How to Spot Fake Social Media Profiles

In today’s world, fake profiles are a common facet of social media. These fake social media profiles are used for different reasons, some more significant than others.

Because of this trend, learning how to spot them can mean a world of difference, both in terms of your business’ social media marketing strategy and in terms of the information that you take in and share.

Popular social media platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook, realize this and have been implementing new policies to try to limit these fake profiles on their platforms. However, even with these policies, it’s difficult to capture all of them.

So, here’s how you can begin to discern the real from the fake.

Why Are Fake Social Media Profiles Used

One of the most common and well-known reasons for fake social media accounts being created is for hacking. Hackers will create these profiles and follow users. They have different ways of trying to scam people from using direct messages to free giveaways.

Another use of fake profiles is to grow a social media account. Some influencers will have fake profiles created to follow or like their pictures to increase their popularity.

A more unique usage is for governmental purposes. Governments have started creating fake social media accounts to monitor certain people. Although social media platforms do not usually approve of this and the potential legal liability it may cause, it’s still being done.

So, how do you spot fake social media profiles?

How to Spot Fake Social Media Profiles

Here are some common methods and things to look for when trying to identify fake social media profiles:

A Large Following

Many times, these accounts will max out on their following. They do this for multiple reasons. Fake accounts follow each other and popular accounts to try to appear authentic. However, they will follow way too many people making it obvious that it is a fake profile.

Another method is called follow-unfollow. These accounts will follow large amounts of accounts and then unfollow them after a while. This is in hopes that the people they follow will follow them back resulting in a gain of followers. Pay attention to whether an account’s following is fluctuating at a rapid rate.

Low Engagement

Social media platforms do a great job of creating algorithms that promote authentic engagement. Because of this, fake profiles are easy to pick out. Fake social media profiles often have a large number of followers with very little engagement on their content. This is because they are using fake followers or bots to follow their account.

These bots do not engage and are purely used to grow an account’s follower count. A real account will have authentic engagement, meaning it will have likes and comments that accurately reflect the number of followers that the account has. 

Generic, Shady Content

Another easy way to spot fake social media profiles is to inspect their content. Authentic, popular social media accounts make it to the top because their content is worth it. These fake profiles are easy to spot in this way.

They often have content that is generic and just used to put content on a page. Unoriginal content is a great sign of shady accounts. It does not always mean an account is fake, but it is a good indicator.

Using these common methods, you should be able to spot fake social media accounts. Use these strategies in a combined fashion to easily spot, report, and block these accounts. Doing so will help to ensure that you aren’t being scammed or spied on through these fake accounts. 

A Special Warning

In 2020, you must be careful when unfollowing as well. With the updated policies, if you unfollow too many people at once, your account may get blocked for a certain amount of time.

If your number of fake followers is not too high it might be worth removing them over time; this way, your profile will truly reflect the size of your fanbase and customer engagement. 

To build an authentic following, get in touch with the social media marketers at Rizzo Young Marketing.