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Are Fake Instagram Influencers Deceiving Brands?
- BadassFractal 9y agoNot that this is different from perhaps any other platform, but it's exceptionally difficult to grow a following as an artist on Instagram. It was probably never meant for it, but instead more targeted towards influencers. Visual artists with hundreds of thousands of followers who didn't buy them or didn't inherit them from fame outside of IG are practically unheard of.
- parka 9y agoIt is possible. You just have to post consistently and use the right tags. I'm not famous and I can get 10K followers just by posting one every few weeks, sometimes I post more regularly. More followers are gained when I post more often. In short, work.
- overcast 9y agoBaloney. You can get 10K followers at that rate, in maybe five years. Once every few weeks is basically a dead account. Even posting daily, you still have to use all of the tricks. There is just so many people doing the same thing on there, that you have to be VERY niche, and put up quality content. Food photos, in poor lighting, from your phone, are not going to do it anymore.
- Frogskope 9y agoI've always believed they deceived consumers but I makes sense when you see a lot of large brands becoming more disconnected with real society.
- quest88 9y agoSo what's the answer here? Followers, likes, and comments were bought. Did the experiment end up making more money than they spent? Is it a problem if not?
- redavni 9y agoThe answer is yes...like the article says. Also like the article says in a huge bold font, "Fake Instagram Influencers Are A Problem For The Industry".
- TrickyRick 9y agoThe article claims so in the headline and then proceeds to show that it's relatively easy to set up a fake account and get some brand deals but then provides no numbers or insight into why this is actually a widespread problem. The fact that it's doable doesn't mean it's a problem, if they made less money than they put in then it's not a problem because no one in their right mind would actually do it. Putting something in a headline doesn't make it true.
- bloaf 9y agoIt'd be cool if I could make a small botnet that would influence companies to make the kind of stuff I actually wanted to buy.
- fapjacks 9y agoSounds like the perfect opportunity for a nice new ICO.
- sogen 9y agoI smell success!
- diegoperini 9y agoAnyone has a cool landing page template bootstrap one?
- TrickyRick 9y agoDon't forget to implement the botnet on the blockchain!
- sogen 9y agoHeading for second seed round!
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- chewbacha 9y agoIt's been said before https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CK62I-4cuSY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CK62I-4cuSY
- pryelluw 9y agoIt is an issue for brands that treat it as old media. What brands need to understand is that you have to do your research before hiring am influencer. I dont hire anyone unless they provide enough convincing data. Its also important to know that most scams are aimed at the lifestyle/fashion industries. If you are a plumber you wont need to worry too much about it.You cam find worthy influencers to help you promote your services.
- jackgolding 9y agoDo you hire influencers (interesting considering you seem like a dev from your profile)? I think for the layman marketer there isn't really enough information on what the standard performance KPIs should be (even with "traditional media".) It's my view that the majority of companies aren't doing enough to record marketing performance to build their own expectations out of campaigns.
- pryelluw 9y agoYes, I do. You are right, most companies are not equipped to handle new media. That's where I help them get results. :) PS. My profile is tailored to HN. People hate marketers here.
- grecy 9y agoHow much were the "financial deals" he struck?
- Pandavonium 9y agoIn the comments the author says they were offered a total of $130 for the model account and $400 for the photographer account.
- fapjacks 9y agoOther way around, I believe. The model account fetched $400.
- flashman 9y agoSeems like it shouldn't be too hard to build a service that lets influencer networks screen out fakes. Usually there are clear markers, like a large number of followers having some other random account in common. Unfortunately, from experience I know that: a) the networks don't care because the risk and reputation cost of selling fake inventory is minimal, and b) brands don't care because it's considered a cost of doing business.
- dawnerd 9y agoThey'll just raise the minimum requirements until it becomes a lot harder to spam your way there. Also s lot of blame needs to be shifted on the various platforms for even allowing spam accounts to be created so easily. It should be a huge red flag for any account to instant get likes or follows.
- jraby3 9y agoBut the software companies that build influencer marketing software do care because it's a differentiating factor when deciding what software to use.
- Animats 9y agoPaying "influencers" to plug a brand without a disclosure of payment violates the FTC's endorsement rule.[1] It's considered false advertising. So "brands" are the deceivers here. This has been enforced on TV for decades. You see fine print in commercials when someone endorses something. New medium, same rules. [1] https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/04/ftc-staff-reminds-influencers-brands-clearly-disclose https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/04/ftc-s...
- stingraycharles 9y agoBut there are many movies, series and other kinds of shows that endorse a brand (e.g. by using a certain kind of tablet) that do not have a fine print. How does it work there ?
- dmihal 9y agoPossibly in the credits?
- sjtgraham 9y agoMovies, etc are works of fiction, people are not.
- paganel 9y agoYou could say that a lot of the social profiles involved (i.e. the influencers) are already "works of fiction". It's "The Truman Show" on a planetary level, only this time is all voluntary.
- PeanutCurry 9y agoThis right here. It's a fine line. I feel like the parent comment is implying like it's an easily exploited line but that's my personal intuition so I'll defend it in isolation. Put simply, if Michael Jordan, Shaq, or any other signature memeber of the NBA told me how to dunk better, I'd probably listen because their real world reputation has already informed me that they're skilled at the thing they're advertising about. I trust them, not because I admire them but because they are proven craftsmen of the thing they are discussing. They might be discussing it for profit in this instance, but in the real world they have shown themselves to be above average men of skill and for that reason I am interested in their knowledge. If Thor and the Avengers discover how to beat Thanos because they used a search engine on iOS instead of android I might get pretty hyped because I really like that franchise, but I know at a fundamental level that they're fake people achieving fake success against a fake villain. The same cannot be said about professional athletes, chefs, academics, or others who compete in a competitive BUT ALSO REAL environment.
- franze 9y agofriend of mine - which had huge success with influencer marketing on instagram in the german speaking market / organic cosmetics niche - tiptoed into the italian market. from what we could see the account looked legit. the pics were good, lots of comments, good interaction from other accounts with lots of followers, some other brands also - seemingly - using the account to promote products. invested a few hundred euros, great response on the postings, zero impact on sales and onlineshop traffic (which was not the same behaviour we saw in the german market). we investigate further. the responses on every post were always pretty similar, coming out of a pool of about 200 different responses, sometimes with emoji variations. even bad posts, very shitty pics with clear commercial intent, got the "awesome" and "#heart #heart"treatment. after three degrees of separation (the accounts which liked the accounts which liked the accounts) the accounts became slightly spammy. all in all, very sophisticated work. we changed the approach, we completely ignore accounts which contact us. if we identify an account with a 10k+ followers, a long post history and some meaningful interaction (even snark in the comments), we contact them. but yeah, identifying - really really well made - fakes on instragram (especially non english/german accounts because of the language barrier) would be a SAAS we were willing to use.
- PMan74 9y agoThis is why I don't especially worry about fake influences, bogus ad clicks, etc. Any advertiser worth their salt should be able to see the results (or lack of results) very quickly. Sure there'll be dumb brands throwing money away on fake clicks/likes/re-tweets/etc and not measuring results. And while that is regrettable & wouldn't happen in an ideal world it's their money to waste foolishly.
- TorKlingberg 9y agoIt's one thing when entering a new market. You expect your sales in Italy to go some zero to something, and if it doesn't you know your ads aren't working. It's harder to tell the difference if you already have large sales, unless you can connect an individual sale to the ad that drove it.
- shalmanese 9y ago
- technotony 9y agoI've been burned by this a couple of times. Posted something with an influencer and got over 1,000 instagram likes both times, but basically zero traffic and zero sales. I only spent about $50 total so should have expected bad results from that much price/promise but this is a real thing... facebook should tackle by blocking these accounts or at least creating a market for doing this legitimately (in which case they get a slice of course)
- dvfjsdhgfv 9y ago1000 likes costs $5 in Gramblr, you can buy them yourself from within the app and will get the same effect. Before doing anything with an Instagram account, you need to do an in-depth analysis of the account, otherwise it makes no sense - you'll just get empty likes.
- josteink 9y ago> I've been burned by this a couple of times. Posted something with an influencer and got over 1,000 instagram likes both times, but basically zero traffic and zero sales. I only spent about $50 total so should have expected bad results from that much price/promise but this is a real thing... facebook should tackle by blocking these accounts Those paying off other accounts to create covert marketing, or those doing the covert marketing? I find it hard to tell which are worst.
- Sophistifunk 9y agoSweet. If it's OK to pay "influencers" to pretend they like some widget you're trying to sell, it's OK to pay sockpuppets to pretend you have influence.
- Fede_V 9y agoIt's a scam, but honestly, brands trying to advertise their products without seeming like they are advertising are just as dishonest.
- minademian 9y agoThe logical conclusion of the intersection of capitalism and social media...
- lunchladydoris 9y agoIf, like me, you wondered how Mediakix came up with the size of the influencer market size, there is an outline of their methodology in a previous post [1]. Essentially they looked at how many posts were tagged with one of a group of hashtags, used a $10 CPM, and extrapolated from there. [1]: http://mediakix.com/2017/03/instagram-influencer-marketing-industry-size-how-big/ http://mediakix.com/2017/03/instagram-influencer-marketing-i...
- nfriedly 9y ago> the "influencers" were offered monetary compensation, free product, or both. Was it enough to be a positive ROI? I would assume yes, but it doesn't actually say that anywhere.
- jlebrech 9y agoand to fulfill the deal you need to keep in touch with the models you used for them to take a photo with the product?