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Lara Sophie Bothur:

Germany's first full-time corporate influencer

Photo:

AEDT / action press

A heated argument has just broken out on Linkedin over fake followers of the most successful accounts. manager magazine explains what it's about. The most important questions at a glance:

What happened?

The tech magazine t3n has published an analysis that raises questions about the reach of some corporate influencers on Linkedin. As an example, the magazine cites

Lara Sophie Bothur

(27), Germany's first full-time corporate influencer and employed in this role at Deloitte. She has been one of the business network's shooting stars for several months. Linkedin recently even named her Top Voice in Tech 2023. When Bothur announced around two years ago that she would now be working full-time as a corporate influencer, she was still completely unknown among social media experts. Since then, Bothur has gained massive followers. Most recently, according to the profile, there were around 202,990. Some experts who took a closer look at the profile and examined the growth expressed considerable doubts to t3n about the authenticity of the followers and natural growth. The article suggests that Deloitte or third parties may have simply bought her followers or engagement. Deloitte denies this, Bothur himself does not comment on it.

What evidence is there that followers are artificial?

The first indication of a follower purchase is when a profile shows record, linear growth in a short period of time. For Lara Sophie Bothur's profile, samples from t3n show that she gained around 10,000 followers every week between December 13, 2023 and January 12, 2024. Something like this could happen to top politicians, professional athletes or other celebrities, but they have usually been seen regularly for years on all channels from TV to social media, writes t3n.

Philipp Klöckner

, one of the most renowned German tech investors and analysts, who has carried out his own analysis,

has also become suspicious about Bothur's reach .

According to him, between July 2023 and January 2024, the number of followers jumped from 80,000 to more than 200,000. So 150 percent growth in a period in which other absolute top accounts can only achieve 20 percent, even with the support of entire teams, he points out in his “Doppelgänger” podcast.

Conspicuous followers are profiles that always comment with the same wording. Often there is neither a profile picture nor a career path. If a Google search doesn't produce any results, you may suspect a bot profile. Even if the engagement rate is high, i.e. if a post is liked, commented on or shared an unusually high number, experts suspect purchased profiles or bots. t3n shows in a video how alleged bots comment on Lara Sophie Bothur's postings.

Is there any evidence of the fake followers?

No. There are also other possible explanations as to why Bothur has gained such a massive following. First of all, she posts in English and can therefore not be compared with the Linkedin stars who post in German. In addition, as Deloitte emphasized in a statement to manager magazin, it appeals to a broad global target group with its topics about technology and the hype surrounding generative AI. This could explain the many reactions in India or the USA, for example. Last but not least, Deloitte employs 450,000 people worldwide and regularly likes Bothur's posts via the company profile with its 14 million followers worldwide. This also gives the influencer a boost. According to Deloitte, profile reach, engagement and profile growth are in harmony with each other.

Why could things get uncomfortable for Deloitte?

For Deloitte, the matter represents an enormous reputational risk, especially since the company, as an auditor, is tasked with uncovering what is “fake”. A spokesperson told manager magazin that "according to our internal audits, the increase in the reach of Ms. Bothur's Linkedin account is due to organic growth." No followers or engagement were purchased from Bothur. After the allegations became known, Linkedin commissioned a comprehensive review of the account. As soon as the results of this test are available, they will be shared with the public. Deloitte had previously told t3n that it had “no indications” of dubious account activity.

How does Linkedin react?

According to the transparency report, Linkedin itself blocks millions of accounts every year in order to combat fake profiles and artificial follower growth. As far as checking the account of Linkedin top voice Lara Sophie Bothur is concerned, the career network refers to the enforcement of the community guidelines. The Linkedin Top Voices program is only accessible to invited members and is continually monitored. Linkedin does not say to what extent targeted deletions of fake profiles associated with them play a role.

How does the Linkedin community react?

The corporate influencer receives great support

from some members such as retail expert and also Linkedin top voice

Marcus Diekmann

. Dieckmann warns against “prejudgement” and “character assassination” and even considers the allegations to be “incitement on the internet”. Others disagree sharply. Some companies are also using the debate for their own purposes by marketing their own analysis of Linkedin profiles as a service.

What does Lara Sophie Bothur say?

Nothing – she lets Deloitte speak for itself, at least so far. Her Instagram and Threads channels no longer exist. A Deloitte spokesperson explains: There were “a large number of inappropriate comments and personal attacks” on these two channels, so these channels “were temporarily taken offline.” The spokesperson further explains: “The level of discussion there is significantly different from that on LinkedIn.”

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