University of Michigan Called Out For Fake Instagram Followers

In the age of Fake News and social media, it should be no surprise that some Instagram accounts are fraudulent. Social media has created a frenzy of businesses looking to take advantage of "free advertising" and may decide to purchase followers. These bought and paid-for followers usually consist of inactive accounts or profiles created by autonomous programs (bots). The logic is that the more followers you have, the more influence you have; therefore, your message reaches more people.

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It's everything our parents warned us about over and over again: "Just because ____ does _____ doesn't mean you have to _____!." The same logic applies to social media, "Just because _____ has a bunch of followers doesn't mean you have to follow _____." But people, and maybe some universities across the country, do.

Flashpicks.com Study Reveals Fake Instagram Followers For Major Universities

It should be noted that while some bots may follow people who haven't purchased them, they are doing so to benefit the bot's owner. While a few bots may throw some likes or follow random accounts, it would take an incredible coincidence to have a vast number of fraudulent profiles following an account, as exposed by Flashpicks.com's recent study.

You would think that with alumni alone, some of these universities would have millions of followers, not to mention the accounts of their athletic programs, such as football and men's and women's basketball.

Take 2023's National Championship University of Michigan Football's Official Instagram, for example. With nearly 500,000 living alumni and legions of fans wearing the block M around the state and country, you would think they would have millions of followers. That's not the case; as of the publication of this article, the U of M Football team had 725,000 Instagram followers.

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How many of those 725K followers are real, and which universities have the most fake followers on Instagram? Find out which powerhouse's Instagram accounts are 25% fake.