Connecting with more and more Instagram influencers have become a bandwagon these days. And it is important also whether you are PR, brand or blogger because it is the get out of obscurity ticket which can help you stand out from the crowd. But, people often forget ‘quality’ in the circle of ‘quantity’ which results in loss. Where Instagram is the home of hard-working and honest influencers, there some fake influencers are plaguing it. Now, how to identify between a real and fake influencer. You can get ideas through articles which provide information over tricks to detect the real one, how fake influencers can affect your brand, pro-tips and suggestions to consider.
A cut above, you can visit http://naomidsouza.com/instagram-blogger-authenticity/ to know 8 ways to spot a fake influencer on Instagram and more.
Who is an influencer?
a) Who have enjoyed significant success in his field of work and a group of people gives importance to his advice and responds according to his advice or recommendations.
You can’t call yourself an influencer on the basis of the no. of followers whether you have 500, 1000 or 10,000 influencers. Let the PR decide.
A lot of big publications allow contributors to issue the list of ‘Top 10 Influencers’ which are not accurate and are based on opinions.
8 ways to spot a fake influencer –
a) Check the follower count
Use Social Blade and catch a ‘brat’ fake influencer in a few seconds.
If look on the average basis, a blogger or influencer gets approx. 0-200 followers per day depending on his popularity. Take a look at this –
Forever21 has 13m followers and gets 1000 followers per day, Huda Beauty has 19m followers and gets 5000 followers per day, MuradOsmann has 4.6m followers and gets 400 followers per day, SazanHendrix has 765k followers and gets 500 followers per day.
Look at this graph of 2 different bloggers and see the smooth increase in the number of followers.
b) Engagement groups
100+ comments – don’t believe with close eyes. Maximum bloggers play with the algorithm by joining ‘Engagement Groups’. This group is based on ‘tit for tat’ – you comment on my pic and I comment on yours. But, you can’t afford to ignore such groups because it is not easy to beat Instagram algorithm and we can’t settle with 0-2 comments on pictures.
Where are these groups? Surprisingly, everywhere. Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram.
If your engagement percentage is +5% after having 90k+ followers, 100+ comments and 4000+ likes on every picture, congratulations. You have a high engagement rate. A good engagement rate is usually between 1.5 to 3%. If you have engagement of 1%, it is okay.
The important thing to consider here is that if any influencer gets less comment, it doesn’t mean he is mock. It is not possible for a follower to comment on every single picture. This threatens the real influencers and forces them to buy “likes” and “comments”.
c) No. of likes to follow ratio
If any influencer gets 2-3% likes from his total followers, it is a good amount of likes. But, usually, maximum influencers get 1-2%. There are many bloggers who have 10k followers and claim to get1000 likes, which is equal to 10% likes. Is it real? If so, then they are more popular than a celebrity.
d) Check followers who liked their pictures.
e) Follow influencers outside of the social media platform
This doesn’t mean that hide behind the car or out of office. Do research on magazines which have posted about an influencer. Has he written any article for a magazine? Has any brand interviewed him? Has he collaborated with any brand? Was there quality or quantity content?
f) Look for stats like impressions, reach, etc
If you are a brand thinking of aligning up with a blogger, check his stats.
g) Caveat from photoshopped stats.
