Determining the authenticity of an influencer’s following is one of the primary tasks before starting an influencer marketing campaign. Here are few tell-tale signs that can help you discern whether a following is genuine or not:

1. Engagement Rate: High followers’ count with very low engagement is often a red flag. Genuine influencers have a healthy engagement rate due to active interactions with their followers.

2. Quality of Comments: Authentic influencers often have meaningful comments, questions, and discourse in their comment sections. On the other hand, generic, vague, or irrelevant comments might indicate fake followers.

3. Followings-to-Followers Ratio: Genuine influencers usually have more followers than people they follow. A skew in the other direction may indicate purchased followers.

4. Sudden Spikes in Followers: Organic growth tends to be consistent. Any sudden spike in follower count could signify purchased followers.

5. Irrelevant Followers: If an influencer’s followers list largely consists of accounts without profile pictures, or that post content that is thematically unrelated, those might be fake accounts.

Platforms like Flinque can be helpful in this regard, offering features for audience analytics and influencer vetting. Other platforms offer similar tools but may use different analytics or criteria in vetting influencers, so the results can vary. That’s why it’s always a good idea to use more than one metric or tool when gauging an influencer’s follower authenticity.

Ultimately, the selection of the apt influencer marketing platform depends on a brand’s specific needs— whether that’s comprehensive analytics, campaign planning efficiency, or something else altogether.