Instagram Follower Bots – Should You Really Use Them?

The idea of gaining followers on Instagram without any elbow grease is tempting. But as they say, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Using bots is probably one of the worst things you can do to your Instagram account.

But this is something that requires a more detailed discussion, so let us actually tell you what bots exactly are, why people use them, why you shouldn’t use them, and why buying Instagram followers can instead turn out to be a much better approach to your Instagram marketing.

Bots vs. Tools

First things first, you need to understand the difference between Instagram bots and tools. Tools are software that integrate with Instagram and help you manage your account better and save time.

These tools typically schedule posts for you, help you create content for your posts, as well as give you access to some detailed analytics and insights.

However, these tools aren’t designed to help you grow your followers or automate user actions like following other or commenting on their posts. This is precisely what bots do.

Bots, unlike tools, are usually designed to help grow followers by following a particular set of users, and expecting them to follow back. Then, they also unfollow the followed users for you after a while if they don’t follow you back.

Basically, they are simply focused around helping you grow your followers.

Now, it must be made very clear that while Instagram has no problem with tools that help you save time posting content at different times and with other similar actions, but it clearly restricts the use of bots in its terms and conditions.

Advantages of Using Instagram Bots

Of course, there has to be some advantages of using bots, which is the reason some users end up using them in the first place. Let us take a look at them below.

Helps Grow Your Followers

As mentioned above, follower bots are basically bots that follow a particular set of users specified by you from your account. How this helps you gain followers is that some of the followers the bot follows for you, end up following you back.

Basically, instead of having to follow all those users manually, the bot would do everything for you. However, the follow-back rate would be pretty low – though they may be a little better if you’re using the right settings or targeting – so you would want to unfollow the users who don’t follow you back.

If you don’t, you would have an unusually high number of users you follow with a comparatively very low follower count. Furthermore, Instagram may block you from following users further due to the wide gap between the number of users you follow and the followers you have.

Can Function for Hours

It’s hard to stay logged in on Instagram the whole day and keep following and unfollowing users to gain followers for free. However, an Instagram bot can stay logged in to your account for as many hours a day as you want, and perform the tasks of following and unfollowing.

It’s not as simple as it sounds though and there are a lot of issues associated with using a bot this way, which we will get to below.

Advanced Settings

Some Instagram bots have been designed with some advanced features to help get around Instagram’s limit restrictions on following and unfollowing, as well as to try and prevent your account from getting banned.

These features allow you to decide how many users the bot follows for you every hour, as well as choose other factors like the time interval between following two users, between following users and unfollowing them, and so on.

Then Why Not to Use One – Disadvantages of Using Instagram Bots

You might be wondering if Instagram bots can do so much for you, then why not to use them? Well, let us discuss that in detail below.

Can Get Your Account Banned

No matter how advanced the settings to help prevent your account from getting banned, it’s extremely hard to avoid getting under Instagram’s scanner while using a bot. As much as you try, a bot can’t really function like a real user – and perform the actions a real user would – which helps Instagram track down the accounts using bots.

And as soon as Instagram finds out about bot activity on your account, your account is as good as gone forever.

Poor Quality Followers

Even though a bot may allow you to choose a particular group of users to follow – like the followers of a large account in a niche – it won’t be able to tell the difference between inactive users and active users, dead accounts and active accounts, users who would engage with your content and users who wouldn’t care, and the list goes on.

Simply put, this would lead to a poor quality of followers on a general level, meaning you would have a hard time engaging them with your content, let alone selling your products or services or building a brand image.

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Poor Follow-Back Rate

If your account has an insignificant number of followers, users may not feel encouraged to follow you back, leading to a poor follow-back rate. This is the reason many users buy quality Instagram followers to get a head-start on their brand new accounts.

However, the follow-back rate is poor using a bot for all types of accounts in general, including even large accounts with a decent follower base.

The problem with this is poor targeting. Bots can not identify the right target audience for your brand, products and services, and just perform automated actions.

This can make it hard to reach the real users you see as your target audience.

Buying Instagram Followers – A Suitable Alternative

Although buying quality Instagram followers may not sound like a perfect alternative to using a bot to gain followers, it may actually turn out to be a much better option in most cases.

Firstly, if you’re buying high-quality followers, then you don’t need to worry about getting your account banned. As long as your supplier is experienced with sending quality followers to your account the right way, you should be able to grow your follower base without risking your account.

Second, the followers you buy often act as a magnet for your real, targeted users to follow you as well. It also helps ensure a much better follow-back rate when you start following your target audience, as a large follower base encourages your targeted users to follow you.

Sure, buying followers won’t automate the process of following targeted users and unfollowing them, but it would make it much easier as you would get a better quality of followers with a better follow-back rate, and in a safe, efficient manner without risking your account.