It is estimated that 995 photos are uploaded to Instagram every second; what makes yours stand out? In truth, there is nothing. It is true that brands and individuals share all types of content on this platform – the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful – but success is determined by more than just the content itself.
Instagram’s algorithm emphasizes engagement. The result is that you need people to like and comment on your content, you need to use the right hashtags, and you need followers that discover your content on a regular basis. Therefore, it brings me to the debate in question… should you use Instagram bots to increase your follower count and engagement with your content? How safe are they?
Instagram Bots: What are They?
Instagram bots automate mundane daily tasks on Instagram by automating interactions. To increase your account’s visibility, they like and comment on the content or follow and message users on your behalf. An increase in visibility results in more exposure for your brand, more visits to your profile, and more likes, comments, and followers for your account.
Is It Safe to Use Instagram Bots?
On the basis of that definition, using Instagram bots might seem like a no-brainer… after all, who doesn’t want to save time and automate mundane tasks? However, there is a caveat…
There is a bad reputation associated with bots. In the event that you use them incorrectly or too aggressively, Instagram will block your account. There is a violation of the terms of service involved. As a result, if you use bots in the right way, your interactions will appear natural, and you will not be discovered.
Finding a bot service that takes precautions is the trick (if you want to call it that). An account management service that is safe to use, professionally managed, and genuinely concerned about your account’s health. Not one of the hundreds of bot services that will take your money, place your account at risk, and then rebrand their website a week later. Since the social media platform started limiting account activity and challenging API requests from blatant bot accounts, Instagram bots have had to become more sophisticated.
Keeping Your Instagram Account Safe
Accounts with engaging content and appropriate automation targeting are likely to generate activity and interactions that are likely to be perceived as organic and result in genuine profile visits. It is likely that this will remain under the radar of Instagram’s review process.
In contrast, an Instagram account with boring, irrelevant content that is poorly targeted and set up will interact with people who will see the activity as spam or fake. We have all encountered this phenomenon at some point in our lives, from irrelevant automated direct messages to random followers from different niches.
Is an Instagram Bot Service Safe?
When considering an Instagram bot service, the following questions should be asked:
- Are they connected to a VPN? Some Instagram accounts are prohibited from conducting activities based on their IP address. Since most automation services log into your account, they should hide their IP address using a VPN in order to avoid Instagram’s blocking mechanism.
- Is it possible to target relevant accounts? The bot will eventually appear spammy on your account if it follows everyone and anyone in order to gain more followers and engagement. In order to grow a relevant following, your service of choice should be able to target relevant accounts, hashtags, and geographies.
- Is it capable of controlling the speed of activity? A certain number of activities can be performed on Instagram within a certain period of time, such as likes, comments, etc. It is important that your Instagram bot service understands what those limits are in order to maintain the security of your account.
- Is the service reliable? Make sure the Instagram bot service you choose has real customer reviews, a responsive support team, a money-back guarantee, and secure payment options.
These four principles are followed by the best bot services in order to keep your account safe.
What is The Efficacy of Instagram Bots?
It is evident that there are still a number of worthwhile bots available, however, Instagram is making changes to its platform in an effort to mitigate this by making it harder for the average account to not only utilize an Instagram bot effectively but to interact quickly with other profiles out there as well.
As a result of Instagram’s efforts, bots are less effective than they used to be. The companies that are worth your time are few and far between and are difficult to locate. Ideally, you should expect that finding Instagram bots that generate the growth you seek will be more difficult.
Keep your expectations low, and you will be able to make the most of the bots we have discussed above and tailor them to your specific needs.
Is it Possible to Be Shut Down for Using a Bot?
You are at risk of getting any of the notifications that we have discussed above if your bot constantly violates Instagram’s hourly limits, but the good news is that Instagram won’t permanently shut down your profile if you do that.
A typical scenario is that they do not allow you to interact with anyone else for the remainder of the day, and the worst-case scenario is that you are unable to interact with anyone or post anything to your feed for up to a week. Consequently, if you would like to reduce the possibility of putting your account at risk, then it is essential that you use Instagram bots such as those in the list above, which are very careful about the interaction speeds they set for their clients.
Many of them will also provide you with a VPN and provide regular customer support. You should strive to achieve these characteristics so that your Instagram profile can maintain its reputation.
Bots Won’t Solve Your Growth Problems
A very important thing to keep in mind is that automatic likes and other interactions will not make an Instagram profile that already does not do well do better. It is unlikely that using an Instagram bot will make a significant difference unless you have great quality content that people are organically discovering and following.
Instagram bots will increase the number of people who view your account, but if your account’s content is not valuable to these people, then you will not increase your follower count. As a result, you will only be exposing even more people to the fact that they will not actually follow your profile, and they may even detect the fact that you are using an Instagram bot.
Conclusion
Take the time to research what you’re getting into if you’re considering using an Instagram bot service to grow your account. As a result, there are too many services that claim to offer the world but instead end up blocking, freezing, or worse… deleting your account. Select a service that controls its activity levels, offers advanced targeting options, runs through a VPN, and is trustworthy.
