According to a recent report by HypeAuditor, virtual influencers have nearly three times the engagement rate of real influencers on Instagram.
Influencer marketing is a big trend on social media, and its influence is only predicted to increase within the next few years. That is, if the industry can be regulated more effectively, and specific “trust issues” can be overcome.
Social media influencers are mostly humans. Still, the last few years have seen the rise of virtual influencers as well – fake computer-generated online personalities created by media agencies or brands.
Credit: @lilmiquela / Instagram
The number of followers virtual influencers have, ranges from the tens of thousands to millions, with a huge number of users interacting with them daily. According to a new report from HypeAuditor, some virtual influencers generate a significantly higher engagement rate than their real counterparts – this, despite a high percentage of them (27%, according to HypeAuditor) not posting regularly.
This trend is especially pronounced on accounts of over 1m followers, where virtual influencers are getting 2.89% engagement rate, versus the 0.7% engagement rate on real influencer accounts.
Virtual influencers seem to have a core audience of women between 18 and 24, mostly residing in the United States.
Finally, virtual influencers seem to “work less” than real influencers.
In order to receive the same number of followers, real influencers have to create four times the number of posts.
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