How to find and remove fake followers?

Twitter was introduced as a social media platform for people to connect with friends and family. But Twitter has evolved, it is now one of the most prominent social media platforms. Politicians, celebrities, brands and marketing agencies leverage the reach of Twitter to spread their message far and wide.

Although, some companies have dedicated themselves to the sole aim of generating and selling fake followers.

Devumi, a social media marketing company was found guilty of selling fake followers to celebrities. The US Federal Trade Commission investigation found the company operating stock of around 3.5 million bots (fake accounts).

Hilary Rosen (CNN contributor) made several purchases between 2015-2017. She denied the acquisitions by responding “it was an experiment that I did several years ago to see how it worked”.

Why people purchase fake followers?

In recent years, engagement has replaced follower count as the most important social media metric. Even so, a high follower count helps brands and influencers establish themselves.

A high follower count creates an illusion of popularity. An illusion that acts as a catalyst to attract more followers. A Twitter account with a high follower count will attract audiences as it indicates that the user publishes resonating content.

The practice of purchasing fake followers is unethical. The sale or purchase of fake accounts or bots is against the terms of service of Twitter. If a user engages in such practices, it would lead to the suspension of the account by Twitter.

As for casual Twitter users, you may also have fake Twitter followers or bots that follow your account.

How to identify fake followers?

The traditional way of identifying fake followers is by identifying the accounts that spam your tweets or follow many accounts. The fake followers also have low follower counts. Suppose a Twitter account follows 1000 accounts but has a follower count of 20, it’s highly probable that it is a fake account.

Nonetheless, if a Twitter profile has over 1000 or more followers, the task would become quite tedious.

Identify and remove fake followers with FollowerAudit

Follower Audit is a Twitter Analytics tool that can help you identify fake followers with ease from any public Twitter account. It can help you analyze millions of Twitter followers and provide you with a detailed list of fake followers.

The tool can help you analyze your Twitter followers with ease if you think you have fake followers.

Let’s dive into some key features of FollowerAudit,

1. Classify inactive, active and fake followers

FollowerAudit can help you classify the entire lists of Twitter followers into fake, inactive and active followers.

It is essential to understand that some users might have created accounts just to keep up with the latest trends. Also, some users might have just created a Twitter account that has no engagement. Are these fake accounts? Of course not!

FollowerAudit’s advanced AI-drive algorithms can help you classify such inactive accounts and distinguish them from fake followers.

It can provide you with detailed lists of possible fake accounts and inactive followers. You can choose which accounts to remove and block from your followers’ list.

2. Follower Quality Graph

FollowerAudit generates a follower quality graph of your Twitter followers based on various parameters (engagement provided, Twitter followers of your followers, followers lists, engagement statistics of followers).

Each follower is awarded a score between 0-10 and the followers with similar scores are grouped on the graph.

The graph is easy to understand and with just a single glance you can analyze the quality of the follower growth for any public Twitter account.

3. Detailed Follower Audit

The detailed follower audit provides you with various insights about the follower of any public Twitter account

• Followers inactive for over 1 year

• Followers with less than 5 tweets

• Followers with less than 5 followers

• Followers with default profile image

• Followers with no bios

• Followers with uneven followers following ratio

These details can be very helpful while evaluating the quality of your followers and the overall follower growth for any public Twitter account.

4. FA Score

You can consider the FA-Score as an assessment grade or report for the analyzed Twitter account. The score displays the authenticity of the followers that engage with your content on Twitter.

Why refrain from buying fake followers and remove them from your Twitter profile?

Fake followers do seem tempting if you are new to Twitter. They can create the illusion of popularity to attract followers.

However, in the long run, fake followers can tarnish your reputation on social media.

The cons of having fake followers far outweigh the pros on Twitter. Here are some main reasons why you should immediately remove fake followers for your Twitter profile.

Fake followers violate the terms of service on Twitter

Fake followers are a disease that has plagued Twitter and other social media platforms. Twitter suspended 70 million accounts (fake accounts or users with fake followers) in 2017.

Since then, Twitter has been updating its algorithm to identify and block fake accounts or accounts that possess a high rate of fake followers.

If a user does not follow the terms of service, Twitter won’t hesitate before suspending your Twitter profile.

Fake followers will increase your follower count, but not the engagement rates

Fake followers create an illusion of recognition and popularity. This illusion can help users, attract genuine followers for their Twitter profile. However, fake followers do not engage with your content.

As for genuine followers, they only engage with content that they find engaging, content that resonates with the audiences.

Even if you manage to attract genuine followers, you would lose them soon enough if they don’t find engaging content.

Fake followers when detected can diminish your reputation on Twitter

New businesses often opt to buy fake followers to boost their social media presence. Having a large no of followers attracts more audiences for your Twitter profile.

Even so, it’s a gamble not worth taking due to the associated risk. Fake followers might help you attract audiences, but if they do not find engaging content, they will soon unfollow you.

To make matters worse, the users will suspect you of buying fake followers. Associating your brand name with fake followers can diminish your market reputation.

It will not only decrease your market reputation but also the conversion rates and ROI. Your brand may lose its credibility in the industry and the eyes of the audiences, even before it has time to establish itself.

DJ Snake’s Twitter followers were purchased by his former manager. Martha Lane Fox, a Twitter board member, said a rogue employee purchased followers from Devumi at least seven times for her Twitter profile.

Fake followers provide false estimations of growth

Even if you haven’t purchased fake followers, you may have fake followers for your Twitter profile. These fake followers can hamper your marketing data and provide false estimations of growth.

Every brand or marketer evaluates their social media growth to plan effective and informed strategies. Strategies that can increase engagement, ROI and conversion rates. Fake followers diminish the accuracy of the data.

Suppose a brand started a Twitter campaign to increase the followers for their brand. But the follower count was boosted by fake followers instead. The numbers have increased and show that the campaign was successful in attracting followers.

But fake followers do not engage with the content. Also, these fake followers provide inaccurate statistics to plan targeted marketing efforts.

Advertising to these fake followers won’t increase engagement, conversions or the overall ROI. If not monitored, the surge in fake followers can hamper your marketing efforts.

Fake influencers will not increase conversion rates for your brand

Influencer marketing is now the most popular marketing trend among brand sand marketers. Influencers are a great means to increase conversion rates and to target new potential customers.

Over 89% of marketers think the revenue generated by influencer marketing is similar or sometimes more than other marketing channels. 30% of marketers have already increased their spending on influencer marketing in 2020.

Although, the rise in influencer marketing has brought forth fake influencers. Individuals that have purchased fake followers to gain sponsorships and promotional opportunities from brands and marketers.

These influencers do not possess an engaging follower base. Collaborating with such influencers will not increase the conversion rates for your brand. Analyzing the follower base and the engagement metrics is essential before collaborating with an influencer.

Finding the right influencer is essential as not every influencer can provide you with new potential consumers or promote your brand on social media.

Closing Thoughts

Brands and marketers must purge their social media profiles from fake followers. These fake followers or bots can diminish the effectiveness of your targeted marketing efforts and the overall ROI.

FollowerAudit is an amazing Twitter analytics tool that can greatly enhance the quality of your followers. You can monitor your follower growth rate and help in identifying and fake followers for any public Twitter account.

Do give it a try!

Until next time! Adios!