Former Navy officer launches Q-83 platform to stamp out ‘influencer fraud’ on social media

Social media has become a highly lucrative market for influencers such as the Kardashian members. But a former Navy officer now wants to stamp out “influencer fraud” by launching a platform that he believes can measure true value a person has.

Former Navy mine warfare specialist Anthony Richardson is on a mission to uncover “influencer” fraud.

And he’s called on all Australian social media users to sign up to his free Q-83 platform that measures what he believes is the true value an influencer has in the highly lucrative market.

“The game is changing,” Richardson told Confidential.

“Influencers wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for brands looking to advertise products. The influencer industry is full of fraud and people are sick of it so they need to be more accountable and willing to share their information.”

Anthony Richardson has launched a platform that he claims will reveal a social media influencer’s true value. Picture: Supplied

MORE NEWS

Bachelor stunners leave Matt speechless

Erin Molan: Motherhood ‘is really bloody hard’

Amy Shark lands incredible music invite of a lifetime

Richardson launched Q-83 as a solution to this growing problem in March.

The platform already has just over 1000 users with a further 1000 brands also signed up to the service.

Instead of measuring an account’s worth simply by the number of followers, Richardson and his team believe a social media user’s influence should be measured by true reach, or the number of their followers they actually reach.

Influencers such as the Kardashian clan can earn millions for advertising a product on Instagram. Picture: Instagram/@kourtneykardash

“That is unique accounts that are being reached by that social media account,” he said. “Everyone has fake followers but the question is how many of those followers you are actually reaching. You have people who are amazing social publishers, whether it is video or photos, but they might not have any influence and they might be a bad content creator therefore they are only reaching a very small percentage of their audience.”

Q-83 standard dictates that a true reach of 75 per cent of overall followers is desirable while average engagement should be anything over 4 per cent based on the true reach.

Richardson also warned that he has seen an increase in what he calls “influencer sabotage” where people buy followers or likes to give themselves an edge on their competition.

Influencers can charge tens of thousands of dollars or, in the case of international models or reality stars like the Kardashian, millions, by advertising products on their social media accounts.

Being an influencer on social media platforms has become a highly lucrative market. Picture: Loic Venance/AFP

“Followers are your currency. It is much easier to buy a million followers than it is to counterfeit a $100 bill,” Richardson explained.

“If you have competing influencers going for the same jobs, huge campaigns, one could spend $50 or $100 to buy thousands of followers so brands and other platforms blacklist them. It is ruthless because there is so much money involved.”

Publicist Tiffany Farrington has been a strong supporter of the platform and has vowed to promote influencers registered with Q-83 on her respected industry site Social Diary over those without.

“Every brand ready to spend thousands of dollars on a social media campaign should demand an influencer show their Q-83 stats, which come direct from Instagram and show true reach and influence,” Farrington said.

“I would ask the question, if an influencer is not prepared to reveal their true stats — what are they hiding? Brands should point blank refuse to work with influencers who won’t reveal their Q-83, it is literally that simple. The whole industry needs to stamp out the rampant fraudulent behaviour on social media once and for all.”