Key takeaways:
- Fake influencers are a huge concern. They inflate their following with fake likes and followers, leading to ineffective marketing campaigns and potential damage to a business’s reputation.
- To avoid partnering with fake influencers, brands must know which key signs to look for. This is not always straightforward, as many have become experts at hiding their tracks.
- With almost 60% of businesses reporting incidents of influencer fraud and rising digital polarisation and distrust, this issue must be taken seriously.
Why partnering with fake influencers might damage your brand
If you’re an expert on a topic, reading about it in the news can sometimes baffle you. We are not suggesting journalists try to deceive, but let’s be honest: not all news articles are investigative journalism.
Newspapers are overflowing with content about influencers, yet very few address the real issue: Are these people or companies truly influential, or do they appear that way?
One recent article tackled this subject, claiming that “it’s easy to spot a fake influencer.” But that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s easy to miss the signs without knowing what to look for. In fact, some fake accounts have become impressively sophisticated at mimicking genuine influence.
After investing thousands of hours studying Instagram, we can confidently say that the platform is flooded with fake influencers. Unfortunately, it’s now so common that, as a marketing agency, we’re often asked if we recommend buying followers.
The answer is always no. As a company, you’re the one who has to live with the decision if you go down that route. You’ll also have to constantly cover your tracks when brands approach you for partnerships. And does it really feel good to receive praise for a following you know isn’t real?
Moreover, partnering with fake influencers can severely damage a brand’s reputation and credibility. Fake influencers buy followers, likes, and engagement to appear more popular than they are, building a hollow, inflated audience.
Associating with them risks wasting marketing budgets on individuals who don’t genuinely reach or influence potential customers. Worse still, if others catch on to these fake partnerships, it could erode trust in your brand.
Fake influencers are a massive problem!
Influencer marketing continues to grow. In 2023, it reached a value of $21.1 billion. It’s now an essential strategy for brands aiming to connect with new customers and can significantly boost a company’s success. Take, for instance, Tally Health, which managed to launch with a waiting list of 270,000 potential new customers because of its founder’s influence.
Instagram marketers dedicate 69% of their budgets to influencer marketing. However, 59.8% of businesses report incidents of influencer fraud.
Instagram is actively working to combat this, removing large numbers of accounts daily that violate community guidelines, which prohibit purchasing followers and likes. Although many fraudulent accounts have been taken down, the platform has far from succeeded in eliminating them.
If you’re considering using influencers, knowing how to tell genuine influencers from fake ones is crucial. We’ll guide you through what to look for to make informed decisions.
To identify fake influencers, there are three account types you need to know
The key factors to consider vary depending on the account type. We’ve categorised the main types below, though some accounts may overlap.
Celebrities:
These accounts grow because the individuals, including those from reality TV, are already famous. Massive exposure on television or in the media significantly boosts their follower counts, sometimes dramatically. Therefore consider:
- Their content creation skills. This can vary widely. If you find a celebrity who’s also skilled in creating engaging content, you’ve found a valuable partner.
Micro-influencers:
These accounts may not have viral content, but they’ve spent years building an engaged audience. While their “reach” may not be as high as larger accounts, they often achieve proportionally higher engagement, and they’re influential within their niche. To identify a micro-influencer:
- Check the “About this account” section to see when the profile was created. They usually started the account years ago.
- Review the number of posts. They usually have a substantial amount of posts.
- Evaluate how influential they are in the niche. If you know the niche, you will generally know who the most extensive profiles are. If several prominent accounts follow the micro-influencer, it’s a good sign of their influence.
Macro-influencers:
These influencers excel at creating viral content and can be identified by:
- They have a high “reach” on their reels, as shown by the number of views on each reel.
- They typically have a substantial number of posts, as producing frequent content is essential for going viral and building a follower base.
How to spot fake influencers: 9 Signs to watch out for
Now that you know which account types to look for, here are some general tips to identify fake influencers. Remember, getting more fans on a platform like Instagram, requires more than a basic AI-generated social media strategy. Typically a influential account has a clearly defined niche that does not confuse the algorithms.
1. New accounts with high follower count
Be cautious of accounts claiming they reached 100k followers in just a few months. That’s a red flag. Think of it this way: in the real business world, influence takes repeated interactions to build. Therefore, regardless of how good your Instagram strategy is, why should the platform be any different?
According to cognitive psychologist George Miller, people generally remember only seven items. This has been applied to marketing, suggesting customers must encounter a brand seven times before making a decision. It’s the same with influencers.
New accounts need time, consistent content, and significant reach to attract followers. If you have the right strategy and a bit of luck, a realistic timeframe for growing an audience to 10k followers is about one year.
2. No reels are a sign of a fake influencer
Reels are the most effective way to grow on Instagram today. Unless the influencer is a celebrity or micro-influencer, they must create reels to expand their reach.
3. No viral reels means the influencer is probably fake
The definition of a “viral” reel varies, with some considering 100k views viral, others 500k, and others over 1 million. From our experience growing our running account and going viral multiple times, even reaching 1 million views rarely brings in thousands of new followers; at best, it might attract around 1,000.
Less competitive industries than running might generate different results, but this is a useful benchmark. The exception might be accounts focused on Instagram growth tips, which appeal to most users on Instagram since many are there to grow their accounts. However, even in this category, there are multiple fake accounts.
Therefore, look for accounts focusing on increasing Reels’ views to identify genuine vs. fake followers. One of the best ways to do this is to evaluate an account’s engagement rate using a more modern method.
4. High follower count but low engagement
Authentic accounts with a large following generally have a core group of loyal followers, resulting in higher reach, likes, comments, and shares.
Engagement can vary by post, but legitimate accounts will have standout content that performs well. Moreover, remember that engagement on Instagram goes beyond “quality content.” Therefore, just because the posts look nice doesn’t mean the account is genuine.
5. A low number of posts means the account might be a fake influencer
Unless they’re celebrities, influencers need to create a substantial amount of content to build a following and maintain an engaged audience. It’s evident that when influencers stop posting, engagement drops significantly. This can be a reason why content is not reaching your followers.
Therefore, do not believe the hype around AI tools that claim they can micro-target your target audience to grow online. AI in social media just doesn’t work that way. An account with a large following but low number of posts is often a fake influencer.
6. Consistent post-performance
Yes, you read that correctly. Even influencers with over 1 million followers see fluctuating engagement levels due to variations in the Instagram algorithm. An account where every post performs equally well could indicate manipulation.
7. Influencers with low-quality or fake looking followers
In recent years global demand for fake followers has skyrocketed 300%. As a result, identifying which accounts are fake has become more difficult.
However, if many of an influencer’s followers have public profiles with few posts or stock-like profile pictures, those followers may be fake. Naturally, grown accounts tend to attract a significant number of private followers.
8. Low-quality engagement is a sign of fake influence
Accounts that rely on fake tactics often show many short, generic comments or strings of emojis, which suggests bot activity. For example, you will see a string of heart emojis or banal comments like “love it” and “incredible.”
9. Sudden, dramatic follower growth
If you’ve been following someone for a while and notice a sudden spike in their follower count, it’s likely a fake influencer. Growing from 10k to 100k followers overnight typically only happens with massive media exposure.
Spotting fake influencers and identifying what is truthful online is becoming increasingly important.
The digital space has grown increasingly polarised, with many people losing trust in what they see online. This is one reason why people are posting less on social media.
Unfortunately, this distrust may only deepen with AI’s rise. Much depends on how effectively it will be regulated. Without trust, society risks a rapid downward spiral, and we’re already seeing signs of this.
Some fake influencers have turned deception into an art form, with accounts that appear to have hundreds of thousands of followers. One example showed an influencer’s following jump from 40k to 340k overnight. Yet, despite this suspicious growth, they leveraged it to gain television publicity and remain popular.
Integrity, however, is likely to become more valuable in the future. We’re seeing cultural shifts driven largely by Gen Z, whose values are reshaping workplace expectations.
They champion authenticity, diversity, and mental health support, often with a strong commitment to social and environmental justice. Rejecting superficiality, they place a higher value on openness and personal growth.
Meanwhile, AI developers are working hard to enhance trust in their tools. For instance, Google’s Gemini recently responded like this to a request:
“I can’t help with responses on elections and political figures right now. While I would never deliberately share something inaccurate, I can make mistakes. So, while I work on improving, you can try Google Search.”
Let’s hope these efforts lead to a future where trust in digital content is restored.
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