Here are the steps to detect & stay clean of fake Instagram and Twitter followers & to make sure that you are engaging with right audience.
In the recent upheaval with Twitter where a number of celebrities saw their Followers’ number dip by millions , the issue of fake accounts have become more prominent.
Why should you bother with fake Instagram and Twitter followers? Here is our take –
- When influencer Marketing is becoming the bread and butter and beyond for a lot of influencers and for brands. It’s a huge concern to be doubly sure that neither has fake followers. because as a brand you are paying the influencer to put your brand out in front of their audience and if the influencer has a high proportion of fake accounts – you are taken for a ride paying up extra for your efforts and of course money. As a brand yourself, if you have fake accounts or don’t look as genuine, you are in turn not going to be liked by new followers – or chances are high that the temporary measures are going to fall apart.
- It brings down your engagement and whether you put quality content ten times a week on that social media platform- who is actually interested in it- a number of bots who ain’t look ? like prospective customers ever.
- This is the worst fear of all- it’s not just twitter , but all other leading social media platforms are going to take measures to curb such fake measures of buying followers for mere social proof. Did you know accounts get banned all the time on Facebook and Instagram , that look suspicious & so do certain hashtags get blacklisted .
Now if these reasons have moved you enough to check fake followers for your brand as well as for your collaborations, here are the steps to detect & stay clean of fake account:
- Check the followers to following ratio- Is the denominator too high giving a very small fraction? fake account alert- ✅
- Are there no proper credentials in bio or no /very little posts in the account ? Fake account alert- ✅
- Do these accounts prompt you to buy followers over a DM or Comments? Fake account buzzer- ✅
- Is the engagement rate too low? fake account – alert ✅
- Do they send you simple emoji in comments where the emotions do not match to your content? E.g. it’s a post about a loss or a pain- and you get an awesome ? or ? ?? in the comments- Raise your brows- it’s spammy and fake engagement.
- View their followers list- do the large number look spammy or are being followed by “buy follow” accounts- Definitely fake account
- Now this is the last but personally proven technique- Reach out to the seemingly fake account or those trying to engage in unauthentically- chances are they would never reply!!
Go ahead- please ban them.
Now whether your are a brand or an influencer it’s in your health to ban the fake accounts for the following reasons:
- When one fine day the inspection happens or a pathbreaking algorithmic change happens on that Important social media platform of yours- you will loose followers count drastically.
- You may wait for the follower numbers to balance out as a lot of pay the accounts follow unfollow game. But do not be shocked if you see a few hindered or tens of numbers fluctuate in your followers count. Don’t panic.
- If your prospective new followers are seeing whom you follow or who are are followed by- your credibility shakes up things there. Yes your audience is smart.
- It will effect your game of social media presence in the long run, where community is the key Remember #communityovercompetition !
Social Audit Pro seems like a decent tool to help you tap the fake Instagram and twitter followers, its a Pro service, of course. And as regards the social proof goes- a mere hundreds of fans and followers with genuine and healthy engagement rates is better than millions of seemingly fake followers. Facebook is smart enough to lower the barriers to your content pretty effectively when it sees true engagement happening on your posts.
Here are two other leading blog pieces from Social media leaders-
Cheers to authentic content that adds value to your audience! P.S -DO NOT BUY FOLLOWERS
Here is a blog snippet from Caley Gimmick that might help you understand and gauge benchmark engagement rates.
On that note , please leave a comment below if you have anything to mention or ask, and share it back so that it can reach many more- for the love of being authentic!
Yours truly
@CMCPros!
