Social media is now the new market. It is where every company sales rep vies for customers’ attention. It is now common to find businesses looking to hook their customers right from social media. Digital products and services can only be sold online and that means a total traditional market bypassing. Hence, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok are introducing new marketing features to support business engagement and increase platform use.
LinkedIn is currently billed as the world’s largest professional online community and it is also the leading social networking platform employers use to hire new employees and teams for all kinds of businesses. According to Statista, there are over 200 million LinkedIn users in the United States alone.
Since online social engagement needs to be constantly evoked with feelings, companies hire sales reps to reach potential customers and increase engagement rates. However, a new online virus is hitting LinkedIn – fake sales rep bots. Many people are reporting that the sales reps on LinkedIn are not human beings but engineered AI bots.
This article talks about this new wave and some tips for spotting these bots and increasing your business security.
What Are LinkedIn Bots?
AI has slowly become an integral part of our lives over the last two decades and much faster in recent years. Siri, Alexa and Cortana all debuted as listening software that helped with menial tasks. AI is now being used in a broader range and a more defined manner (Microsoft Copilot is a good example). One other use is the fake sales rep bot on LinkedIn.
A bot is a digital program that imitates the activities and personalities of a human on the internet. Many companies already use bots for basic FAQ replies in a bid to reduce staff costs and encourage customers to get familiar with digital systems. With a bot, your basic questions and concerns can be addressed immediately. However, some companies are now subverting their use to increase conversion rates on LinkedIn in the form of fake sales rep bots.
The Disparity Between Fake and Actual Sales Rep Bots on LinkedIn
Actual sales reps on any social media platform know that nothing can be traded for basic, authentic human interaction. From this interaction, they can close sales and convince potential customers about their products and services and how they can benefit them. Convincing takes time but builds trust in the process. That is why it can be largely demoralizing to find out that you have been communicating or conversing with a bot all along.
Chatting with a bot is almost like the real deal. A recent report discovered that humans have a 50% chance of detecting the difference between an AI-generated profile picture and a real one. Companies are now using bots on LinkedIn for the first stage of convincing and conversation before an actual human continues the exchange from where the bot stops. However, one bad meeting with a fake sales rep bot can temporarily and permanently discourage potential customers from your business.
There are ways to detect if you are chatting with fake sales rep bots. This is addressed in the next section.
Tips To Help You Spot Fake Sales Rep LinkedIn Bots
Here are some tips to note that will help you know if it is an automated bot you are conversing with or an actual human:
Conversational Flow
While bots are made to converse like humans, the technology is not there yet. Therefore, it is easy to identify the responses of a bot compared to a human. While humans tend to add a bit of detail to their conversations and sometimes have a spelling error mixed in, bots offer blunt and unvaried answers which are usually painstakingly straight to the point. While machine learning has made this better in recent years, elements of repetitiveness and bluntness are still there.
All of this is because bots have to get their replies from a preloaded database. The range of questions that are being expected is usually not comprehensive so the responses will be rote and lack a measure of nuance. The more familiar and repetitive the replies of a sales rep on LinkedIn are means the higher the chances that you are chatting with a bot.
Frequency of Posts
Humans are inconsistently consistent. What this means is that while they might follow a pattern to what is posted and when it is posted on specific social media platforms, there will be times that the pattern will not be followed. On the other hand, bots are made to follow routines and schedules. Any account that posts frequently and has a knack for always being on time might be handled by a bot.
The frequency, time of day and content posted are clues to analyze and decide. The fact remains that high posting rates are a pointer to the fact that the sales rep trying to connect with you is a bot.
Account Profile
Actual human LinkedIn accounts show a distinct characteristic. That is how well they have worked. It is customary to see that humans offer many details about what they have been up to on LinkedIn. While the resume looks impressive, volunteer roles and other non-paid activities will be on display. Bot accounts do not typically have this quality. Bot accounts usually appear empty and devoid of details. It can also be too full of details which is always something to be suspicious about.
For instance, a finance executive might claim to have also worked as a top legal executive. However, according to their education summary, there is no record of having passed through law school or doing any law courses. This tells you the profile summary is a sham and was put together to appear passable.
Bot accounts also lack previous company images and posts and only focus on their current workplace. If you have the time, reverse-search the profile image and get ready to find the picture as a “stock image.”
Two-Step Disassociation
This is a very common way to ask bots questions and know the limits and range of their database and how smart they are. If you ask where they work and a reply comes, ask your next question based on the context of the previous question.
If you ask how big the department they work in is and you get a response, ask why so much or so little staff is needed. A bot would most likely answer funny while a human will give a good reason or an excuse. Humans lie but bots don’t. Not all bots can connect context dots.
Instinct
Instinct has always been helpful. That might be the case when you suspect something is wrong when conversing with a LinkedIn sales rep. You can then use the above points to solidify your suspicions.
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