Woah woah woah... There's suddenly so many people following me at one go.
Wow! It's intense.
It's just growing and growing.
Welcome to The Public Investigator.
On this show, I'll be doing the digging on a range of digital topics
from scams and fake news to cyberbullying and influencers.
On this episode, I'll be investigating a topic which some of you may be curious about
The World of Faking Your Social Media Numbers.
Being popular on social media has a ton of perks
and many have even made careers out of it.
In the last ten years, the influencer marketing industry has really exploded.
Today in 2020, the number of people that are active social media users right
is 3.8 billion.
That's 49% of the global population.
Social media is the most powerful media platform across the globe.
Almost all forms of digital marketing briefs that we get today
if there is no budget allocated for influencer marketing
it seldom is a campaign that goes forward.
The social media space is huge
but in this episode, we're just going to focus on Instagram
as it's one of the most popular platforms for influencers and for the marketers that want to engage them.
So...
what does it take to get to the top?
I started blogging at a really young age
like maybe 11?
But like if you said like making money out of whatever I'm doing out of social media
I would say around 16.
So now I'm 24,
so it's about 8 years.
I only started taking it seriously as a job I guess as an influencer
content creator in 2014.
It took me 12 years
and perhaps 6 to 8 years before I gain a sizable following
or got my first paycheck.
There was many times throughout this entire period where I wanted to give up.
There're just a lot of negativity.
But I'm glad I didn't allow the negative
comments to stop me from doing what I love doing.
I know how hard it was to build up everything.
I know how hard it was to get from zero to where I am now.
But it also comes with a lot of timing, luck and persistence.
I had a full-time job, I was doing lecturing and doing a lot of part-time jobs
because food blogging is an expensive hobby.
Like at restaurants, I pay everything on my own.
And so it cost a lot.
And buying equipment, attending workshops, all these requires money.
It seems like many of the successful influencers did things the hard way.
They build up their following over the years
just like how you'll build up a traditional business.
But there are many who just wants instant popularity
and to get them there, there's a whole industry of faking your numbers
and that is what I'm going to be investigating.
A week ago, I did an experiment to find out more.
So I've set up a fake Instagram account called "Anyhowshootlah".
And now I'm gonna try to buy some followers, likes and comments
to help me become an influencer from scratch.
So I've gone on Google to search and
there are so many sites providing services like this
where you can buy anything you need to build a following artificially.
I'm here on this site now and the reason why I chose this site was because it says
"Buy Instagram Followers Singapore".
This is important because when a brand tries to engage an influencer
they would typically ask for a screenshot of their demographics.
If a brand is based in Singapore, they would want you to have majority Singapore followers
because that's the target audience.
So this would be I guess pretty ideal.
So lets see...
it's 500 followers for 8.95 pounds.
Which is about SG$14 - SG$15.
It's one time, quick delivery, 100% safe.
Real people.
Oh..when I click lets buy
it put me in a different website.
This new web page they've directed me to no longer has the word Singapore in it.
So I'm gonna buy 500 Instagram followers anyway
and then we'll see on the phone whether it's really like from Singapore.
I don't know how I feel so nervous.
Tah-Dah!
Let's see how fast it is.
Zero followers.
What happened to the promise of quick delivery? Shall we just move on?
Let's try a different website.
This website it says Instagram Followers & Likes in Minutes.
So that's better than "quick delivery" which is very vauge.
So this website looks way more professional. They even have graphics with like
"we've proudly delivered 25 million likes".
They really take pride in this
scam that they are running.
They even have a segment for feedback.
So they have customer feedback and reviews and there's like a little smiley face there.
You can basically buy two tiers of followers on this website.
High Quality Followers which is just accounts with a profile picture but not much else.
Or premium followers which are real people apparently.
We'll I'm just gonna go straight for premium followers because I want my account to look super legit.
Okay, so I've just purchased 500 premium followers
and now they say sending followers. Let's see.
I have 198 followers!
I'm gonna be so successful at this guys!
That was really quick.
210.
211! 213! 214! 217! 220!
What's some followers without likes right?
It would look super inauthentic if I have 500 followers and zero likes.
So you have the option to buy Instagram likes as well.
They actually give me the option to split all the likes between my post.
Because the most recent post is a video,
you not only get 166 likes, you also get 166 views.
This is such a scam.
So my purchase of likes has already gone through and the expected delivery time is 30 minutes.
So it's split between three post. So it's a 166 likes...
per post.
So a 166 x 3 is actually 498 so...
even though I paid a high high price of $6.99,
they scammed me of two likes.
Not pleased about that.
But the likes are coming in.
So I see
people liking my video, people liking my photo.
12 people have liked my photo of toilet paper that says "Very important".
16 people have liked my photo of plants.
The video of my dustbin have 3 views.
Oh when I refreshed it, it jumped up to 178 views.
Oh! That's even more that 166.
So I got more than I paid for.
Nice.
I currently have 509 followers and I'm refreshing it right now and it's not jumping anymore.
I can't tell if the followers are coming from the first or second website because
there's like no differentiation.
But the likes and views are definitely coming from the second website.
So I'm just going into one and click on the likes.
And they are all from accounts that
have extremely European names.
Like Anna Malinowska.
Who has zero post.
And 24 followers.
And who is following zero people.
Actually all these followers
look super dodgy.
And when you click in
it is so obvious that they are bought followers.
Because like
this is obviously not a real person or who is active on Instagram.
So I've gone on to a different website that says buy Instagram comments.
So you can choose custom that means you enter your own comments,
random or real.
So when I clicked on real, it's more expensive obviously
but real Instagram users and influencers with 10000 plus followers
will post relevant comments on your Instagram post.
Limited to one order per post.
That's so special.
Should we do that?
Okay, let's do that.
Okay so now I'm gonna buy five custom comments
Meaning I'm gonna be the one coming up with the comments on my plants post.
So I've already done real comments from real influences,
custom comments which I've created myself
and now I'm gonna do random comments.
Wow! There are comments coming in from my toilet paper post.
Following everything you do.
Stunning
A bunch of emojis
True icon.
I want to have all of your style.
Thanks so much for sharing! This is stunning.
Okay, well...
that was quick.
Okay, so I'm clicking into a few of these
and they all look like real accounts.
So some of them are private so can't be helped
but the ones that are not private are full on accounts
with consistent photos from the same person.
These are actually real people.
So I'm gonna click in and DM some of them to
start a conversation.
Alright if they reply, I'll give you guys an update.
Wooo.... okay okay guys!
This is very exciting! This is my first real influencer comment on my dustbin.
The comment is pretty good.
Who's that for? Haha! Laughing emoji.
Not bad. Let's click in to see.
11.9k followers.
Natalie from New York.
And all her pictures are...
stock pictures of different cities with zero likes and zero comments on all of them.
This is not the real influencer experience that I paid for!
I thought it was going to be like someone who had a real following.
This is just a fake account.
Oh and a second Instagram influencer has commented
Open close, open close. Clapping.
Okay guys, I'm starting to get a hang of this.
It's also 11.8k followers which is exactly the same.
All the post are of pasta
and none of these pasta post
have any likes or comments or what so ever.
I bet it's the same person managing all these accounts
who's just going in and creating these comments.
Because they are personalized comments.
The most recent comment is "Hey! There is a straw inside."
Which is really relevant to my video.
Now once again when you click in,
it's 16.1k followers
and it's a private account.
So...
money well spent?
NOT!
So another kind of service that I've found is a follow/unfollow service.
So what this service will do is go and help you like and follow a whole bunch of accounts
in hope that they will like and follow you back.
And I guess after a few days they unfollow.
I always notice that this fresh fish shop in Singapore that always follow and unfollow me.
It used to drive me crazy like...what are you doing?
And I used to think that they were just really passive aggressive about me
like salmon but not buying from them.
Now I realized it's probably a bot.
A bit embarrassing but the first time they follow me I thought maybe they want to give me fish.
Cuz that's why a brand would suddenly start following you right?
Okay, so now that I'm in but now that I'm looking at it
it's a monthly subscription
and they bill you every month.
And I don't...
I don't really feel comfortable giving this website that I don't know my username and password
and my credit card information. It's just too much.
Because what if they
don't let me cancel or make it really really difficult and complicated?
Somehow...
it's just a step too much for me.
I won't be going ahead with this.
Honestly, I don't think this is a very good service
because you're giving it your username and password
to do following and unfollowing with your account.
So if you're a really big account or like
you have personal friends on your account
anybody can click on the people you are following
and see if you are following any dodgy characters.
What if they went to follow a bunch of pornstars?
You know...
So another common thing people use are pods.
So pods are basically groups of real people with real social media accounts
helping to like and comment on each others' post.
So these groups are usually found on Telegram or Facebook
and it can go up to 20000 to 50000 people.
But there are a lot of rules to join the pod.
As far as I know, this method is super common because
you know it's like...
in the grey area of whether or not it's ethical.
Because some people think that well they are like real people
and you might know each other and develop friendships through this method so what's the problem?
Especially for the top tier pods where maybe only people with over a 100 thousand followers
like people who are established influencers
in this pod commenting and liking each others' post
People are just like we're helping each other out so
there's no problem.
But...
I don't know. Some other people might think it's unethical.
And this is just based on my experience with people in the industry.
Okay, so I'm gonna check out this pod on Telegram.
It has 27 thousand people and there are so many rules before you can join.
So basically what you have to do is like all the post from the recent most post going back 24 hours.
So anything posted within the last 24 hours, I will have to click on all these individual URLs
and like every single post.
I need to catch up with all of those post before I can drop my link in.
And there's no exception
because if I don't do that.
I will get kicked out.
So I'm now that I'm looking into the requirements of this pod and I
actually don't meet the requirements.
I'm not eligible to join.
Because you need to have an active and mature account to join and
you need to have at least 50 post published and I only have three so far.
So I can't join.
But...
I'm looking at the group right now and
the thing about Telegram is that you can see all the members of the group.
So I actually recognize some names on here.
So I guess it's no surprise I know quite a lot of people who are in pods.
Both influencers and casual Instagram users.
So I guess for some people it's like fun
But honestly, it seems like a lot of work.
Woah woah woah... There's suddenly so many people following me at one go.
Ah...this must be the other 500 Instagram followers that I've bought.
Wow! It's intense!
It's just growing and growing.
Okay, I'm looking at these accounts as they are coming in
and I'm assuming that these are the followers I bought that were from Singapore.
None of them look like they are Singaporean accounts.
They are all like European names.
Which is honestly kind of disappointing.
But when I click into these accounts,
they are real accounts.
So it's been an hour since I started buying all my followers, likes and comments.
I actually bought 1000 followers and I have 1012 followers now.
And I bought a 166 likes per post and now it's about 200 likes per post.
So I'll be monitoring this account for the next week and we'll see how it goes.
I...lost a couple of followers.
And...
all my custom comments have come in.
But this is quite irritating because they all came in at the same time.
So dodgy.
The likes has dropped. That's weird. This has 200 likes yesterday.
A 188 likes.
Dropped also.
The views didn't drop. I don't think that can.
But...
the likes also dropped.
And I'm still missing two people
who are supposed to comment. My two real influencer friends.
I still haven't gotten two of the influencer comments that I've paid for.
And I'm steadily losing followers.
So I had a 1000+ when I started the experiment
and now I'm at 957.
My followers are still suddenly dropping again.
I've actually even gone to leave comments on peoples' photos
but I've been ignored.
And nobody has replied my DMs.
So it's been over a week since I started the experiment
and over the last couple of days nothing much has happened.
I've been losing about 10 followers a day.
And I currently have about 900 followers.
But I'm thinking, 900 followers is still 900 followers.
When a marketer goes into this account and they did not come with us on this journey
how will they know this number is fake or not?
It's when you see a growth.
A really quick growth on a profile.
But then you look at engagements on the post
and you don't see an improvement in the number of likes,
comments or views to the videos.
And so you say, how did you gain 10000 followers
and the average of your likes is still the same?
I have to be honest
if a person is very careful
they can actually fake all the numbers
But I can say one thing, the cost is a lot.
We study into a few things
follower to following ratio
engagement to follower ratio
We also study the follower activity.
If the follower is completely remains inactive
not just not posting but
not engaging with anybody else
We will test all these and formulate an algorithm that will
give us a prediction
in terms of a percentage value
to tell us if they are bought or not.
So now that we've learnt about spotting fake numbers,
my next question is, is this all legal?
There can definitely be legal consequences.
Whether these are penal and involves the government I think potentially but remains to be seen.
In terms of contracts for example, definitely that's a legal consequence as well.
And that's definitely possible
and you expect that to actually be used.
So I'm pretty sure there are influencers who actually fake their numbers
and we know that they can be taken to task.
So why haven't I heard of any clients actually taking legal action?
The cost of going to court is not insubstantial.
If you compare that to the
the value at stake for any particular influencer.
The easiest thing to ask for would be a refund in whole or in part of what has been paid.
This is a super new industry so things are not so clear cut yet.
But I think we can all agree that people do want to prevent influencer fraud.
So, what does Instagram has to say about all this?
According to Instagram, they have a combination of automated and manual systems
that help them catch suspicious activity
and they also have an anti-spam system that runs a million checks per second.
And each day, they block millions of fake accounts at registration.
And what happens if Instagram discovers fraud?
An account will get disabled if they violate Instagram’s community guidelines.
At the end of the day, there are many deterrence to committing influencer fraud.
But it's not impossible to get away with it.
So those who wants to cheat the system will keep trying.
And what happens if they are not kept in check?
If clients engage you today and they don't see results
they will eventually find someone else.
It's just whether this breach of trust would affect all our clients' opinions.
Do they think every influencer is a cheat now
just because they had one bad experience.
I think marketers are getting better and more savvy in measuring a 360 approach
rather than just looking at numbers.
The ones that are looking at things from a longer term perspective
doing things correct will then survive in the long run.
And the truth will speak for itself.
More so then ever
there will be a governing body
that will start being the symbol of quality.
And we've watched that in e-commerce right?
So back in the day, we just have blog shops.
And Verisign came about as a symbol of security.
Or in manufacturing companies
you want to be ISO certified.
So I think if it continues
that will happen.
Where we will have a neutral Switzerland of sorts
that will come forward to be a symbol of trust.
So that brings us to the end of this episode.
My concluding thoughts on this topic are
I think if you are starting from scratch like in my experiment,
it's really easy to tell if you are buying fake followers and likes.
But my guess is, if you already have a substantial following
just boosting it a little bit, it's a lot harder to detect.
But at the end of the day, your success boils down to more than just your numbers.
At some point your reputation comes into play
your branding, how good a fit you are with a certain client
and your audience demographics.
So it's not just about the numbers that you have on the page.
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I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye!