How to Identify Fake Influencers and Avoid Them

Influencer marketing has become a very powerful way of marketing your business and promoting your products. Many businesses today are leveraging it to boost their sales and increase their conversions.

Most established social influencers are very efficient at delivering messages. And they have made it easier for us to promote our products and services. But there are still a lot of people who cheat on the system for monetary gains.

If you’re considering using influencer marketing for your business, you have to ensure that you are not cheated by fake influencers. If that happens, you’re not only losing out on money but also wasting your marketing efforts.

So you need to understand well how to differentiate real influencers from fake ones. But before that, let’s understand who is an influencer.

Who is an Influencer

An influencer is an authoritative individual in a specific niche or industry who has in-depth knowledge of the field.

These individuals, with their skills, build a strong presence on social media, which is why they often become the launch pads of small businesses.

Since they already have a huge user base, by collaborating with them, it becomes easier for businesses to get the exposure they need.

That’s the reason why many small businesses collaborate with them to create content for their audience.

How to Identify Fake Influencers

There are various ways through which you can identify fake influencers. You have to look into their social media profile to identify a few points. Let’s look at some of them.

1. Many Likes but No Comments

Sometimes you can easily identify a fake influencer by analyzing their social profiles.

A lot of times, you’ll see that the profile has a lot of likes in their posts. But when you try to look at these posts in detail, you’ll notice that they don’t have any real followers.

You’ll know this by clicking on the posts to see the type of comments they are receiving. If it's a real influencer’s profile, you’ll definitely find some genuine comments in their posts.

If you find one-word comments like nice, good, love, etc., you’ll know that they aren’t from real followers. These followers are either paid for or are comments made from fake profiles. Beware of such profiles.

2. Bad Quality Content

Another important factor to consider when looking for fake influencer profiles is the quality of their content.

Most influencers will share quality content that adds value to their followers. People don’t follow them without a reason.

They do it because they like their content and are influenced by what they do. But this is not the case with fake influencers.

Their profiles will generally contain low-quality content that doesn’t have value for their audience. If you spot such an account, rest assured that the influencer isn’t a legitimate one.

3. Sudden Spike in Followers

The next important factor to observe is whether they have a sudden spike in their followers. A spike in followers can definitely happen if the individual is sharing some interesting content.

But sometimes, you might observe accounts that have a sudden spike in their followers without any reason.

So look into these accounts closely and try to understand the reason behind this spike. If you can’t find any specific reason, you should know that there’s something wrong with the account.

4. No Specific Reason for Popularity

Influencers are generally popular because of a reason. This can be a certain type of skill, expertise in a specific field, or anything that help others add value to their life.

But if you come across a profile that has no specific reason for its popularity, it’s one red flag that you just can’t ignore.

Over to You

Spotting fake influencers can be tricky. But identifying them is very important if you want to get good results out of your marketing campaign. You can use the above tips to identify whether you want to work with a specific influencer or not.