With over 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms. As people and businesses seek to increase their follower count and engagement, some turn to buying fake followers or using bots to inflate their numbers. This can be misleading, as high follower counts with low engagement often indicate inauthentic followers. So how can you discern whether someone’s Facebook followers are fake or real?
Check follower growth rate
Look at how quickly the follower count has grown over time. Fake followers are often bought in bulk, resulting in spikes rather than steady organic growth. Using sites like SocialBlade, examine the daily follower growth to spot any unusual surges. For example, going from 5000 to 15,000 followers overnight would be a red flag.
Analyze follower activity
Compare the number of followers to the amount of likes, shares and comments on posts. Fake followers are inactive accounts, so engagement rates will be low. Use Facebook’s analytics to calculate the engagement rate. If a page has 50,000 followers but posts get less than 500 interactions, that’s a 1% engagement rate, indicating low authenticity.
Check follower profiles
Manually look at a sample of followers. Fake accounts often have:
- Default profile pictures
- No posts
- No friends
- Gibberish or bot names (like User1234)
- Recently created accounts
Many fake accounts follow the maximum 5000 limit to appear more real. But seeing high percentages of such profiles indicates bot followers.
Use online tools
Services like HypeAuditor, IG Audit and Social Audit Pro analyze followers based on different metrics to estimate what percentage are real vs fake. They give an audit report showing the follower authenticity score. Most fake followers will have low quality scores based on account activity, age, duplication etc. These tools provide a quick way to get an overview of a profile’s followers.
Check location map
Facebook provides a follower location map showing the countries and cities where your followers are based. Fake accounts will show suspicious concentration in random countries unrelated to your target audience. For example, a small business in Texas having 80% of followers in Indonesia, Turkey and Brazil indicates fake growth.
Look for pattern anomalies
Bots exhibit patterns in account names, profile pictures and timing of posts or interactions. Analyze followers and engagement timing to notice any odd similarities. For example, thousands of followers with names like FacebookUser123, bios saying “I love Facebook” and liking posts at 2:35am everyday clearly points to bot activity.
Check ratings and reviews
If the account has bought fake followers in the past, you may find unhappy comments about it on review sites like Yelp. Search the page name on Google along with keywords like “fake followers” or “bots” to see if others have called them out for inauthentic growth.
Run a Like/Share analysis
Post engaging content from the page and check how many followers like or share it vs followers who don’t interact. If the post gets 100 likes but the page has 50k followers, it indicates low engagement from bot accounts who don’t actually see the posts.
Use Facebook’s Follower Quality Metrics
Facebook provides page owners with metrics like symmetrical follow scores, incompatible profiles and rejected follows to detect what percentage of followers may be fake based on suspicious behavior patterns. Pages with high percentages here are likely inflating follower counts.
Look at mutual follower overlap
Check what percentage of the account’s followers also follow their competitors or similar pages. Bots will follow accounts within a niche without discrimination, resulting in highly overlapping followers. Low mutual follower percentages signal more niche specific audiences.
See if followers match target audience
For businesses, check if the follower demographics match their target audience. A women’s clothing brand having 80% male teens from India as followers is clearly suspicious. The target and follower profiles should generally align for authenticity.
Check tempo and timing
Bots often follow accounts in unnatural rhythms like huge bursts at millisecond intervals or very early morning times. Checking the tempo of follows and unfollows can reveal patterns indicating bot activity versus more random human behavior.
Conclusion
Checking follower authenticity takes some manual work but can be eye-opening. The above methods provide a mix of quantitative metrics and qualitative evaluation to detect bots versus real engaged users. Focus on growth patterns, activity levels, profile details, overlap analysis and audience alignment to determine if the high follower count of an account is genuine or inflated by fakes.
While social media numbers can be manipulated, the strongest connections come from accounts building real communities. Seeking authentic engagement provides long term value for brands versus short term vanity metrics with no substance.
| Method | What to Check For |
|---|---|
| Growth rate analysis | Unusual surges in follower count over short time periods |
| Engagement analysis | High follower count but low number of likes, shares and comments on posts |
| Follower profile analysis | Default pictures, no posts, gibberish names, recently created accounts |
| Audit tools | Low authenticity and quality scores for large portion of followers |
| Location map | Followers concentrated in unrelated random countries |
| Pattern analysis | Similar names, profiles, timing of actions indicating bot behavior |
| Reviews | Complaints about buying fake followers |
| Like/Share analysis | Low number of likes and shares compared to total followers |
| Facebook metrics | High percentage of followers flagged for suspicious behavior |
| Mutual followers | Very high follower overlap with similar accounts |
| Audience alignment | Follower demographics that misalign with target audience |
| Timing analysis | Bursts of follows/unfollows at unnatural rhythms |