Before entrusting one of our products to be sponsored by an influencer, we have to make sure that they haven’t bought a package of users and likes
Nowadays being an influencer on social media is one of the most coveted professions for many people. Gifts, trips, paid hotels and even products to try for free. All this in exchange for popularity. A popularity, however, that can be bought.
On Instagram, for example, there are several fake influencers who actually bought their followers and likes. For companies or anyone who wants to sponsor their own product through the use of an influencer on Instagram, it is essential to recognize the professionals from the scammers. The risk is to waste time and money without having any direct economic return from this marketing operation. Usually, in fact, the packages of followers bought are fake user profiles or are people totally off-target than the object we want to sponsor.
How to unmask fake influencers
Before relying on an influencer to advertise a product or to get inspiration on our lifestyle, it is worthwhile to study their profile. Check the number of followers and then go to view every single photo posted: this will allow us to discover the real rate of involvement. To give an example, if an influencer has thousands and thousands of followers but each of his photos struggles to exceed 50 likes it means that most likely he has bought a pack of followers. A good engagement rate, estimated by Instagram itself, is 2.7% (i.e., for every 100 followers you should get at least 3 likes). Anything higher can be a good investment. Beware, however, of Instagram hearts as well. These too can be bought. And usually influencers do it on posts they want to then sponsor. Before entrusting an influencer therefore we check all his posts. If only about ten out of a hundred have many likes, it means that they could have been bought.
Check the community of the influencer
To evaluate well an influencer it is important to check his community. That is the set of people that put “Like” to his posts and that follow him. If among these users we find many profiles with strange names, many foreigners (especially with Asian names) and without profile photos, it may mean that he has acquired a follower package. Attention then to the comments. These can also be fake. If under the posts there is no interaction but only emoticons and tags to other profiles it is possible that the comments have been bought or made ad hoc. Finally, we monitor the growth of the community. If in a few weeks an influencer increases his profile by thousands of followers there could be something suspicious. A sudden drop in followers is also a bad sign. A series of bot profiles, in fact, may have been deleted thus eliminating hundreds of followers to the influencer.
Check the Net
The last step to take to unmask a fake influencer is a little research on the Net. Our Influencer also has other profiles, whether on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. Then pay attention to what he or she is sponsoring. The items he shows off can make us understand the target users who follow him. If, for example, we want to sponsor a beauty product, it is useless, or in any case less accurate, to rely on an influencer linked to the world of food.