Fake Follower Check: 5 Ways to Check if Your Influencers are Real + Free Tools [2024 Update]

Over 57% of American businesses use influencers as a way to increase awareness of their brand. With the help of a popular and well-respected influencer, you can open your business up to a new audience. However, you will need to do your homework before using a particular influencer to promote your brand.

Below is some helpful information on why using influencers is a must for modern businesses and how to do a fake follower check to spot fake accounts and avoid them. 

Why Using Social Media Influencers is a Wise Move

Before you dive into how to spot fake influencers, you need to know more about why using this type of promotion and marketing is beneficial.

If you are relatively new to the world of social media and the individuals who hold influence on these platforms, you may be unsure why your business should embrace this concept.

Using social media influencers can be beneficial for a number of different reasons. 

Provide Consumers With Social Proof

If you are trying to create an online presence for your business, you need to start by embracing the positive reviews left by satisfied customers.

Modern consumers work very hard to research a brand before using the products/services they provide.

Taking the level of social proof you provide to online consumers to the next level is easy when using the right social media influencer. 

Typically, an influencer will want to do a review of your product/service. These reviews will show followers of this individual exactly what your business is all about.

It will also give consumers an idea of how well your product/services work. With the heightened level of social proof, you should have no problem attracting more customers. 

Expanding Your Reach is Important

While attracting consumers in your local area is important, you need to think bigger.

Taking your message to the masses can help you grow your business exponentially. Instead of trying to gain this global appeal on your own, you should rely on the help of a popular influencer. 

Most popular social media influencers have followers from all over the world. If they promote your product on their social media profile, it will help you reach a new audience.

When handled correctly, influencer marketing campaigns can help you increase the leads you receive substantially. This is why they are well worth the investment.

Keep Your Audience Engaged and Interested

The digital marketing landscape is littered with content. Finding a way to make your brand stand out above the competition is a lot harder than you might realize.

Keeping your audience engaged and interested in what your company is doing is essential when trying to edge out the competition. While things like paid social media ads can help increase engagement, you need more to drive your point home. 

This is why enlisting the help of a well-known and respected social media influencer is a good idea. Influencers gain their rank in the world of social media because they know how to make and promote content on their page. People who follow popular influencers are always anxious to see what new media they have to offer.

Choosing an influencer known for creating engaging and memorable content can help you accomplish your marketing goals in no time. 

5 Ways to Detect Fake Followers and Fake Engagement

Unfortunately, there are a number of so-called influencers that use fake followers to make themselves look popular and powerful. Using one of these fake influencers can lead to a lot of money being wasted on a marketing method that won’t pan out.

Here are some ways you can do a fake follower check and some suggestions on tools you can use to vet the followers an influencer has.

1. Read the Comments on an Influencer’s Post

As you start to research influencers in your industry, you need to dig deep to find out how trustworthy and legitimate they are. The first place you need to start your investigation into an influencer’s legitimacy is in the comments on their post.

When looking at these comments, you need to assess which ones are from actual customers and which ones are spam.

The spam comments will usually be promotional in nature and will encourage people to click a link. If all of the comments a particular influencer gets are spam, you need to avoid using them.

This generally means that the followers are fake and that the supposed influencer is using their comment section as a way to drive traffic to untrustworthy sites.

2.  Investigate the Content an Influencer Puts Out

The best social media influencers put out engaging content for their audience. Generally, the higher the quality of this content is, the more followers a person will ultimately have.

Before using a particular influencer, take a look at the content they have produced. If the content is low-quality and filled with errors, you may be dealing with an influencer who is buying followers.

As any business owner knows, a great social media content strategy can help with customer acquisition and retention.

If the quality of an influencer’s content doesn’t really match up with their large follower base, you need to avoid using them.

3. Look For Rapid Follower Growth

Taking a look at the follower growth history a particular influencer has can also help you assess whether or not they are legitimate.

If there has been a sudden spike in followers in a relatively short amount of time, chances are the influencer in question bought these followers. If the following a particular influencer has acquired is not real, it could actually hurt your brand over time. 

You only need to engage with social media influencers that have built their audience organically. While these influencers may charge more for their backing, it will be worth the money.

An influencer with a large audience of actual followers will be able to expose your brand to people all over the world and increase your bottom line. 

4. Go With Your Gut Instinct

Some of the people who set up these fake influencer accounts think they are very crafty. However, there are a number of indicators that will show you that an account is fake.

Performing an extensive investigation of the content on an influencer’s page is imperative. As you go through this content, you need to go with your gut feeling regarding whether or not it is legitimate. 

If the posts and comments on an influencer’s page seem to be contrived or fake in some way, avoid using them. The great thing about social media influencers is that there are a lot of them to choose from.

While finding a legitimate influencer to advertise for your business will be time-consuming, your hard work will pay off considering the positive press these influencers can provide. 

Here is a video that explains it well by The Lu Levy Co.:

5. Using the Right Tools Can Be Helpful

If you don’t have the time needed to vet the followers a particular influencer has, you need to find the right tools to do this work for you. Luckily, there are a number of tools you can use for this purpose.

FakeCheck.Co is a Good Tool

Are you trying to figure out whether a particular influencer has real followers? If so, you need to use Fakecheck.co. This tool is designed to help you monitor an influencer’s audience engagement.

If this engagement level is low, it usually means an influencer has purchased most of their followers. Check out this example:

Use Modash.io

The more you know about an influencer’s audience, the easier it will be to figure out if they are the right fit for your business. The tool developed by the team at Modash.io provides you with tons of information about an influencer’s followers.

This tool allows you to see where an influencer’s followers are located, their interests, and much more.

Do Your Homework!

As you can see, choosing the right influencer to work with is a very complicated process. Seeking out the help of marketing professionals is crucial when trying to vet a particular influencer.

These professionals will have insider information regarding whether or not a particular social media personality is the right fit for your brand. Once you have chosen the right influencer, the marketing company you hire can help you develop content for these individuals to publish. 

Resources:

• https://www.adweek.com/digital/10-reasons-why-influencer-marketing-is-the-next-big-thing/
• https://sproutsocial.com/insights/fake-influencers/
• https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/fake-followers