Instagram is a key platform in social media marketing. Over a billion people use the photo-sharing network every month, and more than 500 million use it every day, according to Hootsuite. Those numbers mean there are ample opportunities to reach new consumers and connect with target markets.
Running an Instagram influencer campaign is one method for reaching new audiences that’s rising in popularity. Instagram influencers are people who’ve grown their numbers of followers on the platform and regularly engage with these users. Followers respect influencers’ opinions because the influencers are often knowledgeable about their content niches. Brands partner with influencers to increase reach and build loyalty among the influencers’ followers, who typically fit the demographic profiles of the brands’ target markets.
Influencers can grow their follower counts organically by posting helpful or aspirational content. When follower numbers grow authentically, brands know that they’re reaching real humans — potential customers — when they partner with influencers for campaigns. However, there can be a sinister side to high follower counts. Some influencers purchase or otherwise accumulate fake followers — the presence of which can be detrimental to an influencer marketing campaign.
What Are Fake Followers?
Fake followers are Instagram accounts whose primary purpose is to inflate someone’s follower numbers. The reason they’re following isn’t because they’re excited to learn from an influencer’s content or become part of a community. Bots, not real people, are typically behind interactions stemming from these accounts. The bots may be programmed to engage with an influencer’s content in some superficial way, such as with a Like. Or, they might not interact at all.
Often, unscrupulous companies sell large batches of fake followers to influencers who want to boost their numbers. There may be real people managing these fake accounts to create the illusion of engagement with influencer content. Or, algorithms might tell programmed bots to interact based on hashtag usage in a post. The fake accounts might also do nothing more than follow influencers to create the appearance of more followers.
Why Are Fake Followers Bad?
In the early days of Instagram marketing, it was common for brands to look primarily at follower counts when choosing influencers to partner with. Lots of followers means lots of potential engagement during a campaign, right? Not exactly. Brands caught on to the presence of fake followers and realized they needed to dig deeper to better anticipate campaign performance. That’s because fake followers have a number of disadvantages for both brands and influencers.
They Devalue ROI
Fake followers can waste a marketing budget and ultimately decimate a campaign’s ROI. The aim of influencer campaigns is often to increase conversions. If you’re marketing to fake accounts, you’re spending money on bot or bought “users” who won’t ever purchase your product. And you’re wasting money paying an influencer to post content that far fewer people are really looking at, so there’s no boost to brand reach.
They Deflate Engagement
On the influencer side, fake followers cause engagement rates to drop. Say an influencer with 50,000 organic followers gets about 500 comments per post and 5,000 likes. That’s an engagement rate of 11 percent. Now, say that same influencer buys 50,000 fake followers and still gets 500 comments and 5,000 likes per post. Their engagement rate is halved to 5.5 percent.
Low engagement signals to brands that followers don’t really care enough about the influencer’s content to listen to it or trust it. Brands check engagement rates instead of only focusing on follower counts these days before partnering with influencers. So, it’s beneficial to influencers to have the best engagement rates possible. They won’t achieve that with fake followers dragging the rates down.
They Damage Trust
Fake followers can also destroy trust — in brands and in influencers. When real followers find out an influencer they idolized bought fake followers, they may also start doubting the trustworthiness of brands the influencer partnered with. If the influencer lied about followers, were they also lying about loving a brand’s products? That negative association can damage a brand’s reputation and make real people question the company’s integrity.
How Does Instagram Hashtag Usage Relate to Fake Followers?
Brands often check hashtags when they’re researching influencers to partner with. Using specific hashtags isn’t an automatic red flag that someone bought fake followers. But hashtag usage can lead to clues about the presence of fake followers. Niche influencers often use highly specific, targeted tags that they may have created or popularized themselves. Bot followers are sometimes programmed to follow and interact with those specific hashtags by liking or commenting on posts that include the tags.
On the flipside, generic hashtags like #travel or #foodie that people have used millions of times are highly likely to be rife with fake followers. That’s why it’s essential for a brand to take a deeper-than-cursory look into an influencer’s details, not just hashtag usage, to get the whole picture. Looking at engagement, overall content quality, posting consistency and actual follower profiles provides a better assessment. See if the influencer is using a good balance of niche, generic and upcoming hashtags on his or her posts. This extra work at the start can help brands avoid fake-follower pitfalls and enjoy a more successful marketing campaign overall.
