Influencer Fraud & Its Adverse Effects

Influencer Marketing has set the base for modern marketing as it generates 80% of the sales as reported by different brands. This is the most revenue earned by any method and that is why most companies prefer to endorse their brand through Influencer Marketing. This popularity of influencer has both been a blessing and a curse.

The rising talk about influencer marketing in the B2B and B2C domain has gotten people to take shortcuts and commit "Influencer Frauds." In 2019, it cost brands a massive 1.3 billion dollars in losses because of this act of fraud.

So, how do influencers commit this fraud and how can you be saved from it? We'll learn about it all in this article.

Understanding Influencer Fraud

To understand the concept of Influencer Fraud, you must know how to distinguish between genuine and fake social media creators. Since the popularity of social media, people whose livelihood depends on it like social media influencers and creators, just want a huge amount of followers so that they can monetize their account and brands reach them for marketing.

Some grow organically and some use paid ads. But they are all white hat methods, meaning they do not involve any type of false doing or fraud. But some influencers go for the quickest way possible and "buy followers!" They do this to trick other people and brands into thinking that they have a lot of fan following. Other people follow them for leisure but when brands are caught in this act, then they are bound to face nothing but loss.

What are Bots or Fake Followers?

These are profiles that are managed by automated programs and are usually bought out in bulk. If you type "buy social media followers" on Google, you'll find lots of websites openly selling followers for different platforms.

Fake followers are often mixed up with "Sockpuppet" accounts. These accounts are created to deceive people or to pretend as someone else. They are handled by real people and sometimes are bought along with other fake followers. Basically, both are not genuine and their purpose is to deceive others, especially brands so that the influencer who has bought them could have more followers. These bots/sockpuppet accounts are usually bought to:

• Promote business

• Get Reviews

• Spread biased or false content

• Give multiple entries for giveaways or raffles

Fake Purchases/Clicks

When brands collaborate with influencers, they often give them promo codes or a link. The deal between the brand and the influencer is set like this: followers have to either click the link or make a purchase from that link for the influencer to earn a commission. The more clicks or sales from that particular link, the more commission the influencer receives.

Now, some influencers have found shortcuts for this. They use e-commerce extensions like Honey where they upload the coupon code and increase the sales. The thing is that there are no sales happening but the PPC is increasing on the brand's side which causes a massive loss for them. This is how fake purchases/clicks are done.

Recognizing Influencer Fraud

By now, you have learned a lot about how influencer fraud is becoming common in influencer marketing and how the whole process works. Coming to the next step, how can you recognize and avoid people that are committing this malicious act? Let's learn about it so you can be safe from these wannabe influencers.

1. Influencer's Activities on Other Platforms

No matter how many accounts they have on different platforms, their activity is consistent on all the pages and accounts. If you are following someone who has a huge fan base and activity on only one platform, then chances are that they are fake or commit some fraudulent act like buying fake followers. Better check out their comment section to confirm your doubts.

2. Look Into Their Follower's Accounts

Fake followers usually have no posts on their profiles or have incomplete profiles like having no profile pictures or bio. Checking the accounts of followers of a social media influencer will also help you to know if they're genuine or not. Fake profiles also have strange names or some weird thing that distinguishes them from other people. You can also copy their picture and put it into Google to know if the same person has different accounts on social media platforms or not.

3. Observe Sudden Increment in Followers or Engagement

This is long-term work but that will help you to ensure if the social media influencer you're about to choose for your brand is genuine or not. Fake influencers often buy followers in bulk which might show a sudden increase in their follower count or engagement. So, visit their profile once in a while to keep an eye on their followers. If you see a sudden spike without recent content posting, then you should see the accounts of followers to make sure if they're bought out or real.

4. Check the Comments

People who buy fake followers have unusual comments. These bots will either market some weird product/service or will leave repetitive comments on all the posts. It is very easy to catch these culprits because they do poor job of hiding themselves. So, looking in the comment section is the easiest thing you can do to find a fraudulent influencer.

Ending Words

Today you might have learned a lot about social media influencers and the fake shortcuts they take to make money. If you follow the instructions given above, it will be super easy for you to recognize and avoid these people. This will help you in saving your reputation and your brand's money.

Remember, not all influencers are the same. You might find fake bots in other influencer profiles because the sole purpose of these accounts is to disrupt the peace and growth of others. Always observe an influencer for a few months before coming to your final decision. If you still have any doubts, try asking other influencers about this particular account/creator. These creators are usually good friends with each other. If they endorse your target person, then it'll be easy for you to collaborate with them.