To Bot or Not To Bot: That Is The Question

Through our past use of bots we have had both great and terrible experiences with it. Bots get a bad rep. Instagram has gone as far as blocking them. Later states that “any sort of automation on Instagram strictly violates the platform’s terms of use and using Instagram bots can get your account banned or shadowbanned!” So, why would anyone use a bot? The answer’s simple. It saves you time. Most celebrities and brands have a social media team that handles engagement and growing a following. With a team, handling posts, responses, likes, engagement, building content, and more is much simpler to manage than doing it all yourself. If you’re solely building your brand or following, it can be tough to do it all and that’s where bots come in. Below we’ve placed the pros and cons to help you decide if a bot is for you.

Pros

Bots utilize hashtags to grow your following/engagement. Once you’ve signed up for one of these apps, the next thing you do is apply all of the hashtags related to your brand or audience you’re targeting. The bot will then like or comment (using a comment from the bank of comments you supply) below each photo it finds that recently used any of the hashtags that apply. Many bots can reach tens of thousands of people in the span of a month. “A decent percentage of those people will return the favor by visiting your feed, liking some of your work and hopefully, following your account.”, says PetaPixel. This ultimately saves you time and the effort to constantly like and comment under other people’s posts within your target audience.

It allows exposure to people in different countries and time zones. When we’re online throughout our day, that only allows for 15 hours of our day being utilized for social media while people on the other side of the world could be sleeping. These bots sift through hashtags 24 hours per day, allowing constant exposure and engagement. This way you can cover people in different time zones/parts of the world.

The pros of growing your entire account with the simple use of applying hashtags and letting a bot do the rest of the work is tempting. It’s the easiest way to grow your following by leaps and bounds, but the cons outweigh the pros here.

Cons

While there are many perks to using bots, there are also many disadvantages. One being receiving a lot of engagement with fake followers/accounts. The value of these accounts is minimal to none. You may receive a like or comment from these accounts and/or fake bots, yet the chances of it leading to any further engagement is slim to none.

A botter can be spotted via the following tab, which will more than likely give away your strategy to your followers.. Spotting a bot isn’t hardly difficult as they’ll be consistently liking 8 posts at a time. This will appear in the feed as often as it occurs. Many followers relate the credibility and value of an account with the attachment of an organic following. If a bot is discovered, that perception will diminish.

A bot is also capable of constantly logging you out of your own account, or locking you out of it. We’ve had this issue with a bot we used in the past. It occurred so often that we gave up on using it.

Lastly, the main and most important con to using a bot is the risk of getting banned or shadowbanned. You want to avoid this consequence at all costs, especially if you’ve organically grown a significant amount of followers on your page. Once banned/shadowbanned, you lose all of the efforts you put forward to growing the following for that handle...which ultimately sucks.

Alternatives

We can’t give you the list of cons without providing you alternatives! Here are three options that would ensure your brand’s following grows without the risk of getting your account revoked.

1) Hiring A Social Media Manager

Hiring a social media manager, a service we provide (shameless plug), or social media management company can grow your following and engagement significantly. Having a team behind your brand that is dedicated to concentrated growth is beneficial to organic building. Making sure that they understand the voice, vision, and goal you have set for your brand is most important here. If that is set, then this is the best option for you.

2) Hiring A Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant is also a great way to step up your engagement and following without having to use a bot. You can find one that specializes in the specific social media outlet you’d like to grow, or one that does them all. Shop around and make sure that they understand your brand well enough to execute your vision.

3) Doing It Yourself

Last but not least, doing the work yourself. This one’s the most cost-effective, yet it requires you to invest your time and energy. You can surely grow your own brand alone. Come up with content that’s both visually appealing and engaging. Get creative with your photos, captions, etc. and begin to like and comment under any photo or account that you wish to be affiliated with. Tagging anyone you wish to affiliate with in a photo that is related to the content they put out would also help get those specific eyes on your photo or page.

To bot or not to bot...that is the question. With all of this information provided, you can choose which option is best for you. Should you choose to bot, we’ve placed a list of 6 different Instagram bots and the cost of each subscription below. Choose wisely!

Bot Programs