Staying on top of your social media presence is important. But it is especially important if you have an Instagram account with a lot of followers.
The higher your follower count goes, the more money you can make through sponsorships and collaborations with other companies in the industry.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of fake Instagram accounts out there that look like real ones from the outside but which sell these accounts to the highest bidder instead of being genuinely interested in the product you are promoting.
Why fake Instagram accounts and followers?
Fake accounts and followers are used in order to boost your social media presence. They are made by a person or company, who has the intent of making themselves look more popular on social media.
You can identify fake accounts by looking at the number of posts they have made, how many likes they get per post, and how much engagement they have with other users on their page. Let us find out more ways to identify fake Instagram accounts and followers.
Also Read: How To Increase Instagram Followers Organically
How To Identify Fake Instagram accounts and followers
1. Look at the account’s followers
You can usually spot a fake account by looking at the number of followers they have compared to the number of posts they have made. If they have more followers than posts, it is probably not someone you want following you.
If they are followed by 20 people and only have 10 followers, there is a high chance that this account is fake.
You can also see how long ago they joined the social media site. If they joined yesterday, it is likely that they are fake.
There are also ways to find out if a person is following you without you following them back or if their profile photo has been stolen from another account.
2. Check out the account’s posts
You are not going to be able to tell if an account is fake just by looking at the posts, but there are a few things you can do.
- First, look at their number of posts. If they post on a regular basis, then chances are it is not a bot account. If they only post once or twice every six months and have 12k followers, that might be cause for suspicion.
- Second, check how many likes their posts get. Again, this isn’t a surefire way to know if an account is fake, but bots don’t usually interact with other users very often.
- The third thing to watch out for is what kind of hashtags the account uses. Some bots will use popular hashtags like #blessed or #selfie in all of their posts in order to generate more engagement from people who are genuinely interested in those topics. Other bots will follow trending hashtags so that people see them when they search for those words on Instagram.
3. See how often the account is active
If you are not sure if an account is fake, then take a look at how often the account is active.
If the account posts more than four times per hour or has more than 500 posts in its feed, it’s probably a fake account.
A bunch of followers that are inactive and that follow other accounts just like yours means they were purchased, so stay away.
Be wary of accounts with only 1-2 photos and no comments on those photos. They could be trying to lure your followers into following them by using your hashtags or including your handle in their captions.
Also Read: How To Block Voice Calls And Video Calls On Instagram
4. Examine the comments on the account’s posts
Comments on the account’s posts are a great way to find out if the account is fake. If you notice that any of the comments seem like advertisements for other brands, this could be a sign that this account is fake.
If the posts get a lot of likes but no one leaves any comments, then it is likely fake because real accounts will attract some engagement.
5. Other ways to identify fake Instagram accounts and followers
There are many ways that can help you identify these fake accounts, but the best way is by using an app called Instafollowgram.
The application has a feature called Fake Follower Scan which it will provide you with all of the details about the account, such as whether or not they are active and what they post.
You can also use this tool to find out if your competition is hiring someone else to follow their account in order to make them seem more popular.
Another tool is FakeFinder. To use it, simply open the app and enter in the username of the person whose account or followers you want to investigate.
The app will return a list of results, including how many fake followers or accounts were found for that user. It automatically detects which ones are too perfect (have an unrealistic brightness level) by looking at shadows and highlights in the photo.
Also Read: 500+ Best Captions For Instagram For Boys
Bottom Line
The best way to identify fake accounts on Instagram is by looking at their posts and profile. If you notice that they have a lot of followers but not many likes, then it might be a fake account.
Also, if the account has a lot of people following them but they don’t follow many people, then it might also be a fake account. But the most obvious sign is when you click on the person’s account and see that there are no posts or pictures whatsoever.