How do you identify influencer fraud?

Unmasking fake influencers takes detective cunning like solving a hallway of mystery doors. Peek for engagement inconsistencies and followers with minimal activity. Reverse image search their pics for clones. Scan locations - are they really at the Eiffel Tower weekly? Let your spidey sense guide you. With due diligence, you can evade traps and keep campaigns legit. The game is afoot, Watson! Use your magnifying glass and decode the influencer imposters!

Ask this question: What have you sold to your community? If the influencer has never made an offer of any kind, how will they sell your product or services? If they have sold before, ask for that data - they'll have it. If it's about brand awareness, ask for reach and engagement rates.

Endless 'Great post!' comments? Even my grandma's more original than that. Dive deep and look for real conversations. But on top of this, we now have to watch out for engagements ON the engagements... Liked comments. Now we're seen a surge of fake likes piling onto fake comments to make them seem real. Be cautious and use intuition, get familiar with real engagement.

A dead giveaway is the follower : engagement ratio. If you have 30,000 followers and only 25 people are liking your post and 0 folks are commenting, then either your reach is dying or a large portion of the 30,000 can be bots.

If their engagement rate is as low as my energy on a Monday morning, those followers might just be window dressing. Conversely, if it's higher than my caffeine levels, those likes could be straight outta the can.

Even with a media kit, it is easy to inflate numbers or skew them in your favor. When looking at website traffic for example, and there are 30,000 monthly web visits listed, ask if that is month over month or a one-time thing! (because anyone can run a voting contest to inflate website traffic numbers!)

To spot influencer fraud I tend to lean towards taking a deep dive (not too deep) into the posts.... Engagement: Is the engagement in direct response to the post? i.e. - Influencer says "drop a fire emoji" but the comments aren't matching up to the directions. Fake Follower / Red Flags: Is it the same followers commenting or liking each post? When I check out the followers profile, are they actively using the platforms as well? Intersection and Cross-pollination: Is their brand representation and/or activity consistent across multiple social media platforms? Or have they used at least one platform to intentionally insert themselves in or built a community that aligns with my ICP.

Check for Follower irregularities: Spikes in growth If an influencer's follower count suddenly spikes without a clear reason (e.g., a viral post or collaboration with a high-profile account), it could be a sign of bought followers. The exception to this rule is if a brand has merged their page with another page to consolidate. This was common with Instagram and Facebook over the years. Overly Consistent: If the growth of the influencer's follower count is the exact same amount every day, this can be a red flag. Growth is never a straight line, it ebbs and flows and if you're patient and doing things right, it will continue upwards, but we should almost never see a straight line. Use something like SocialBlade for data.