We define fake or empty followers by the following criteria:
- The account has a following : followers ratio of 50:1 or more. This means the profile is following 50 accounts while only being followed by one
- More than 30% of all tweets use spam phrases, such as “diet,” “make money,” and “work from home”
- The same tweets are repeated more than three times, even when posted to different accounts
- More than 90% of the account’s tweets are retweets
- More than 90% of the account’s tweets are links
- The account has never tweeted
- The account is more than two months old and still has a default profile image
- The user didn’t fill in neither bio nor location and, at the same time, is following more than 100 accounts
Each of these criteria have a given number of points valuation and once an account exceeds a certain number of points, we identify him as a fake. Then, if the account isn’t identified as a fake, we test it according to the following two rules to see if it’s not inactive:
- The account has posted less than 3 tweets
- The last tweet is more than 90 days old
And if we identify the account neither as a fake, nor as an inactive, then we define it is a legitimate Twitter account.
We understand that these criteria, number 6 in particular, don’t necessarily define fake followers. However these kinds of followers can be considered empty or inactive and therefore not helpful to you in terms of reach.
How to interpret your results
- 0–10% The majority of your followers are legitimate.
- 10-20% You may have some fake or inactive followers.
- 20-50% Be cautious. If you have a large number of followers, it is expected that some will be inactive or fake.
- 50-70% This is a red flag! You may want to check your followers.
- 70-100% The majority of your followers are fake. Take action immediately!
You can use the tool to check the Twitter accounts you are interested in, up to ten times a day. You can type in any Twitter handle you want, which means that you can analyse any brand, even your competitors. When we analyze a profile, we check up to 2 000 followers per account, so if you have a larger following, run your Twitter handle through the app regularly. The Fake Followers check is in beta, and the data is accurate with a small error margin of roughly 10 - 15%.
Blocking fake followers
Our new tool enables you to block your fake followers in just one click. It may take a moment for them to be blocked, but don’t worry, you can check out other people’s accounts while you are waiting.
