Bought fake followers in the past? We promise we won’t judge you.
There are many reasons why brands, influencers, and average Joe’s choose to purchase their “following”. A few years ago it was common practice, especially if you wanted to look “established” online.
E-commerce companies did it to appear more reputable and trustworthy in the eyes of their consumers. Influencers did it to look more… influential. To most of us in the industry, it isn’t a secret that some influencers and brands have been cutting corners when it comes to growing their following.
With free tools like Social Blade, it’s now easy to see who is buying fake followers and who has cultivated an authentic audience. It’s not okay to deceive people and we don’t condone purchasing followers, but we understand that sometimes mistakes are made.
Have some regrets about buying followers? Here’s how to get rid of them.
If you’ve purchased fake followers (also known as ‘bots or “ghost” followers, in the influencer marketing industry) now is the time to get rid of them.
Depending on how big your faux following is, you could be on the fringes of committing fraud. And even if you don’t purchase fake followers, you can still accumulate ghost and ‘bot followers without realising it.
Here are a few tips when it comes to “cleaning out” your social media accounts from ‘bots, fake, and ghost followers.
How to get rid of fake followers on Instagram
There are dozens of apps out there that can help the Instagram user “clean out” their following from fake accounts and ‘bots.
These apps are considered third-party apps by the platform (which is against Instagram’s Terms of Service), but they can be very useful in unfollowing and blocking a large number of accounts in a short period of time.
Cleaner for Instagram is one app that can be very helpful in removing unwanted followers (real or fake). It’s free to download and is available both for iOS and Android smartphones.
Essentially, the app allows users to mass block ghost followers on Instagram – the only way to remove fake followers from your profile. That’s right, Cleaner for Instagram will figure out which followers are fake and will give you the option to remove them.
Pretty cool.
In addition to this feature, the Cleaner for Instagram also allows users to mass unfollow and unblock other accounts, mass unlike posts and keeps track of all your actions in an activity log. Overall, it’s a pretty useful app to keep on hand and can be used for more than just cleaning out fake followers.
How to get rid of fake followers on Twitter
When it comes to removing fake, ghost, or ‘bot followers from your Twitter account the process isn’t straightforward.
Unlike Instagram, there is no third-party app that acts as a one-stop shop. If you’re serious about cleaning out your Twitter account, you’ll need to use two or three together in order to achieve the best results.
First, you need to take a hard look at your followers and figure out who is fake. We recommend using a combination of Fakers from Status People, Twitter Audit, and Bot or Not to analyse your following – all three are free to access.
Once you’ve determined which accounts are fake, block these “followers” from your account. Doing this will force the fake accounts to unfollow your Twitter account. It may take some time, as you will need to individually block each fake follower. The good news is Twitter does not cap the number of users you can block in a day.
But what if you’ve purchased thousands of fake Twitter followers, and don’t have the time to individually block all of them?
You really have limited options. The best thing to do, if you want to be honest going forward, is to delete your Twitter account and start over from scratch.
Annoying? Yup.
But honesty is always the best policy.
What are your thoughts on influencers and brands purchasing fake followers? Let us know by tweeting us @itpliveme. Stay updated on all of the latest news by subscribing to the ITP Live newsletter below or by clicking the push notification.