THESE STUDENTS CREATED A FAKE INFLUENCER ACCOUNT WITH MORE THAN 10.000 REAL FOLLOWERS

At first sight there is nothing strange about the Instagram account of Nykkie van Zessen: an Amsterdam girl who collected ten thousand followers with pictures of her life within twelve weeks. Only Nykkie does not exist. 'She' is an experiment of six HvA students to show how easily you can paint a distorted picture on social media.

Nykkie is a social influencer, someone who visits the hippest places, dresses according to the latest trends and inspires followers with carefully posed selfies and photos of a cup of coffee or the latest must-have product. In other words: someone who influences the emotions, way of thinking and the behavior of her followers.

Instagram: Nykkie van Zessen

The followers of the Instagram account are not following Nykkie van Zessen, but at Anne Rieter, a 21-year-old HvA-student. Nykkie is the result of an assignment from six third-year media, information & communication students, who set up the fake account to collect as many followers as possible in twelve weeks.

'The assignment is to come up with a cross-media concept that makes the world a bit better. We wanted to do something about the pressure of performance among young people, 'says Myra Bax, one of the six students. 'Our research showed that social media is an important cause for this.'

Before they created the Instagram page, they first dived into the world of other influencers. From all the photos, poses, locations, outfits and other inspiration they gain, they make a big moodboard. And then the experiment can begin. 'The first photos on the account are from Anne herself, so that we could at least start a profile. But how did we get followers? Nobody will follow you if you have zero followers. So they buy followers through the Like4Like app. Not with money, but by following and liking people. For that you get points with which you can buy followers. This is how they arrive at their first four hundred followers. Crazy how that actually works.

In the first week they reach their goal of 900 followers well. To get even more followers, they need more photos. So the group pulls out all day. They have breakfast at Snckbr and then, according to a tight schedule, go to all kinds of trendy Amsterdam locations, such as Café George, the IJsboutique, the Foodhallen and Bar Louie Louie. They dragged through the city with suitcases full of clothes for hours, because Anne had to wear a different outfit on every picture.

Instagram: Nykkie van Zessen

After taking the pictures they had to plan them, but that does not happen just like that. Some pictures are meant to be online only weeks later. They also fool the followers by pretending that Nykkie is going to Copenhagen for a weekend. They exchange photos of Anne in Amsterdam with photos that Myra made in Copenhagen. And the followers also believed it!

After five weeks they discover the Instagress app. With this, a robot places comments and likes for you. (not available anymore) You decide how much and you choose which standard comments, such as 'beautiful' or 'love it'. You can also set it to respond only to people who post with, for example, the hashtag 'blogger' or 'fashion' or on posts of certain locations, such as large Dutch cities or shops where our target group comes, for example Zara or H&M. You could really target it to a certain group of people.

Verder kijkt Myra bij de volgers van andere social influencers, die ze gaat volgen in de hoop dat ze Nykkie terugvolgen. ‘In de eerste weken van het project was ik er de hele dag mee bezig. Ik was soms net een zombie. Volgen, liken, reageren; ik ging ermee naar bed en stond ermee op. Ook het ontvolgen is belangrijk, want je kunt natuurlijk niet meer mensen volgen dan jou volgen. Dan ben je geen influencer meer.’

Already a week before the finish line they achieve their goal of 10.000 followers. After twelve weeks they had 10.500 followers and it was time for the unveiling and at the same time the premiere of their documentary Now you know: behind the filters. Myra finds it quite exciting. "People can be pissed and feel fooled. But the reactions were positive. Followers said they were silent about it, started thinking about it and were more aware of the fake nature of social media. Of course, after the disclosure moment, followers are wondering. But the crazy thing was: there were also new ones. Even a company approached us a few weeks after the unveiling. They still do not know it."

Watch the documentary below: