In this age of ever-present online presence, many social media users have turned to buying followers in order to increase their influence or have a certain appearance of success. As this practice has become increasingly common, it is important to identify fake followers so that the sincerity and trustworthiness of particular users are not compromised. This article will demonstrate how to uncover fake followers on Instagram and Twitter, and assess the legitimacy of anyone’s online status.
I. Introduction to Fake Followers
What are Fake Followers?
Fake Followers are accounts created to artificially increase the followers of an account, be it an individual or a corporate entity. These fake accounts usually do not generate any kind of engagement or interaction with the content posted by the original account, making them virtually useless to the owner. They can even be used to hide existing followers or create an impression of greater popularity without any real engagement.
How to Identify Fake Followers
Fake Followers can often be identified by taking into account several factors, such as:
- Post frequency: Fake Followers do not usually post any content.
- Engagement level: Fake Followers do not generate any kind of interaction, such as replies, comments or likes.
- Followers-Following ratio: Fake Followers often follow large numbers of accounts whereas they have few followers.
- Profile information: Fake Followers often do not have profile pictures, do not use real names, and are usually created recently.
Why Fake Followers?
Although it is highly discouraged, large organizations and small businesses often resort to tactics such as creating fake followers in order to increase their social media presence and gain a reputation of greater popularity, although fake. Some individuals also try to build a persona of popularity with fake followers in order to gain more attention from potential customers.
II. Understand the Red Flags of Fake Followers
It is important to take caution when attempting to find out whether a certain account has fake followers or not. Be aware that some accounts will go to extremes to conceal the evidence in an attempt to hide that they have fake followers. Here are some of the red flags to take note of when determining whether an account has fake followers:
- Big Following Compared to Engagement – People who buy followers typically won’t buy engagements as well, so closely observe the ratio between the number of followers and the number of likes and comments for each post. If the number of comments and likes is significantly low comapred to the number of followers, it’s a sign that those followers might not be genuine.
- Too Many Immediate Followers – Most naturally grown accounts tend to increase followers slowly, over time. Thus, if an account suddenly gains thousands of followers in a short period of time, it’s likely that the account has purchased followers.
- Too Many Private Accounts – Private accounts or newly created accounts make up a large percentage of an account’s followers, it could be an indication of potential fraud.
It is also critical to pay attention to any sudden spikes in followers or increase in engagement on a specific post. This could be an indication that someone has purchased engagement for a post, or followers for the account. If a post has an abnormally large amount of engagement when compared to other posts from the same account, it may be wise to investigate a little further.
IV. Evaluate the Audited Followers
Audited followers are an integral component of the modern social media ecosystem. This section evaluates their various benefits and drawbacks to provide context and understanding.
- Benefits:
Audited followers are a good indicator of the influence a social media account holds, which makes them incredibly valuable. Auditing followers gives an objective analysis of a given network follower base, resulting in useful and actionable insights. Additionally, an audit reveals which accounts are genuine followers and which are fake, allowing account owners to take the necessary steps to grow an authentic following.
- Shortcomings:
The audit process can often be time-consuming and cumbersome for account owners. Additionally, the results of an audit are not always reliable, as the accuracy of any audit depends on the quality of data and methods used. Also, such followers are often short-lived and not as engaged as authentic followers.
Overall, audited followers are helpful when seeking to understand the effectiveness of organic and paid campaigns. Careful and frequent analysis should be conducted to understand their performance over time.
V. Steps to Take After Finding Suspicious Followers
If you have suspicious followers on your accounts, it’s important to take action as soon as possible. Here are a few steps to take after finding suspicious followers on your accounts.
Identify any malicious content or links. Check the account feed of any suspicious followers for malicious material. It’s important to remove any malicious links or content that they’ve posted or shared.
Block and unfollow the suspicious followers. Block any suspicious followers to prevent them from viewing your content or interacting with your accounts. Unfollow them so they can no longer see or follow you.
Report the suspicious followers. Report any suspicious followers to the hosting platform of your accounts. This will alert the platform of the potential for malicious activity, and will help them take appropriate measures.
Put measures in place to prevent further attacks. Once you’ve reported and blocked the suspicious followers, take measures to prevent future attacks on your accounts. This includes:
- Enabling two-factor authentication
- Updating passwords to complex and secure combinations
- Setting limits for comment, direct message and post interactions
Learning how to investigate and spot fake Instagram and Twitter followers is becoming increasingly important on the ever-gifting digital landscape. Utilizing the guidelines set out in this article, you can now easily identify suspicious profiles and bots. With only a few clicks, you can quickly determine if someone bought followers on social media and have the confidence to trust them or not.
