Have you ever wondered how to actually spot fake influencers and find legitimate ones out of Instagram’s 700 million users?
According to Media Kix, the Instagram influencer-marketing industry is worth over $1 billion and a big-time Instagram Influencer can, in fact, charge thousands of dollars for a single post.
Case in point: According to HopperHq, Selena Gomez who is at the top of the Instagram rich list with a whopping 122 million followers charges $550,000 per post and the Kardashian’s are right behind her. Kim Kardashian charges $500,000 per post, Kylie Jenner charges $400,000 per post, Kendall Jenner charges $370,000 per post, Khloe Kardashian charges $250,000 per post and Kourtney Kardashian charges $250,000 per post.
Most online marketers and big companies would be aware that a great way of getting new leads and customers for your brand is by collaborating with popular Instagram influencers who can increase your brand’s reach and visibility. Your brand can definitely benefit from Instagram as long as you collaborate with the right influencers in your industry.
But, of course, if you’re on a tight budget, I doubt that you’ll be willing to pay someone half a million dollars for a single Instagram post! So if your marketing budget is next to nothing, then it’s best to look at the average cost of a sponsored post on Instagram which is most probably around the $200 to $300 mark depending on a person’s reach and influence.
Now because Instagram is such a huge media platform and you can make some decent money out of it, it was inevitable for some people to beef up their Instagram accounts by exaggerating their followers and influence.
A number of so-called “Instagram Influencers” purchase followers and likes from various black market websites so they can reach out to businesses and make some extra cash. Others just do it for vanity purposes to make themselves feel better.
These fake followers are most likely internet “Spambots” that actually add no legitimate value to your Instagram account and at the worse, buying followers can potentially lead to your Instagram account getting canceled.
So how can you spot the fake Instagram influencers?
First, you need to find the right Instagram influencers for your business so you can start by using BuzzSumo.
Write down the topic that relates to your industry, cruise over to the “Influencers” tab, and you’ll see a lot of related influencers in your industry.
Buzzsumo can actually give you detailed statistics about the Instagram influencer you are eyeing on including how many followers that person has.
Once you’ve found an influencer you want to work with for your brand then it’s time to determine whether that influencer has real or fake followers – just because a person has over 50,000 followers it doesn’t mean that person is legitimately an influencer because some of those followers can be fake.
I’ve seen a number of Instagram profiles with over 15,000 followers yet whenever they post something they get an average of 10 likes?? Obviously, if you have over 15,000 followers, you’re not getting over 10 likes and no one comments on your posts then it’s either you bought your followers or your followers just don’t give a sh*t about you.
The next step for you is to type your chosen influencer’s username on this website called Social Blade to view their stats.
If that person’s following is genuine then you should be able to see a steady rise in that person’s followers.
If there are a lot of rises and declines and you can see huge drops in that person’s stats, then they’ve most likely paid for a chunk of their followers.
It’s also a good idea to head down to that influencer’s Instagram account and browse through some of that person’s photos. The number of likes, comments, and engagements an influencer gets depends on the frequency and quality of that person’s posts. Honestly speaking, it’s quite difficult to pinpoint exactly how much feedback a person should get on their posts. An average engagement could be anywhere between 1.5% to 3% But in saying that, there are many factors that could affect this statistic such as quality and quantity of the posts and how much effort is that person putting forth to invite his/her followers to engage with them.
All in all, the higher an Instagram influencer’s following is, the more a sponsored post will of course cost. If you’re a frugal entrepreneur like myself then choosing an influencer with a humble but highly engaged following is the best way to go.