If you enjoy watching beauty videos on Youtube, chances are you’re familiar with Chloe Morello’s work.
Morello has been on Youtube since 2008 and has a following of over two million subscribers. On Instagram, she boasts over a million followers. She is a bona fide beauty influencer, having been in the business for almost ten years. Therefore, there is no one more qualified than her to acknowledge the problem of fraudulent influencers within the industry.
This past Thursday, Nov. 16 Morello posted a video on her channel, titled “EXPOSED: Beauty Bloggers Committing FRAUD!”
In the video, Morello goes into depth about how brands and consumers can spot a so-called “influencers” that has bought followers on Instagram. She also touches on how these people use bots and comment pods, in order to increase the appearance of follower engagement.
“I’m really proud of my YouTube channel, and my Instagram, and my Twitter and everything, and I feel like I have a really good relationship with my audience,” Morello said.
In the beginning of the video, Morello acknowledged that she feels extremely lucky for all the opportunities that have come her way due to her influencer status.
“The reason I’m making this video is because I’m seeing ‘Social Media Influencers’. . . [commit] fraud by fraudulently acquiring comments [and] likes on Instagram,” Morello said.
Influencers using fake followers to boost their social media accounts is hardly breaking news. This kind of practice has been going on for a few years. And while a fake following might be hard for the average Instagrammer to spot, brands and other influencers are becoming very good a recognizing inauthentic followers and engagement.
Morello, however, is one of the first well-known beauty vloggers to address the issue of inauthentic influencers on her Youtube channel.
She is clearly tired of watching other “influencers” buy their way to the top and trick brands (and consumers), when she has put in years of hard work developing herself as the real deal.
“Brands are paying top dollar – thousands of dollars – for posts with these people . . . and with me. And I have a real following,” Morello said. “But some of these people have no following. At the end of the day, the brand is investing money to sell product. And these people don’t have a real following . . . It’s really frustrating to see people with this fake following take opportunities away from my close friends that have a slower, yet authentic, audience.”
We recommend you give it a watch, especially if you work in influencer marketing.
While Morello specifically addresses the issues pertaining to the Australian market in her video, brands everywhere are dealing with similar problems. Whether it’s by purchasing fake followers or enlisting a virtual assistant to manage a comment/likes pod, many aspiring influencers are doing whatever they can in attempts to boost the appearance of their engagement on social media.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.