Being popular on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram is a status symbol for many brands. They rely on clever posts, paid social media influencers, and product placement to help drive followers to their pages.
Pilot Fish Media, a marketing agency in Edinburgh, Scotland, recently studied the accounts of a number of brands’ social media accounts, including those form the sports, beauty, and automotive industries and has determined which vehicle manufacturers have the most fake followers.
How do they get fake followers? They can be bought from a bot farmer, a $1.3 billion industry Wired covered in detail earlier this year. Twitter has reported that they’re removing 7.5 million fake accounts per week.
Here are the worst offenders according to the study.
No. 10: Maserati
Fake Instagram followers: 41% | Fake Twitter followers: 33% | Average: 40%
No. 9: Lamborghini
Fake Instagram followers: 43% | Fake Twitter followers: 27% | Average: 42%
No. 8: Mercedes-Benz
Fake Instagram followers: 45% | Fake Twitter followers: 28% | Average: 43%
No. 7: Porsche
Fake Instagram followers: 44% | Fake Twitter followers: 31% | Average: 43%
No. 6: Bugatti
Fake Instagram followers: 44% | Fake Twitter followers: 34% | Average: 44%
No. 5: Ferrari
Fake Instagram followers: 44% | Fake Twitter followers: 34% | Average: 44%
No. 4: Mercedes-AMG
Fake Instagram followers: 45% | Fake Twitter followers: 33% | Average: 44%
No. 3: Jaguar
Fake Instagram followers: 47% | Fake Twitter followers: 32% | Average: 45%
No. 2: BMW
Fake Instagram followers: 47% | Fake Twitter followers: 32% | Average: 45%
No. 1: Audi
Fake Instagram followers: 47% | Fake Twitter followers: 32% | Average: 45%
All statistics were accurate as of September 11, 2019.
