Ratting Out LinkedIn Finks

New tool shows who's authentic, who's fake and who's buying followers, views and more

Author

Jim Louderback
June 16, 2025

This Week: Surprising results from a new tool that ranks LinkedIn Creators, my VivaTech wrap up, weird robot videos and much more!

Hi, I’m Jim Louderback and this is my weekly creator economy newsletter. If you’ve received it, then you are either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you.


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💡 TOP STORIES

EXPOSING FAKE LINKEDIN CREATORS

Favikon shook up the LinkedIn creatorverse last week with its new “AI-Powered Authenticity Score.” Designed to reward real expertise, it also calls out those using bots, buying followers, or spamming the feed. The score gives creators, marketers, and brands a multi-platform view, aggregating data from LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and X. It then uses AI to analyze five signals: follower growth, post quality, comment quality, true expertise, and signs of artificial growth hacks.

CEO @Jeremy Boissenet walked me through it at VivaTech. We were both pleasantly surprised by how well I scored (thanks, Mom), although I was slightly gutted not to crack the top 50 in the Creator Economy category. Still, top 11% ain’t bad. Also note I definitely charge (and get) much more than Favikon’s estimated rate per post.

Jeremy also shared a few examples of well-known creators who got caught with their bro-boy pants down. One even flat-lined with a score of zero. Brutal.

Not everyone’s a fan. Jeremy says he’s getting over 200 messages a day from disgruntled creators contesting their scores. But the algorithm doesn’t care. It calls it like it sees it

He claims the data updates daily, though Favikon’s subscriber count for this very newsletter was three months out of date.

Give it a try! Nice to see legitimacy and quality taking center stage on LinkedIn.

WHAT I LEARNED AT VIVATECH

I spent last week at the amazing VivaTech event in Paris. While it had hints of CES, the Vegas-sized event felt more like Comdex (for those who remember), Computex, GITEX, and AWS re:Invent rolled into one. For the first time, Nvidia also co-located their AI-heavy Global Technology Conference (GTC) there.

The event was, of course, infused with AI.  But it also featured top marketers, a host of non-AI startups, weird robots from around the world, and so much more. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Either embrace AI or Die:   I moderated a session on the business of influence at VivaTech’s CMO Summit with @Brendan Gahan, @Neil Waller, and @Marina Mogilko. Neil nailed the AI/creator economy disruption: like most industries, you either embrace AI or you die. With AI agents, robots, an AI film fest, and even Tesla’s robotaxi on display, it was a clear reminder to ignore AI at your peril. Unless you’d rather be a barista.

The Brand/Creator Power Balance Has Shifted: On the same panel, top creator Marina Mogilko shared what matters most to her when working with brands: alignment, partnership, community, and trust. But what she didn’t say was just as telling. If you think it’s only about the money, you’re stuck in 2015. Sure, payment matters. But Marina echoed what I’m hearing more often from creators: they’ll walk away before they compromise their fans, their community, or their values.

Bono Meets Steve Jobs:  I was lucky enough to watch Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang deliver his signature GTC keynote—a nearly two-hour performance with just a small robot for company on stage. He’s become the rock-star tech CEO of our time. I remember him unveiling early GeForce boards back when I ran computer magazines. Now he’s dazzling crowds with TPUs, which are basically GPUs all grown up.

His star power really came through the next day as he strolled the GTC show floor, signing booths, mini-AI PCs, servers, and even full server racks. Tellingly, just 10 minutes after the show floor closed, someone ripped out the AWS booth panel he signed.  It’s probably hanging up in a Parisian gallery or garret by now.

He doesn’t post like Musk or Trump, but he’s easily one of the top 100 influencers in the world.

Robots: Check out my video of a weirdly compelling robot I found tucked away in the back halls, along with an extended clip of Jensen Huang’s special robot guest from his keynote.

BYE BYE GENAI

The generative era is fading, says Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. In its place: agentic AI.  It’s autonomous, interactive, and everywhere.

The shift has big implications for creators, especially as the line between human and synthetic fades. At VivaTech, @Fred Chong from WebTV Asia demoed a custom vertical flat screen housing an AI agent designed as a stylish mega-mall greeter.  Tapping into a deep database of store info, the agent will point you to the best ramen or help you shop for flattering shorts (yes, I asked – it was HOT in Paris last week).

But these agents do more than guide mall rats. A visiting Emirati dignitary asked Chong’s agent to write a poem about UAE-France friendship.  The result was so good it nearly left him in tears. Chong expects these custom agents to soon show up in pharmacies, hotels, train-stations, and more.

From wayfinding to shopping to companionship, they’re coming fast. Smart creators are already experimenting with AI versions of themselves. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: now’s the time to try it. I’m starting soon—and you should too.

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💡 PLATFORMS

YOUTUBE

  • King TV: A flood of fawning stories last week about how YouTube is taking over the television and creators are eviscerating Hollywood.  All true, but it makes me wonder.  When will YouTube launch its own TV set?  And will they bundle it with a multi-year subscription, like the mobile carriers?

  • We’re Big Y’all: Even YouTube fawned over itself, releasing a new report claiming that in 2024 it contributed over $55B to the US GDP and supported more than 490,000 full-time jobs.

  • A Bigger Tent: YouTube pulls back on moderation.

  • YouTube at VidCon: Big Red releases its big plans for this year’s VidCon.  Check out the guide and I will see you there!

META

TIKTOK

  • Time to Wind the Countdown Clock:  President Trump plans to extend the TikTok Deadline for a third time, according to the WSJ (the 2nd extension runs out Wednesday).

  • We’re # 1! Bytedance’s new AI video generator Seedance tops the benchmark charts, beating out Veo and Sora.

LINKEDIN

💡 QUIBIS

OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY

  • Going Global: VidCon will take its circus around the world, according to new owner Informa.  Where have I heard this before?

  • Busted: 3 Love Island creators arrested in the UK for pumping financial products without authorization – with more to come.

  • Congrats: To @john Attanasio and @luisa for getting WME to sign up their AI animation studio Toonstar…  To @Scott Dunn for launching a new talent and production studio called Unicorn..  To Jomboy for closing a big MLB Investment…  To @Emma Barnes and @Jo Cronk for being named Co-CEOs of Whalar… and to @Dylan Harari for being named Co-CEO of Fanfix.  Proof that good people still win in this biz.

MARKETING AND BRANDS

  • Get More Brand Deals:  @Nick Cicero’s Mondo Metrics teams up with Precise.AI to deliver a new service that combines social, newsletter, Shopify and offline data to help creators prove their worth to brands – and marketers to bosses too.

  • The Great Flattening:  @Abby Ho writes about how depth beats reach and superfans are greater than scale, in our AI-infused world of GenZ fandom.

  • WPP CEO Steps Down:  Mark Read out, as longtime client Mars jumps ship to Publicis and IPG.  Social and creator loom large, as Publics’ Influential acquisition may have played a role in the shift. 

  • Creators > Traditional: WPP Media predicts spending on “creator-driven platforms” in 2025 will exceed that spent on “professional content”, which includes TV, print, etc.  Oh, and 2015 called and they want their categories back.

  • Forget Evergreen Content:  More details emerge on the types of content that GenAI search engines like to cite .

OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY

📊 RESEARCH

YouTube Eats TV—YouTubers, Not So Much

Unless you’re living under a rock, you know YouTube now owns the living room, streaming over 1 billion hours a day on Connected TVs.   A new Looper Insights report found that 86% of industry exec see Big Red as a viable home for long-form content. But there’s a catch: YouTubers often flop on traditional streamers. Execs blame poor format fit; audiences say the tone, pacing, and intimacy that work on YouTube just don’t translate. The report explores how big followings don’t always mean big impact – especially on the big screen. (HT: @Aden Ikram).

Side Hustles R Us

Nearly half of Gen Alpha in the US makes money on the internet according to new research from WHOP.  Some interesting data, but no explanation of how their 2,000 12-28 year olds were selected for the survey, so directional not predictive.

📍 Where’s Jim? VidCon all week, stop by and say hi!

100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!).

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Let me know what you think – email me at [email protected]. Thanks for reading and see you around the internet.