Even blue ticks can be faked on Instagram
The more Elysia Raphael researches Instagram, the more cracks she sees in its authenticity. Here, she asks: how can we tell what’s real anymore?
As a marketer and strategist, I’m constantly researching, testing, auditing, reviewing, testing. It’s what we do, and how to stay ahead in an ever-changing and competitive field.
I do it in all areas of my life – testing various strategies (read: opening lines) for my single friends on their Tinder profiles, or knowing which lane of traffic will move quicker.
I want to know how algorithms work and how collectively people work. Why when I a/b tested a client’s image, did 356 more people click the blue ad over the the green ad? Why do ‘average looking brown-haired women’ perform better on social media than men, blondes or models?
It was a miserable 14 degrees and raining weekend in Sydney. The kind where you only get out bed for a Halal snack pack… or is that just me? So instead of Netflix and comfort food, I curled up with my Mac and started to randomly research social media trends, updates, and Facestalk (it’s called research).
I Googled: “How do I verify an Instagram account?”. That little blue tick of approval is deemed to be harder to get than a Gold at the Olympics.
Sure enough, there were theories and articles galore, even a wikiHow with pictures. But nothing that stacked up as concrete information for me to get my client verified. Instagram basically chooses accounts at random that are likely to have copycat accounts (large corps and celebrities).
I then found an app that trumped all other apps for #Instafamous wannabes.
I’d now found an app where you could overlay a fake verification tick onto your page and key in how many followers you wanted to portray.
I contacted a friend who recently started an Instagram account for her cat and within three minutes she sent me a screenshot which appeared to show she was verified, had 22K followers, was following 1,000 accounts and was armed with an account where she could potentially reach out to paying clients as an influencer.
Of course, there’s nothing stopping brands checking the live account. But this app is just one example amongst thousands, and they’re all out to game the system.
How can we trust a platform like Instagram when you can:
- Buy 10,000 fake followers for AUD$10,
- Use a free bot to follow a competitor’s list in the hope that you acquire some genuine followers back,
- Use a free app to mass unfollow 200+ accounts at a time,
- Program a bot to like certain hashtag, or accounts with x amount of followers,
- Use a free app to get ‘verified’ and fake the numbers?
Instagram is starting to make changes, including tightening its API for data mining (thanks Cambridge Analytica scandal) and reporting insights through third party sites, including moves to eliminate pods that take advantage of the engagement algorithm, blocking spam hashtags e.g. #like4like, etc.
But while the recent Shopping for Instagram has helped businesses and marketers make something meaningful of the platform and finally generate some ROI, the army of bots and fake influencer accounts still roam free.
It seems near impossible for the ever-growing social media platform to gain street cred amongst those in the industry while the wool is pulled over small businesses’ and (some) inexperienced marketer’s eyes.
Elysia Raphael is director of marketing and ideas at NYX Social. This post first appeared on the NYX Social blog.
What’s the app
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Veryfied my profile
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Instagram blue tik
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I need a blue mark in insta
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I have that app its fake, it’s called a spoof where only you can see the followers and and verified logo, not anyone else.
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Please I want blue tick
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It’s called Instagram Rocket and it can be obtained through the Tutu App Store on iPhone, but the followers and verified tick are a spoof and it doesn’t appear to anyone who isn’t the account owner. However the app does allow users to download posts to their camera roll including videos and stories, show the time in more detail, see different layouts and get an added price of information in an accounts bio that states if they are following you. It also features a repost button and you can replay pictures and videos sent infinitely without the sender knowing you’ve opened it, there is a button to tell them that you’ve opened the message. You can also screenshot without notification. Also it hides the “typing” notification in messages on the person who you are messaging’s DMs.
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INSTAGRAM blue tick
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?
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Please i won’t aa blue tick
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I need blue mark in instagram plz verfied my accound plz
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I want to have blue tick on my account for Instagram
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If people want a blue tick, then make it a text / font that can just be copy and pasted. Plenty of IG sites for text fonts, all someone has to do is do that and add the blue tick. After all. It appears right after your name. So there ya go. Seems simple enough.
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My Instagram account in Blue tick add please
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unfortunately its not that easy as the blue tick cannot be copied and pasted, Instagram doesn’t let you place it in your bio, name, or anywhere else
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I want blue tick
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I want blue tick plz
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