As an Instagram user, you have the power to spot fake accounts and take them down, and in this article, we explore how to do that.(image)
Over the past decade, Instagram has grown exponentially, with more than a billion monthly active users. However, with that increase in users has come an equal rise in fake accounts.
According to this report, as of 2019, there were approximately 95 million fake Instagram accounts, representing about 9.5% of the platform's total user base. With about 1 billion active users, that means roughly 1 in 10 Instagram accounts are fake.
You’ve probably received a weird-looking comment or direct message on Instagram that you could immediately tell was a scam. But fake accounts are becoming increasingly sophisticated as they take on a more “human” tone.
These malicious profiles are often created by scammers to spread misinformation, engage in phishing, and even perpetrate cyberbullying. As an Instagram user, you have the power to spot fake accounts and take them down, and in this article, we explore how to do that.
Why bother with fake accounts?
Even if you think you can smell a scam from a mile away, it’s not always cut and dried. Scammers are likely attempting:
Personal information theft: Fake accounts often engage in phishing, where they trick users into revealing personal information such as passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive data.
Spreading misinformation: These accounts can spread false information, which can harm reputations, influence public opinion, and even impact elections.
Cyberbullying and harassment: Some fake accounts are created to target individuals with malicious intent, leading to cyberbullying and harassment. Hackers are
Financial scams: Many fake accounts promote get-rich-quick schemes or fake products and services, leading to financial loss for unsuspecting users.
Learning to recognize and block these accounts helps protect not only your experience on social media but also the integrity of the platform and contributes to a safer online community.
Types of fake Instagram accounts
Fake accounts can take various forms, each serving different malicious purposes. Here are some common types:
Bots are automated accounts programmed to perform specific actions such as liking posts, following users, or leaving comments. They are often used to inflate engagement metrics or spread spam.
Impersonation accounts mimic real users by using their names, photos, and personal information. They are typically created to deceive followers, steal identities, or damage reputations.
Scam profiles are accounts designed to defraud users by promoting fake products, get-rich-quick schemes, or phishing for personal information. Scam profiles often lure victims with too-good-to-be-true offers.
Inactive or incomplete profiles that have minimal profile information and irregular activity. They are often placeholders for future scams or used to inflate follower counts.
Catfish accounts are profiles that use fake identities, often with stolen photos, to scam others into forming relationships. These accounts are commonly used for emotional manipulation or financial scams.
People also create fake accounts for less malicious reasons, like testing or for privacy reasons, but they usually don’t spam or scam other users.
9 ways to spot fake Instagram accounts
Here are some tips for spotting fake accounts on Instagram.
Tip 1: Use Instagram’s ‘About this account’ feature
Visit the profile you suspect of being fake, and select the three dots in the top right for profile options.
Select ‘About this account’ (some profiles hide it), and it tells you the country the account was made in, how many past usernames they’ve had, and when the account was created.
If the country doesn't match what the profile says, the account is very recent, or the username has changed frequently in a short space of time, it might be fake.
Tip 2: Inconsistent content
Compare the content on the page to the profile description – sometimes, they don't add up.
For example, if the description says the user is a beauty blogger, but there are no pictures on the profile related to makeup or skincare, it might be fake.
Also, if their Instagram posts use irrelevant hashtags or have low and irrelevant engagement on posts, that can indicate a fake account.
Tip 3: Inconsistent bio
Fake Instagram accounts often have bios that don't match the typical patterns of genuine users. These inconsistencies can include:
Copied bios: Many fake profiles use bios that are directly copied from real accounts but with minor changes such as added characters, numbers, or symbols to avoid detection.
Incomplete or vague information: Some fake accounts have bios that are either very sparse or filled with generic statements and spelling mistakes.
Promotional or irrelevant content: Bios that focus on promotions, links to external websites, or irrelevant content unrelated to the user's supposed identity are red flags.
Learn LinkedIn best practices from this business owner’s content experiment, plus steps to test and optimize your own posts.(image)
A few years ago, LinkedIn was my strongest marketing channel for my job search coaching business, Recruit the Employer, and I had amassed over 40,000 followers. But then I got a full-time job and put my business — and my social media presence — on pause.
When I decided to relaunch my company this year, I knew returning to LinkedIn would be part of my social media marketing strategy. But as I started to step back into it, I realized it’s an entirely different landscape than a few years ago. The platform is more saturated with content creators, so it takes more to get attention, and different post styles and content themes seem to resonate.
Not only could I see these trends while browsing my own feed, but I also tried reposting some of my most popular content from a few years ago, and it completely flopped. For instance, when I shared this post three years ago, it got around 20,000 impressions. I revised and reposted it recently, and it only saw 3,000 impressions and a fraction of the engagement.
I decided to go back to the drawing board and experiment. I committed to spending two months posting nearly every day, with the goal of trying as many different content approaches as possible. Sixty days, 58 posts, and 568,000 impressions later, I analyzed everything to determine my LinkedIn strategy moving forward.
Now, I have a new playbook for best practices for LinkedIn, which I’m detailing here. That said, every audience is slightly different, so I’m also including details on conducting your own experiment to give your content the best chance of resonating with your audience.
What performs well on LinkedIn now
Based on the results of my experiment, these are the guidelines I follow when I batch-create my content each month.
Text-based posts still reign supreme, but keep them snappy
LinkedIn had come out with new post styles since I had last used the platform, so a big goal of my experiment was to understand which would give me a strong ROI (return on investment). I tried polls, picture posts, carousels, plus text-based posts of various lengths.
Ultimately, I learned that my bread and butter would still be text-only posts — on average, they receive 5,000 to 10,000 impressions each, with top-performing posts seeing 20,000 or more. Plus, they require less effort than others (more on that in a bit).
But text-based posts require a slightly different style than before. A few years ago, my best-performing posts were dense and storytelling-based, but now the content needs to be much shorter and choppier, almost like a series of sound bites.
Even if the posts themselves are longer, they get more attention if I break the content up into one-line points interjected with line breaks. It makes the content more easily skimmable when folks are scrolling and forces me to get to my point more succinctly — plus, it’s much easier for me to write.
I like to think of it like writing a persuasive paper where every single line is driving people to read the next one.
Polls can serve their own purpose
The other post style I’m excited to pepper into my social media content calendar more frequently is polls. While they were not necessarily my highest-performing posts at around 15,000 impressions each, they provided value in other ways.
For one, they are good for engagement. People love taking quizzes or sharing their opinions, so these types of posts often have the highest amount of interaction and conversation. One poll with 300 participants also garnered 21 comments and 10 personal messages.
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But more than the metrics, these polls have become a valuable tool for me as a business owner. I can beta-test an idea and see if it’s worth pursuing. I did that with a podcast idea, and I got some interesting feedback that helped me think differently about it.
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I can also ask questions to understand ways I can better serve my target audience: Is this a problem that your team faces? Would your team be interested in this sort of solution?
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The other valuable aspect of polls for business owners is that you can see exactly who responds to them. So, if I pitch a business idea, I’ll reach out directly to the people who voted that they’re interested and start a conversation. It’s a strong way to warmly pitch new business.
I don’t want to do polls all the time because followers may burn out on them, but I like to incorporate them as a second post some days or when I need to fill a hole in my content calendar.
Your hook is everything
A catchy headline is critical to an article performing well, and similarly, a good hook for a LinkedIn post leads to much better results. And because the platform only shows the first few lines of a post in the feed, that hook has to be no more than a sentence or two.
I found three types of hooks that were the strongest for my audience. The first is sharing numbers or data. Just like quantifying information catches a hiring manager's eye in a resume, quantifying information catches readers’ eyes in the feed.
The second is sharing a strong (and maybe slightly controversial) opinion. These are especially valuable when the goal of a post is building my audience — nothing expands reach like a take that gets people talking.
Finally, when the goal of my post is to reach my ideal customer and move them down the funnel, I like to call out who I’m talking to directly and lean into a problem they may be facing.
Don’t be afraid to get personal
LinkedIn used to be more traditionally professional, but now people are craving connection with the creators and business owners they follow. Many of my most successful posts involved sharing a bit about my personal life, be it my career journey, my experiences as a working mom, or even my faith.
That said, too many leaders overshare in the name of being “vulnerable.” My rule of thumb is not to post if:
I'm doing it to gain sympathy likes.
It could damage my brand's image or reputation.
It could embarrass a loved one.
It wouldn't be something I'd want my parents or grandparents reading.
It's okay to be vulnerable, but be careful that you aren't just emoting online. Find a community of friends and family to share the inevitable rollercoaster of emotions—not your LinkedIn followers (and potential customers!).
How to conduct your own experiment
What works on LinkedIn is always changing. Plus, what worked for my business and audience might not work for yours.
So, rather than copy my strategies directly, I encourage other business owners to run their own experiments. Give it at least 30 days of daily-ish posts, give yourself permission to try a variety of approaches (and know some of them will fail!), and use the best practices below to make the most of this exercise.
Start with what’s working for other people
While other people’s structures and strategies might not work for you, they’re a shortcut for starting your experimentation.
While doing my experiment, I loved browsing LinkedIn to see what posts were succeeding for other people and thinking through how I could apply that to my content.
I always tried to look at creators outside of my niche to ensure I wasn’t directly copying anyone, and I even bought templates from some creators. I especially liked looking at the work of Justin Welsh and Lara Acosta. I still try to do this regularly to keep up with changing preferences on the platform.
Consider the effort that goes into posts
When analyzing your posts’ results, it’s important to consider not only the success metrics but also the ROI. For example, carousels are consistent at getting me 5,000+ impressions, but they don’t consistently perform better than text-based posts, and they take so much more effort that the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.
It’s about working smarter, not harder. I think I’ll see more success by having the bandwidth to pump out more text-based posts rather than spending all my time building a few carousels.
Make sure the content aligns with your brand
Even if a post succeeds, it’s essential to consider whether it’s the right message for your brand. For example, some of my most popular posts were when I called out companies for bad behavior—but I realized that I don’t want to bring that negative energy into my brand ethos. Don’t repeat your most popular posts without ensuring that’s the type of content you want to be known for.
Post regularly!
In my experience, posting five days a week (at least) is the key to building your LinkedIn presence. Even when the numbers flop, the consistency has allowed me to increase revenue, make meaningful connections, and get feedback on product features.
After my experiment ended, I still post five days a week and even more when I’m feeling inspired. It’s less about hitting a certain metric and more about connecting with my ideal client.
LinkedIn is such a great place to be, especially if you’re selling to a B2B audience or professionals. Take the pressure off yourself to be perfect every time, and just commit to showing up. I think you’ll be surprised by how quickly you discover what works for you.
Valerie Moore’s second run at growing an Instagram following was a roaring success – here’s how she did it.(image)
For years, I struggled to grow my audience on Instagram. After 6 years of trying hard to build my fitness-focused account, I only had 2,300 followers to show for it.
While I do believe follower count is a vanity metric, I couldn’t help feeling frustrated and like a failure. Realizing I needed a change, I revamped my strategy based on my experience to grow a new Instagram account Not Bored in DC to over 20,000 followers in just 9 months while also getting paid to create content.
The secret? I have a crystal clear picture of my target audience, speaking clearly and speaking only to them, treating every piece of content as an experiment, and spending my energy doing things that prioritize long-term income.
In this article, I will walk you through exactly what helped me grow and how you can do the same.
Defining a target audience & monetization strategy
Success on social media requires planning beyond a posting schedule. Focusing on creating content for a well-defined audience is essential. Creating generalized content that may appeal to everyone ultimately appeals to no one.
Deciding which audience you want to target will impact your future monetization. For that reason, I think everyone should have a monetization strategy from the beginning.
When brands are looking for influencers and content creators to work with, they are looking for someone who knows how to speak effectively to a defined audience.
Identify content themes
When deciding to become an influencer, consider the kind of content you want to create, such as fashion, technology, or travel. As I was thinking through the content themes I wanted to discuss, I realized it would mean shifting into new content my existing fitness audience did not care about. I thought it best to start from scratch.
I brainstormed various topics I’d be interested in creating content, organized all of them into broad themes, such as “DC fitness,” “DC lifestyle,” “event highlights,” and “affordable adventures,” and saw that most of them were centered around Washington, DC. I used this to create my user personas.
In my day job as a product manager at MetaCTO, I create user personas to better understand users’ needs and build apps that solve their problems.
A user persona is a fictionalized person who represents a segment of users of a product, like a website, app, or service. It is general enough to represent many people but detailed enough to feel real and elicit empathy.
Based on my content themes, I created user personas for who I thought would be most interested in my content, segmenting them out by broad groups:
The early 20s student who is looking for affordable and unique things to do in DC. The person who has lived in DC for many years and feels like they’ve seen it all. The suburban parent who dislikes crowds. The tourist from out of state. And the recent transplant to DC who’s looking to get to know their new city.
For each of these, I imagined what they would be like and created a representative person. My primary persona is Alex:
This exercise helped me identify the most valuable content for each audience segment. I selected my primary target user persona and secondary personas and excluded those that did not fit.
Recognizing which audiences to ignore is crucial. For example, I decided against making content for tourists because their needs are too different from my primary audience. This doesn’t mean that tourists won’t find my content useful. It just means that I’m not trying to solve their unique problems.
Focus on a niche
To be successful, you need to narrow down the types of content you’ll be making and determine your niche. A niche is a highly targeted and specific audience or topic.
I went through an exercise to clearly state who I am helping and how using the following statement:
I help [type of person] to [outcome] by [method].
For me, I help people living in Washington, DC, to have a more fulfilling life by connecting them to new experiences and information. This means I share things to do, eat, and know in and about Washington, DC.
Understand monetization options
Creating content is time-consuming and requires many skills. To ensure I get compensated for my time and expertise, I planned possible monetization options from the start, even though I didn’t plan to monetize immediately. I didn’t want to struggle to