Have you ever worked with a blogger, vlogger or other social media influencer to promote your brand? If you have, you probably already know the benefits. Working with the right influencer is a great way to get your brand in front of a wider audience you don’t reach from your own channels and boost your bookings.
These benefits are some of the many reasons why influencer marketing has boomed in recent years and grown to become one of the biggest trends in the travel industry.
As with any trend, though, there are people out there looking to exploit it – fake influencers. These are people who buy followers, likes and comments to make their account appear influential – and in order for your brand collaborations to be successful, you need to identify ways to a spot a fake influencer.
Despite the efforts of social media platforms to suspend these accounts, even huge brands have fallen for fake influencers. And with a quick Google search bringing up hundreds of sites selling followers and likes, it’s easier than ever to fake it until you make it (or not, as the case may be).
Our own clients have been approached by ‘fake influencers’ looking for free stays in return for blog and social media posts. Offering money or a free stay with you in return for coverage on one of these accounts would mean no return on your investment.
Don’t get caught out – here are 7 red flags to watch out for…
- LOTS OF FOLLOWERS, LOW ENGAGEMENT
High follower count = someone you want to work with, right? Not quite. As we said above, you can now buy followers online for as little as $10. But when accounts buy these followers, they’re only paying for the number – most of the accounts are either bots or inactive. That means that despite a high number of followers, their engagement – likes and comments – will remain low (unless they buy these too!). A high number of followers but low engagement is your first tell tale sign of a fake influencer. - INCONSISTENT FOLLOWER GROWTH
If you’re considering working with an influencer, run their account through Social Blade – a free tool that lets you analyse the growth of someone’s social media accounts. This will show you the account’s engagement rate as well as a stats summary which shows daily fluctuations in followers. Real influencer accounts will have stable growth. If you notice huge peaks with thousands of followers a day, for example, this would suggest that person is paying for their followers. - FOLLOWER TO FOLLOWING RATIO
Are their followers and following number almost the same? Some people will follow a lot of accounts just to get ‘a follow back’. If someone has thousands of followers but also follows the same number back, then it’s unlikely they have a lot of real influence. - LOW POST FREQUENCY
If they have lots of followers and their posts get lots of likes BUT they only post rarely and irregularly, then they have probably bought the followers and likes. Real influencers post consistently on their social media accounts. - SPAM COMMENTS – OR NO COMMENTS AT ALL
We’ve all seen those spam comments – comments from social media users that bear no relevance to the photo itself. Of course, big accounts will attract some spam, so these ‘cut and paste’ style comments don’t necessarily mean the person in question is fake. However, you’ll be able to get a good idea of the actual influence of an account by the comments and responses on their posts. If there are genuine conversations, people tagging their friends and personalised comments, then the following is most likely authentic. If, on the other hand, there are only spam comments OR no comments at all, this is a definite red flag. - FOLLOWERS WHO COULD BE BOTS
If you want to check whether somebody has bought followers, head to their follower list and take a scroll. If you notice lots of inactive accounts, accounts with no followers themselves or with no profile photo – chances are they have bought these followers. - UNCLEAR ON NUMBERS
A real influencer should be able to provide evidence of their worth to your brand with some basic stats. If they’re shady about numbers or can’t provide stats to back up their claims, you don’t want to work with them.
So, there you have it – if you’re planning on working with an influencer but want to check they are legit, run through the above list.
If there aren’t any red flags, then you’re good to go. As we said before, working with an influencer can result in huge returns for your brand. The most important thing is to work with an influencer that really fits your brand – check out our past blog post to find out 5 things to do before choosing an influencer to work with.
Looking for support with influencer management for your brand? Drop us a message and let’s chat.
