Fohr For Fashion Bloggers: Everything You Need To Know Before Joining

Have you heard of Fohr (formerly known as Fohr Card)?

Fohr is a membership network that connects brands with influencers. And It's free for influencers and bloggers to join. All you need to do is go to fohr.co and create an account. It really is that simple.

Wait, aren't there already a million networks that connect brands with influencers and bloggers???

Technically, yes. Except Fohr wants to bring transparency into the world of influencer marketing, while also connecting YOU with brands for potential collaborations.

Curious? We'll get into everything all fashion bloggers and social influencers need to know about Fohr below.

Introducing Fohr: Everything Fashion Bloggers Need To Know

Fohr is the network for the honest blogger or influencer.

If you're frustrated that you (and your smaller, authentic following) are being passed up for brand deals, you will 100% appreciate being a Fohr member. Why? Because Fohr provides its users (and partnered brands) with an in-depth look into audience demographics and the overall “health” (i.e. authenticity) of an influencer's/blogger's audience.

This means that bloggers and influencers who are signed to Fohr are not able to sneakily “alter” their following by using inauthentic tactics (i.e. buying followers, etc.) because it will show up on the platform.

Intrigued?

Founders James Nord and Rich Tong launched the platform in 2012 when influencer marketing was starting to take off. Both were convinced there must some way of measuring an influencer's level of collective influence across all social media platforms. They wanted to stop the speculation surrounding which bloggers had fudged their follower count on Instagram – and which bloggers were honest and authentic.

While other free tools like Social Blade and Instagram Analytics will show an influencer's follower growth (and give some insight into their audiences) the data isn't nearly as detailed as the metrics Fohr provides its users.

Enter Fohr's infamous Follower Health Score.

Fohr members are provided with an Instagram Follower Health Score when the sign up. And it's this coveted score that truly provides value to those influencers and bloggers that join the network.

The score breaks down everything from the average income of their followers to their martial status. Users can also find out who their audience also followers (i.e. celebrities, etc.) along with the personal interest, line of work, religion, and much more of their audience.

Any blogger or influencer can sign up, and it's 100% free to join.

Why Was Fohr Created?

James Nord and Rich Tong created the platform with one goal in mind: they wanted to bring transparency to influencer marketing.

In the past, marketers replied heavily on speculation, when it came to selecting which influencers to work with on a campaign. Brands would choose who they wanted to collaborate with based on the follower count they saw on a blogger or influencer's social media accounts.

In 2018 many brands are aware that rates of engagement and interaction are more important than the follower count an influencer may boast. But with corner-cutting techniques in years past like joining Instagram Pods, signing up for Instagram growth services and hiring cheap off-shore Virtual Assistants, figuring out who actually has an authentic following is still tricky.

(Psst! Wonder why you should sign up for an Instagram growth service? We've go the low down here…)

After analyzing 20 million Instagram accounts with their technology, Fohr found that approximately 7.8% of these accounts were ‘bots and not actually real people. In order to help digital marketers and brand representatives figure out who was legit and who was faking it, Nord and Tong decided to provide its partners and its members with some much needed transparency. They developed the Influencer Follower Health score and the rest is history.

“These . . . metrics will undoubtedly provide more peace of mind to brands who want to be 100% sure about what they are paying for when they work with an influencer on a campaign,” said James Nord, Fohr CEO to Marketwired. “Shedding light on fake followers could curb fraudulent activity, help trigger preventative measures and keep influencer marketing a valued channel for brands.”

How Does Fohr Work?

Once an influencer has created an account, they agree to give Fohr authorization access to all of their social media accounts, Google analytics, etc. You know, all of the really unsexy stuff that is necessary to measure influencer but something most creatives hate analyzing. Fohr then takes all of the data and provides detailed insight report on an influencer's audience – right down to the kinds of music their followers enjoy.

For influencers on Instagram Fohr has created an audience score (known as the Follower Health Score) that ranges in ranking from -8 (the worst) to 8 (100% real and engaged).

It's this score allows Fohr to assess the “Follower Health” of an account. It categorizing followers into one of three categories: Active, Lurkers and Bots.

“Active” followers are users that are engaged and interact with an influencers content. “Lurkers” are users that passively follow an influencers, and rare interact/view their content. ‘Bots are robotic files that can be categorized as fake followers (although legitimate can accidentally amass them without knowing it).

The platform is then able to provide an overarching score of 0 to 100%. It's this score that reflects the overall quality of an influencer's social media accounts and their entire collective followers.

The data can also be exported, so bloggers and marketers can keep a copy on hand. This makes it easier for influencers, who can share their up-to-date stats with marketers and potential brand sponsors. It also allows them to avoid constantly updating their media kits.

Follower Fraud: It's A Problem

Fohr was created to encourage transparency in an industry where so many influencers falsify the influence they have over their audience. Between buying fake followers to Instagram Pods, many “influencers” boast more influence than they actually have.

“I think it’s similar to taking steroids in sports,” James Nord said, in an interview with Julie Solomon on The Influencer Podcast. “You’re not only stealing and defrauding the advertisers that are sponsoring you . . .  you have taken that [proverbial] gold medal away from somebody else, which is worse in some ways.”

The crackdown on fake followers has been going on for some time now, but Fohr has made huge strides in bringing transparency into the influencer marketing industry.

What Bloggers Think About Fohr

“I think it makes you look professional and intelligent about your work and following. It shows you understand that this is a business,” Blogger, writer and influencer Amanda Kusek said. Kusek runs cheapcourage.com, a blog “dedicated to doing what scares you with confidence.”

“I don't remember how I found out about Fohr Card but I remembered thinking ‘Aha! This is what I need.' Because even though I don't have a ton of [Instagram] followers, I knew there was some value to having 3,000 REAL followers versus 7,000 FAKE followers. So I went on and filled out all my information and really liked getting certified.”

One Fohr feature Kusek finds particularly useful is the Press Tool Kit.

“I used this toolkit when applying for an influencer trip to Japan. They didn't require anything like it. But I thought it would be a good tool for selling myself given my low follower count.”

She was accepted for the week long trip, along with three other influencers. She was also invited to star in a documentary for the Japanese Tourism Board during her time in Japan.

Fohr for Fashion Bloggers: Our Thoughts

Fohr (and the majority of their partnered brands) are based in the USA. That being said, it's still a valuable tool for anyone who signs up to the platform.

Whether you're based in NYC or Mumbai, the network provides a wealth of information to its members – for free. Normally, detailed statistics on followers would only be attainable via a paid third network and program.

Therefore, spending the few minutes to set up your Fohr account is absolutely worth your time. The platform will help put you (and your blog) on big-name brands' radar and you'll have detailed access to statistics on your followers.

Still curious? You really have nothing to lose by signing up to Fohr.

Have you signed up to Fohr? What has your experience been with the network? Do You find the Follower Health Score useful? Let us know in the comments below…