You can be relatively sure that someone is buying followers if their following suddenly increases and then plateaus.
2- They have unusual numbers
When it comes to the number of followers, people followed, and degrees of engagement, genuine accounts frequently follow similar patterns.
For instance, they can have hundreds of followers and likes, but few followings in return. Maybe they don’t post very often, if at all. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they are a bot, but it does suggest that will be of limited value as a follower. They undoubtedly have no impact on anyone.
Genuine influencers will have more followers than accounts they follow – often by a substantial margin.
3- Check out their followers
Instagram fake follower check is a must before reaching out to a potential brand influencer. Here are the red flags that help you decide if an influencer’s followers are fake:
- Followers with no photos or posts: You can usually conclude that followers who haven’t posted or don’t have a profile photo are fake if they follow an influencer. Brands should look out for influencers that have large private account followings and “spammy” usernames.
- Irrelevant and/or spam comments: Look through a few photos and scan the comments. Don’t assume that their followers are active and real if influencers only have tons of comments. If the comments are clearly irrelevant or gibberish, they’re from fake followers.
- Following/Followed by “fan-buying” services: One or two fan-buying accounts may be visible if you check through their followers and the people they follow.
- Their username: Numerous numbers or a random letter combination make up their username.
- Number of followers/following: They have few followers, but follow thousands of accounts.
4- Analyze the quality of engagement
Since comments take more time and energy than simply liking or sharing a post, comments are the most valuable form of engagement. Therefore, it’s a good sign if you come across an influencer profile with many comments on each post. However, you should take a moment to browse through these comments and check for their quality.
5- Look at their posts
Influencers with fake Instagram followers and fake account creators lack the time to fill their spam profiles with a ton of interesting, original content.
You’ll typically notice one (or all) of the following four things when scrolling through their posts:
- Primarily promotional posts
- Posts that offer fake deals or discounts
- Posts that don’t match the bio or profile picture
- Posts published in a short period of time apart
In the latter case, their common tactic is to post a few things as soon as they create the account, frequently hours apart, and then never again.
Therefore, it could be a sign that a profile is fake if it makes 5 posts in a short period of time and then stops posting.
6- Examine their follower
Profile picture, bio, and username are all very important fake Instagram account checker factors.
#1 Profile pic: The profile pictures of fake Instagram accounts are typically blank, generic stock photos, or images of objects, not people.
#2 Bio: Fake Instagram users will either not have a bio or have one that is very generic, contains random promotions, or doesn’t match the posts they are making.
#3 Username: If you try to enter a username when creating an Instagram account that is already taken, you’ll get suggestions for the same name with a bunch of numbers added on. Being @jack235456932480234 isn’t exactly appealing to common people, especially since it’s a difficult username to remember.
7- Use an automated tool
Searching through Instagram followers and checking all the above-mentioned factors manually is time-consuming and tedious.
You can use an Instagram fake followers check app to simplify the process of recognizing fake Instagram followers.
Here are two Instagram audit tools that can help you identify fake Instagram followers.
#1 Social Audit Pro
This is unquestionably the best Instagram follower audit tool you need if you’re serious about cleaning your Instagram of fake followers as quickly and effectively as you can.
This fake Instagram account checker examines each of your followers and classifies them into categories of good, dormant, slightly suspect, and very suspicious. Social Audit Pro also gives you more details such as the ratio of businesses, regular users that follow you, the percentage of your male/female followers, etc.
As a fake Instagram account checker, it helps you block or remove all of the suspicious or ghost followers using their follower cleanup tool.
#2 FakeCheck.co
Another IG fake followers checker like the one mentioned above, called FakeCheck, uses your engagement rates to calculate the number of fake followers you have.
why you shouldn’t buy fake Instagram followers
Purchasing fake followers is against Instagram’s rules and policies. If caught, your account could be suspended, or you might face other penalties that could harm your online reputation. But, it’s not the only problem with Instagram fake followers:
#1 Low-Quality Engagement
Fake followers on Instagram are often inactive accounts or bots that do not engage with your content. Having a large number of followers but little to no real engagement can raise suspicion among genuine followers and potential partners, affecting your credibility.
#2 Damage to Your Reputation
When people discover that you have bought fake followers, they may perceive you as dishonest or untrustworthy. This can lead to a negative reputation and cause genuine followers to lose interest in your content.
#3 Reduced Organic Reach
Social media algorithms favor accounts with high engagement rates. If your followers are not genuine and don’t engage with your posts, your content will be shown to fewer people organically, limiting your reach.
#4 Waste of Money
Buying fake Instagram followers can be costly, and the money spent could be better used in legitimate marketing efforts or improving your content.
#5 Decline in Performance Metrics
With fake followers, your metrics like likes, comments, and shares will be inflated artificially, making it difficult to assess the true performance of your content and marketing strategies.
Remember, Instagram fake followers are usually random accounts that may not be interested in your niche or content. As a result, they won’t contribute to building a loyal and engaged community around your brand. So, they are a total waste of time and money and they won’t help you to get sponsored posts.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it’s important to be aware of the potential for fake Instagram followers. As more and more businesses use Instagram as a marketing platform, it’s even more critical to be able to identify these accounts in order to maintain an authentic presence on the platform. By taking note of user activity, interaction with other accounts, and account details, you can easily identify potentially fake followers so that you can take action if needed.
Your followers could include some fake ones. Even if you’ve never purchased followers, it’s likely that a few bots have followed you. This is largely unavoidable — and many bots are harmless — but you should still report them to Instagram.
1- Look at the number of their followers/followings
2- Analyze their engagement rate.
3- Keep an eye on follower spikes.
4- Examine their comments on the post.
5- Consider the age of their account.
There are many platforms that sell followers on Instagram. But you should know that buying fake followers can result in getting your account banned. And fake followers decrease your engagement rate.
