TOPIC NAME

Submitted by :
Jayesh Kapadnis (2020233)

Branch : Mechanical
Batch : 2

Submitted To :
Mrs. Audrey Correa
Department of Humanities and Basic Sciences

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Fr. C. Rodrigues Institute of Technology, Vashi

2022-2023
 Group Members:

Jayesh Kapadnis (2020233) – Team Leader

Vedant Gujarathi (2020221)

Sahil Gurav (2020224)

Aayush Jadhav (2020226)

Abhishek Joshi (2020229)

Adit Masih (2020239)

Abhishek Mohite (2020242)

 Acknowledgement
We would like to extend our appreciation and gratitude to the people
who have been a part of this report from its inception. Without their
guidance and involvement this report would not have been possible. It
is to them that we give our heartfelt gratitude.
We would like to thank Mrs. Audrey Correa for her valuable
guidance. We would also like to thank our colleagues for their help,
support and inputs regarding the topic.

Thank You!
 Abstract

The sphere of media and advertising is changing at a rapid pace. The promotion
method which was effective a year ago may not work now. Social media
influencers are Internet users with a lot of subscribers across different social
networks, who have significant influence on their followers. Therefore,
marketers are starting to look for ways to deliver their message to consumers
through influencers without using direct advertising. Consumers trust less brand
ad on the Internet and prefer peer-to-peer communications. For this reason,
influencer marketing has continued to grow as an essential component of
companies’ digital marketing strategies.
Fake influencers are not real influencers, rather they are public media
consumers that want to avoid the difficult labour it takes to engage a
considerable audience, enhance an expert, and evolve the abilities, inevitable to
build an irresistible content.
Introduction: -
Social media influencers are Internet users with a lot of followers across
different social media platforms. In most of the cases they are experts in specific
forte, such as beauty, lifestyle, fashion, sport, travelling or food and a few only
create entertainment content. As social media becomes a major organization
that helps people to shop for their required products from fashion, food etc. the
role of influencers is to only increase.
Fake influencers are social media users who do not poses any skills of a real
influencer. They post high-quality images which doesn’t seem to be much
different from those of a true influencer. One of the major differences is that
their following mostly comprises of fake accounts. In other words, they are
fooling their own followers for recognition or for their personal benefits.
In many cases, there are often many people behind a single fake influencer. This
occurs when they generate a fake account about a person who does not exist.
They might hire a model to pose and take pictures and upload on their fake
accounts. These influencers generally have a tendency of buying followers or
using bots which generate fake accounts to increase their followers. In many
cases, a genuine person can also be a fake influencer as he/she might have
bought the followers or used bots to increase their popularity.
As customers, we’re often influenced by the opinions of population we consider
as masters within the field. We research reliable review videos and blog posts
from influential figures as we research products. So, it’s no surprise that brands
are adopting the ability of influencer marketing to increase brand awareness and
trust. But like all good belongings, influencer marketing too has allure own set
of risks and disadvantages, with influencer fraud being individual of them.
Influencer fraud involves occupied with fake influencers and perhaps extremely
damaging to your campaign.
Having no actual influence over a physical audience, these fake influencers give
no real results. They have the tendency to set an upcoming brand or a well-
recognized brand’s campaign back several steps by damaging their brand value
and draining your shopping budget. So, if you want to prevent being a victim of
influencer trickery, you need to learn by what method to spot fake influencers.
You will learn all about the risks complicated in working with fake influencers
and by what method to spot influencer fraud before it even happens.
Draft of the main content: -
An influencer is someone who has the facility to affect the purchasing decisions
of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position, or relationship
together with his or her audience. It is important to note that these individuals
are do not seem to be merely marketing tools, but rather social relationship
assets with which brands can collaborate to accomplish their marketing
objectives.
Influencers have an extensive history in marketing. Initially, companies used
figures like celebrities and athletes to help sell their products. The rise of social
media has made other types of options available for such companies which
includes influencers. Today, influencers fit into the following categories:
 Mega-Influencers: - Social Superstars who have more than a million
followers
 Macro-Influencers: - Who have a following of a 100,000 to a million
followers
 Micro-Influencers: - Who have a following count of 1,000 to 100,000
followers

Some people might take undue advantage of such success by being a Fake
Influencer. Who are fake influencers? What do they do to attract our attention?
Which tricks do they apply to allure us into their trap?

Fake influencers are people or accounts that have gained a significant fan
following by buying followers or by using bots. To gain access to influencer
perks, several people purchase false followers. These fake influencers are a
cause of influencer marketing which has gained a great significance to various
brands across the world.

How does Influencer Marketing affect Youth?

Influencer marketing, which involves a collaboration between brands and

influencers, is a powerful approach that can help companies grow. It’s a
marketing strategy that has been successfully used by thousands of businesses
and brands and has experienced continued growth over the past decade. As they
are viewed by their followers as trustworthy experts in their field, they can
effectively impact their audience’s purchasing decisions. Their
recommendations or endorsements can help brands expand their reach and
generate leads. 

Here are some statistics of influential marketing: -

1. Influencer Marketing Industry to reach $16.4B in 2022

Influencer marketing is a lucrative market. The market, within 4 years grew

from $1.7 billion in 2016 to $9.7 billion in 2020 in 2021 it grew to $13.8 billion .
This indicated a steady growth which is 18.8% rise in just a year. This growth is
credited to increasing popularity of short video platforms such as YouTube
shorts, Instagram Reels etc.

2. Instagram is the preferred social media channel for brands who engage in
Influencer Marketing

The majority of brands choosing Instagram as their preferred channel for their
influencer marketing campaigns, despite it having less monthly active users (1.3
billion) than Facebook, which is one of the most popular channels with (2.89
billion) monthly active users.

3. Using money to promote one’s brand.

Many of these influencers have large numbers of self-selected followers who

share their interests (travel, fashion, cooking, etc.) and look up to them for
advice in these domains. According to The Economist, YouTube influencers
with over 7 million followers command up to $300,000 per sponsored post,
while the corresponding figures for Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are
$150,000, $187,500 and $60,000 respectively, allowing social media followings
to be monetized lucratively.

These are the ways brands allure common people and youth into trap.
WHO ARE FAKE INFLUENCERS?
Fake influencers are social media users who, by all appearances, look
like influencers. They post high-quality images that don't seem to be much
different from those of a true influencer. But the key difference is that their
following mostly comprises of pretend accounts and bots. In other words, they
are doing not have meaningful influence over a true audience.

In a lot of cases, there is also a gaggle of individuals behind one fake

influencer. This is able to usually involve creating a fake account of an
individual that doesn’t exist. they'd use stock photos or hire a model to
pose because the person. they'd also buy followers and engagement to
form it appear as if the person is influential.
They are social media users that want to bypass the hard work it takes to engage
a sizable audience, become an expert, and develop the skills necessary to create
compelling content.
The hope of most fake influencers is that brands will hire them to promote
products without inquiring into that influencer’s authenticity. But the end result
is that brands get taken with little more than a pittance of brand awareness and
hardly a conversion to show for it. In worse cases, fake influencers ruin brand
reputation online.
 IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS
ON YOUTH
People trust social media influencers over traditional celebrities
because they're more relatable having the image of a girl/boy adjacent.
Followers and particularly youngsters feel closer to the influencers they follow
because influencers interact with them frequently. And hence many youngsters
follow social media influencers religiously and are influenced by what they
assert and promote.
As youngsters are spending longer on social media than people of other age
groups, social media influencers have more impact on youngsters than others.
Brands also are preferring to collaborate with social media influencers over
traditional celebrities because of the influence they need on youngsters, and also
because the sponsored content is definitely blended into the traditional content
of influencers. Influencer marketing is on the increase and affects the
purchasing behaviour of children. Moreover, youngsters are more likely to
research the merchandise before buying. and that they will check the reviews by
the influencers they follow.
Some influencers don't mention whether the content they created is sponsored
or not. They promote products for money and mislead the
children. some influencers also are creating paid content in favour of political
parties. As followers don't know that it's paid content, they're likely to believe
it and will get influenced.
The food habits of the children are shaping up by the influencers they follow.
As influencers are creating attention-grabbing content, several youngsters are
wasting their precious time by watching the content.
Some influencers fake perfect bodies and ideal lives. So, some youngsters are
comparing them with those influencers and are feeling insecure. this can
be leading to low self-esteem, mental state issues, cosmetic surgeries and
materialism. This influences identity formation too.
Youngsters are being attentive to different world views and perspectives from
social media influencers.
Some social media influencers genuinely review the products they used. By
watching their reviews, people are saving money and are avoiding bad
purchases.
There are such a large number of influencers on social media that promote
positive things like body positivity, financial awareness, ethical values etc.

Appendix:
A survey was done regarding influencer marketing among the
students of FCRIT Vashi, by circulating user interactive forms , to get
their take on this topic.
The results were:

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CONCLUSION :
Social media influencers are essential components of information networks
since they leverage their reputation within a specific niche to inform their
followers while providing trusted information regarding breaking events,
emerging trends and new products. The increased uptake of fake influencers
stems from the fact that top brands prefer working with influencers to generate a
consistent stream of customers to new services. Brands and social media taste-
makers have a quid pro quo arrangement: Influencers drive new customers to
a brand in exchange for financial gains. Unfortunately, with the industry poised
to replace traditional advertising, numerous social media users seek to tap the
opportunities by engaging in shady influencer tactics.
An increased follower count due to authentic viral content rises gradually even
after the initial spike. A fake influencer will most likely record a significant
drop in followers since they buy bot accounts instead of building a loyal
following. Therefore, analyzing the follower count and engagement ratio is a
good starting point to determine if the account is authentic before partnering
with an influencer. Nevertheless, understanding an influencer's engagement
ratio is insufficient to determine if the influencer is authentic or fake. You need
to have an unmatched understanding of your brand's industry benchmarks so
that you can effectively compare them with engagement ratios.
It is also essential to appreciate that lower engagement rates than expected
should not be a basis for automatically regarding an influencer as fake. In
particular, you should focus more greatly on the engagement quality for the
telltale signs of fraudulent accounts.