Influencer Marketing has created great opportunities for both – the people having large following on the social media sites; and the brands that want to reach out huge but targeted masses.

In the form of influencer marketing we have also got a tool in which we have to flexibility to set our budgets. But like any other form of business, influencer marketing’s dark sides are also getting revealed.

One of the tactics people go for is buying the social media following and then charging huge sum of money from the organizations for promotion.

Content Marketing Institute columnist Jodi Harris has shared an article highlighting this shady side of social media.

Harris says, “The great thing about social media is you can become anyone you want to be. The bad thing – at least from a brand’s perspective – is that you may not exist at all.

If your brand works with paid online influencers, you’re probably familiar with one of the technique’s biggest risk factors now: influencer fraud – a dilemma that occurs when paid tastemakers use artificially inflated follower numbers to increase their asking rate for engaging their audience on behalf of a brand.

What was once an isolated trend has exploded in recent years, to the point where the digital landscape is reeling from all that fake follower activity. To put the scope of the problem into perspective, up to 20% of mid-level influencers’ followers are likely fraudulent, according to a Points North Group study“.

Influencer Marketing Fraud: The Shady Side of Social Media

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