A new tool developed by London-based social media management company Status People allows users to analyse their Twitter followers for fake and inactive accounts.

Fakers takes a sample of followers and categorises the accounts based on spam criteria, where fake or inactive accounts may follow a large number of users without posting tweets or being followed by others.

Who's following who?

Twitter's own account @twitter has 13million followers, yet 80 per cent of the platform's followers are thought to be either fake or inactive.

Even former Prime Minister Keven Rudd, @KRuddMP, who holds one of Australia’s most popular accounts with over 1million followers, appears to have just 28 per cent of active followers according to Fakers.

Fighting fakes

Last week, Facebook announced that it is improving its systems to crack down on fake ‘likes’.

This move will be beneficial to users as well as brands, who want to track of how many fans are engaging with content. 

Does it matter?

Fake or inactive followers can potentially cost brands money and resources, for example in paying for promoted tweets or posts. 

While Fakers doesn't currently allow users to see which accounts it deems as 'fake' or 'inactive', it is a helpful tool for brands to measure how active their user base really is.

To start using Fakers click here. 

Check out SMK’s upcoming industry leading training courses in: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, Auckland, Adelaide and Wellington.

Also, browse through hundreds of online social media video tutorials on eSMK Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and more!!