What a fake follower check is good for
- It scores the audience: how many of the followers look bought, and whether the likes and comments add up.
“A lot of times creators are still going to charge their price based on their follower count. But if over half of them are fake, then this is a signal that we probably shouldn't work with them.”
How to Work With the Best Creators & Influencers, August 2026
- Run one. It's one of the three things in our free check on a creator.
What it doesn't read
- In November 2017, Boots sold YouTuber Zoella's advent calendar for £50. Shoppers called it overpriced, and Boots cut the price.
- The same week, tweets she had posted in 2010, 2011 and 2012 came back up. She apologised and deleted them.
- Nobody was asking whether her followers were real. The trouble sat in posts from years before, and a follower check never reads those.
Source: Retail Gazette
Source: IBTimes
Which tools read what
We sorted 12 tools that brands use to check a creator, by the one question each one answers.
| Kind of tool | The question it answers | On our sheet |
|---|---|---|
| Audience fraud | Are the followers real? | HypeAuditor, Modash |
| Measurement | How did the posts do? | Traackr |
| Content history | What did they post and say, going back years? | Ferretly, Phyllo, SafeCollab, Archive, CreatorScore |
| Narrative watch | Is a boycott starting to form? | Pendulum |
| Free | Can you find it yourself? | X advanced search, the Wayback Machine, SeeDeletedTweets |
Source: Our own sheet of creator reputation tools, August 2026
What no tool does
- Find a post that was deleted before anyone saved a copy. Every promise to find deleted posts rests on an archive having caught it first.
- See how an old post reads next to the product you're about to launch. A tool can find the tweet. A person has to put it next to your launch.
“You really need to go on the handle and say, 'I don't care if they have X followers, and they meet all of these prerequisites. It's not the right fit for the brand.'”
Shopify Masters, March 2026