Under the Influence- How to Fake Your Way Into Getting Rich on Instagram

by Trey Ratcliff

  Now, some users would be upset that they have to pay money to use a service that was previously free. However, users are already upset with these platforms, for a variety of reasons:

  Users don’t understand where their personal data is going, who has access to it, and how it is being used.

  Advertising appears intrusive, excessive, and overly targeted to individual users.

  The algorithm determining what content appears in their feed seems to prioritize irrelevant or incendiary content.

  Some people are losing trust in the platform because they think Facebook is actively trying to set political agendas.

  Photographer Thomas Hawk is especially frustrated about advertising on Instagram. Over email, he told me, “Alas, I am not the biggest Instagram fan. I’m not sure why. I think a big part of it is the ads. I hate ads. I go on there for 2 minutes and then start seeing ads for Butterfinger candy bars or worse, and I just close it.”

  Here’s one of those Instagram ads that @thomashawk is talking about. I picked the first ad on my stream, and this one looks particularly sketchy. I am fairly suspicious of anyone selling a Nintendo Switch and 6 games for $20.

  To me, introducing a user-paid subscription option for Instagram is an obvious strategy to pursue. That said, there are a couple of downsides:

  Instagram, today, has users across the world—some from countries with lower per-capita income, where paying a monthly subscription fee is not a realistic possibility. A paid solution like this wouldn’t be accessible to these users unless there were much less expensive subscription options in these places.

  It is possible that Instagram has run the numbers, and they’ve found that the revenue-per-user is higher through advertising rather than a user-paid model.

  At the end of the day, it may be worth taking a small hit to revenue to improve the overall user experience. Taking a paid approach, like the one I’ve outlined, would create a safe, walled-garden experience with none of the myriad complications that come with an advertising model.

  Facebook Ennui with Its Own Current Model

  I know many VPs at these organizations personally and many of them don’t like the advertising model. Relying on advertising means Instagram and Facebook must devote a large number of employees to support the advertising model. There are employees working on selling ads, supporting advertisers, and, from a product perspective, determining the maximum number of ads a user can see before they get frustrated with the experience.

  Secondly, there have been several issues in the news lately around the misuse and mismanagement of user data, and the sharing of that data with third parties, such as advertisers. One such example was the scandal involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica gained access to extremely deep personal data of Facebook users. It appears this data was cleverly used to push political ads to people in an attempt to manipulate the political views of those users and influence their vote in the 2016 U.S. election.41

  It’s not just elections that can be swayed. There are rumors that Russia’s Internet Research Agency used the same methods to instigate a negative backlash towards Star Wars: The Last Jedi, even though I did not need Russians to tell me this was a terrible movie.42 When Facebook sells user data to third parties, these third parties can help foment unrest over anything from political elections to space operas.

  Many similar issues have made the news. That negative press has had deleterious effects on Facebook’s overall brand image, as well as their stock price.

  The last year has seen several legal and ethical accusations leveled against Facebook really take a toll on employee morale. Many employees suspect these allegations are not just allegations and question whether Facebook is heading in the right direction. Meanwhile, Facebook is driven to both continue to grow market share and maximize advertising income. A recent article in The Verge highlighted the issue, citing an internal Facebook employee survey that found that “the number of employees who said Facebook is good for the world declined 19 percentage points in a year.”43

  I believe Facebook can still turn it around internally if they have the stomach to pivot. It would be painful, but ultimately it would be better for employees, users, and the world in general.

  Amping up Revenue with Shopping

  Now, although advertising may play less of a role in the new user-paid revenue model, Facebook could open a pathway for advertisers to pour significant money into the system by adding another “shopping-like” feature.

  One of the next big features that Facebook, and Instagram need to focus on is the ability to shop right on the platform. Facebook, in particular, has already dipped its toe in the water by offering the ability to purchase event tickets directly on the platform.

  To monetize the shopping features, these social networks would obviously take a percentage of the sale, which is fine. Many other platforms do this. Shopify, for instance, takes about 3% of each transaction.

  Also, when Facebook and Instagram roll out these features, they’ll only need to pry our credit card info from us once. Then, they’ll be able to store that information, which allows them to open the floodgates to impulse purchases for the foreseeable future.

  Influencer Brokering Directly Through Instagram

  Instagram could also create a mechanism for brands and agencies to do deals directly with verified Influencers, by acting as a trusted broker. Imagine the reaction from an Influencer who received a message like this, from Instagram itself, that read:

  Hi Kiersten,

  I’m Mark from the Instagram Influencer department. We have an offer for you from Tesla. They would like to give you one of their cars for a year, as well as $50,000 cash (we would take a $5,000 fee). In exchange, they ask that you take and share at least one photo per month on Instagram, featuring fun things you are doing with the car, and share at least one Instagram story per week that mentions the car. Click below to accept this offer and get follow up information, and let me know if you have any questions.

  This is a simplified example, and obviously, a partnership like this might be a bit more complex than that, but you get the idea.

  Furthermore, the brands and agencies would have access to all the pertinent campaign outcome metrics, right from Instagram, so they could also report more accurately on the effectiveness of the campaign. Great idea, eh? Yeah, I got a ton of ‘em. I’m an idea machine.

  An Internal Sea Change

  By charging each user only a few dollars a month, Facebook and Instagram would immediately create a meaningful, viable, alternative revenue stream to advertising. They can save money by reducing or getting rid of their advertising departments completely, and perhaps re-purpose them to build a good shopping experience or other features. Now, it sounds a bit haughty of me to say, “Hey Facebook and Instagram, a few billion a month is more than enough… just calm down a little.” But, it’s true. I have no doubt they can run with a nice profit as they continue to add more goods and services to the platform that their customers might want to buy. Now, Facebook will certainly take a hit on Wall Street as they pivot around, but they could innovate again by setting the stage for the next generation of trusted social networking and online commerce.

  I speak for many people when I say I would rather spend my money on Facebook to buy goods and services that I choose, rather than have Facebook and Instagram sell my data and my attention to advertisers.

  Possible Solution #2: Use More Scripts to Highlight Suspicious Behavior

  There’s a saying that goes, “You have to play the game to win the game.” Instagram security could do just that, by creating fake Influencer accounts and buying followers, just like I did. Once they’ve done that, they could examine those accounts and see if they are real people. If they’re not, delete them.

  It’s a simple, but time-intensive, process to do manually. To decrease manual time spent on this task, they could create a script that goes out looking for suspicious accounts and spits out a
ton of results every day to review.

  Rinse and repeat this process at the 100+ places on the web where you can currently buy followers and relentlessly cull the bots.

  Possible Solution #3: Mobile App Only + Monthly Forced Password Rotation

  To solve most of the issues associated with automated follows, likes, and comments, all Instagram needs to do is require that all these actions be done exclusively through the Instagram mobile app.

  Currently, the bot problem persists because users have given their username and password to third parties, via other apps and websites. I realized this when buying followers, likes, and comments for our fake Influencer account. For this experiment, we tested a variety of websites and apps and almost all of them required us to provide our username and password for Instagram, which allows them to access our account without the need for an API token from Instagram. Huge numbers of Instagram users have done the same, giving these programs the right to act on their behalf, on Instagram, using automated scripts.

  Remember when we talked about podding—the creation of groups of Instagram users who brigade new posts, with comments and likes, to make it look like these are popular? We also discussed how the podding process can be automated. One of the many websites and apps we used to support the creation of our fake account was Fame Boom, which has over a million downloads on Android alone. To use the app, you need to give them your Instagram username and password. It’s only after you’ve supplied your login credentials that the app can use automated scripts to have your account automatically follow, like, and comment on posts.

  To slow down the bots, Instagram could force a password change every month, making us all log back in with it. Currently, once you’ve given a third party your Instagram login details, they can act on your behalf indefinitely—as long as they don’t log out and you don’t change your password.

  Of course, a forced monthly password change would be annoying to users. However, updating passwords on a schedule is becoming a fairly common practice in the corporate world, where employees are required to create new passwords for their corporate email accounts as often as every 90 days. Requiring this sort of password refresh on Instagram would dramatically slow down the thousands of sketchy companies out there that already have hundreds of millions of Instagram usernames and passwords.

  I also don’t think we would be sacrificing significant functionality. I cannot think of a legitimate use case for which a third party would need to access my account to follow, like, or comment on my behalf. One possible exception is if an Influencer hired an agency or had their assistant—a third party, manage their account. To solve that edge case, the client could simply give their login details to that third party, who could only act on their behalf via the mobile app.

  I am sure many clever readers have ideas of their own. There should be a more open conversation in public circles about ways we can all work together to maintain strong foundations within these platforms we increasingly depend upon.

  Here’s a place where perhaps we can have an open conversation until we can find a better venue: https://www.facebook.com/groups/UnderTheInfluenceBook.

  One rule! Be nice in there. It’s a good rule for life.

  Responses from @miss.everywhere

  Let’s end this chapter by going back full-circle with @miss.everywhere.

  This book began as a shorter article for an online publication, which featured @miss.everywhere as a case example. The editor suggested I reach out to @miss.everywhere to get her side of the story. I absolutely agreed. In fact, I was really looking forward to it. Personally, I find what she appears to be doing to be ethically unsound. To recap what we found earlier:

  It appears that @miss.everywhere trades fake followers, likes, and comments for luxury travel deals, goodies, and cash.

  If my analyses are correct, her actions are directly impacting hard-working travel journalists, who are playing the game by the rules and have years of skillful talent.

  Her too-good-to-be-true fancy travel photos, where she depicts her enjoyment of an idyllic life, create a false and unrealistic narrative. This narrative probably contributes to undue anxiety to others and may be spawning even more Instagram copycats, who may use this same sort of illicit behavior to exacerbate the problem.

  I used Facebook Messenger to befriend @miss.everywhere. Much to my surprise, she accepted. However, that’s about where it ended. I sent her a list of questions (which I share below), but, after quite a bit of back and forth, she declined to answer them and to be interviewed for this book. As you’ll see, I began the set of questions with an emollient approach.

  Here’s the list of questions I sent her:

  On many posts, I see you can have around 20,000 likes and around 1,000 comments. How are you so successful?

  How did you get so many followers?

  Do you get these free hotel stays, cash, and other goodies because your numbers are so high?

  Sometimes luxury travel photographers are friends with the same kinds of people on Instagram (pods) and they support one another. Do you do anything like that? How does it work?

  Have you ever purchased followers, and how much did they cost?

  Tell me more about how you bought them, how does that work?

  Have you also purchased likes and comments? How does that work?

  Do you also have a service that automatically posts replies for you to people who comment?

  Do you use a service to automatically respond to other people’s comments? That really makes the comment count go way up, eh?

  In the middle of July, it looks like you bought 60,000 followers over a 5 day span. What’s that about, yo?

  Do you think it is fraudulent to fake numbers so you can get free trips, goodies, and cash? And, if not, do you think lying to big companies is fraudulent?

  Do you believe that buying followers likes and comments is ethical?

  When you use your high number of followers and high engagement to get free hotels, travel, goodies, and cash, do you think this is fraud?

  Do you speak Spanish?

  Are you popular in Mexico and Latin America?

  Your followers are predominantly from these three countries: Mexico, Colombia, and Chile. Why is that?

  I looked at your stats and only 25% of your audience speaks English. Why is that?

  61% Speak Spanish, but you don’t speak Spanish, si?

  Why do you do it?

  Are you involved with any other criminal activity you would like us to know about?

  So, as for now, she hasn’t shared anything with me on the record. If she does come back with a response, be assured I’ll post it on this book’s Facebook group, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/UnderTheInfluenceBook.

  Also, for those of you keeping track of “Is Trey on @miss.everywhere’s Christmas Card list” status, the current status is no.

  Chapter 5

  Selfies and the Ego Running Amok

  “There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind—you are the one who hears it.”

  — Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

  I do enjoy social media. I think of it as a fun game. I play with it the way a fluffy kitten might eye up a ball of yarn. Batting it this way and that, not deterred when it begins to unravel. Personally, as we’ve discussed, I also think social media can be a tremendous tool to inspire and help people. But, as we’ve also reviewed, it’s currently under siege by some of the worst aspects of human nature.

  So, let’s get into some behavioral psychology and new patterns which have emerged, now that so many humans are connected through the Internet in ways that didn’t exist fifteen years ago. As a result of these new platforms and ways of interacting, dangerous online sociologies are developing, which are creating and enabling detrimental behavior patterns at the individual and group level. Our increased time online is fueling a growing epidem
ic of anxiety and depression.

  It’s a complex process. First, we see a couple of personas online who have seemingly amazing lives. We look at two of them—Paris Hilton and @slutwhisperer—in this chapter. Then, we compare ourselves and find that our lives aren’t quite as glamorous as the manufactured ones we see on social media. To compensate, we too construct our own public personas, trying to project a glamorous and glorified lifestyle that doesn’t exist. And, of course, no social media persona would be complete without ample selfies.

  When I watch my youngest daughter’s relationship with social media, I do worry a bit. Her current trajectory of media consumption, which heavily features YouTubers who are not the paragons of intellect, does not seem to point towards encouraging inner peace. On social media, we’re all on display, judged by people we don’t know against unrealistic pulchritude and consumption standards. I don’t want her to grow up and judge herself by what strangers think of her. I think she’s got a better shot than most at avoiding this, because, as her dad, I’m hyper-aware of all this stuff and I can try to guide her gently. But she still spends significant time online, consuming content developed by Internet stars that might accidentally turn into role models.

  Accidental Role Models Setting Unrealistic Standards

  It’s not unusual for young people to look up to role models that may not display model behavior. Instagram has its fair share of “stars,” who have acquired a significant level of notoriety, even though they may not be the apotheosis of virtue. Young people look up to some of these icons and may see what these icons have as perhaps some sort of goal to reach.