Should you use an Instagram bot to rapidly build your audience on Instagram?

To bot, or not to bot. That is the question.

It’s not a philosophical question. It’s a real question faced by influencers, brands, politicians, and celebrities every day around the world. This post will help you to answer that question.

But first, here’s some background info about Instagram bots.

What is an Instagram Bot?

An Instagram bot is a tool you can use to automate your Instagram presence. Here are some things that an Instagram bot can do for you:

Like or comment on a photo or a video

Follow another Instagram account

Unfollow another Instagram account

Once you give permission to an Instagram bot to act on behalf of your Instagram account, the bot can access the Instagram API through your account. The bot now takes over your account and starts to like/comment/follow as many accounts as possible.

Why do people use Instagram Bots?

Most influencers and brands are on a constant mission to grow their audience and to get more engagement.

When you follow people on Instagram, some of those people will follow back. Similarly, when you engage with people on Instagram, some of those people will engage back. This is no secret – it’s basic reciprocation. But, it’s a time consuming process and it’s hard to scale. Nobody has time to spend their whole day following and engaging on Instagram.

So people have started using Instagram bots to automate their likes, comments and follows on Instagram. An Instagram bot runs in the background while you work on something else, or even while you sleep. It’s scalable – you can maintain an always-on Instagram presence without having to actually do anything yourself. Its way easier than rolling up your sleeves and engaging the old-fashioned way.

Imagine waking up every morning to thousands of new followers and engagement. It’s exciting and addictive.

The robotic nature of Instagram Bots

An Instagram bot produces fake comments like “that’s beautiful!”, “👍 👍 👍” and “great post!” You can usually tell when a comment is made by a bot. Here’s an example:

The comment is generic, out of context and ads no value to anyone’s Instagram experience.

Instagram bots are after all, robots. They don’t have a mind of their own.

What does Instagram think about bots?

Initially, Instagram took a passive stance on Instagram bots – it was against Instagram’s community guidelines to use an Instagram bot or any form of Instagram automation. Here’s a snippet from the Instagram community guidelines.

As more people started using Instagram bots to rapidly grow their audience and engagement, the folks at Instagram took notice. More spam, ghost followers and bots started to show up in feeds. Instagram responded by tightening up their Instagram API Platform Policy, calling out all Instagram bots and automation apps.

Insta-gone Bot

Eventually Instagram took action and shut down these Instagram bots by revoking their access to the Instagram API.

The most popular Instagram bots such as Instagress, Mass Planner, PeerBoost, InstaPlus, and FanHarvest are all gone. They’ve been shut down, plus some accounts that used these bots have been deleted.

Should you use an Instagram Bot?

No! Plain and simple.

If you use an Instagram bot, you’re violating Instagram’s Platform Policy, Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. While your Instagram account could gain a quick boost by using a bot, the risks outweighs the potential rewards. You don’t want your Instagram account to get blocked. You don’t want to jeopardize all the hard work it has taken to get your Instagram presence to where it is today.

So it’s highly recommended to avoid Instagram bots.

An alternative to Instagram Bots

If Instagram bots aren’t the answer, what’s the best way to rapidly grow your Instagram presence?

The most effective technique is to leverage Instagram analytics to target the top influencers and advocates of your competitors.

For example, if you’re Starbucks Canada and you want to rapidly grow your Instagram presence, target the top advocates of Tim Horton’s and other competitors – this will enable you to focus your manual efforts for maximum impact.

You can easily start tracking your competitors and rapidly grow your Instagram account with Crowdbabble.

Get Instagram Analytics