It’s almost like a rule in the business world that wherever money starts flowing, crackpots show up who try to pass themselves off as experts when they really don’t know anything at all.
It’s the same case with the social media influencer industry. Every day red flags go up and people come up to us saying that they signed up with a fake influencer. And now they want us to fix the mess. While digital marketing and digital business promotion are incredibly successful, it’s still nascent with respect to regulatory intervention that can prevent fraud.
It’s also one of the reasons why the demand for fake Instagram followers continues to rise over the years.
For these reasons, it’s better if you keep a lookout for yourself before someone scams you out of a fair bit of money without any results to show for it. Considering the growing importance and the sums of money flowing into the industry, it’s probably safe to assume that there are at least a few thousand dollars of yours tied into your marketing budget.
Before you hand out this money to someone, look out for these red flags of potential influencer fraudsters.
Shady Engagement Rates
The typical Instagram influencer has a likes to followers ratio of 1:3, i.e. one for every three followers. Some influencers have higher ratios but that’s because they have relatively fewer followers—it’s more of a mathematical difference than an actual indicator of the demand for their content.
It’s a red flag for sure if your influencer has insanely high engagement rates. They make you think that their content is brilliant. But it’s just because they’ve bought the following rather than generating it organically.
Go through your influencer’s feeds to see what their engagement rates look like—if they’re consistently high, then either they’re the Messiahs of social media or they’re faking it.
They Don’t Have Enough Content
Another big red flag is if you find Instagram or Facebook influencer accounts that have a huge following but very little content. That’s a fake account straight off the bat. How can someone generate this large a following but have nothing for these followers to engage with?
Check What Kind of Engagement They’re Getting
If you find influencer accounts with really weird comments on their posts that make no sense, this is a clear red flag. They’re more than likely working with fake followers. These comments are actually bots posting these comments to boost their engagement figures. Whenever you approach an influencer for your marketing, make sure to give their posts a cursory glance. Check to see if the interactions look genuine or not.
Find Authentic Social Media Influencers at Afluencer!
No influencer red flags here! Afluencer is an online platform that helps businesses find some of the best social media influencers to improve marketing outcomes. We serve as a midway between influencers and businesses to connect and collaborate for mutually beneficial business agreements.
Get in touch with us today for more information on our services.