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November 5, 2016 blogging•lifestyle•personal•resources•tips and tricks

The deal with instagram bots (from a non-bot user)

bots and social media growth
I’ve been doing a lot of reading in my current employment lul, and as much as I wish it was with carefully crafted worlds of some fantastical place, or a guide to thinking more positively when nothing is coming up roses / how to motivate yourself (if you have any recommendations I’m all ears here), it’s not. Instead I’ve been reading ebooks and articles about things going down in the world of social media, digital marketing and the rise of the influencer. Gotta stay ‘on brand’ right?

One of the things I’ve been reading, seeing, and hearing about more frequently is the rise of bots. Technology is rapidly developing in all areas of our lives – hackable kettles, anyone? – and so is the world of online advertising, so it stands to reason that the two, that is, technology to make things easier, and the graft of being successful in everything, would eventually come together.

And so bots were born. Programs and platforms to ease the steepness of the social media climb, ease the ‘gotta be present at all times‘ nature of interaction on digital platforms. ‘Growth Hacking’ for want of another term. And I’m still trying to work out if they’re ‘friend’ or foe.

First up, the use of bots is different to the practice of simply buying followers. Buying followers is a ridiculous practice, I don’t condone it at all, and it’s blindingly obvious to anyone with eyes. In all honesty, brands looking to work with influences should be stepping away from being bowled over by the sheer reach someone has, and start looking at engagement and ROI/PPC. Even with the new algorithms, it’s very easy to spot someone who has a mass of followers and disproportional engagement in relation to that following on their content. Not so much on written blog posts – since commenting is down across the board unless your net readership is massive – but on instant platforms like twitter/instagram, and to some extent youtube, tens of thousands of followers and low levels of engagement is cause for concern, in my opinion.

Bots, on the other hand, do the legwork for the account employing the use of one. There are various kinds, and not all are ridiculously shady.

You have the ‘rewteet’ (RT) bot – super useful for those running large RT accounts for promotional purposes. Especially when the curator of the account has multiple accounts to run, or a very large following expecting to be promoted/retweeted/recognised and not a lot of time to do so manually.

You also have the bots that check follower/unfollower numbers so you can keep an eye on your social media stats – fab if you’re being plagued by the follow-unfollow-follow-unfollow-NOTICE-ME types, or find tracking your stats in this manner is helpful to your overall strategy for promotion and growth.

You have the bots that schedule your content for you (buffer, hootsuite etc), so that you can have a bit of time away from constant manual promotion.

And then you have the less ‘useful’ bots. The bots that are strap-lined and promoted as ways to grow your following. Often paid-for systems with free trials that go against the terms of service of some of our favourite platforms.

For these sort of bots there are various settings, speeds and actions that you can ask them to perform. At the most basic level, you can plug in a few hashtags and have the bot like uploads in those categories for you. With the recent algorithm changes and the sheer size of instagram as a platform, I can see why people would use this. It’s incredibly time consuming to trawl through your favourite hashtags and leave genuine likes and comments on snaps you enjoy, as well as keeping up with all your other social media, content creation, and daily life. Double tapping a few photos of accounts in hashtags you use regularly makes people more likely to notice, have a look at your own content and follow if they like what they see; but I do feel like it’s akin to casting an absolutely massive net out in the ocean and hope you get a few good responses.

bots and social media growth

It gets a bit more… not necessarily sinister, but a bit more intense when you consider the other settings. You can choose to interact with the followers of specific accounts and ‘copy’ their followers, set the number of interactions to slightly mind boggling numbers per hour, leave automated comments under photos (which can backfire a little spectacularly, as a hootsuite blogger found out), and the classic: follow-unfollow.

Whereas these actions are less blatant than straight up buying swathes of followers that are invariably buffer accounts, it’s still somewhat annoying for those who don’t use bots. If you’re paying for someone to do the legwork for you, it isn’t exactly organic growth; and although bots aren’t sourcing fake accounts to boost your following, it’s tapping into a grey area if you’re using anything more than the ‘like a bunch of photos in these hashtags’ options.

My least favourite bot tactic, and one that I think should stop immediately, is ‘mass following’. Follow a bunch of accounts, have them follow you back, then unfollow after a period of time. If you’ve ever wondered why massive accounts in relation to your own following follow you out of the blue, then unfollow, it’s probably because they’ve been using a bot that’s flagged you as an account that interacts with a hashtag or another account they’re monitoring. Probably. It’s a tactic I’ve seen across all social media platforms and it’s probably one of the fastest ways to generate reach without paying for followers – people often feel the need to follow back, and then forget to unfollow at a later stage. With bots, and algorithm changes that mean you don’t see a lot of what you want to in your feed, the fact you’re following a bunch of accounts that you don’t necessarily like the content of in order to potentially get a follow back, is less ‘annoying’.

On the other side of things, it’s wildly frustrating.

I’ve been chatting to a few friends to see if our opinions align, and it’s probably obvious to say that they do. One friend even said she’d been to a seminar recently where the speaker suggested using bots to grow reach – which shocked me, if I’m being frank. Industry professionals, or analysts, shouldn’t be encouraging shortcuts which breach terms of service. But where there’s popularity, there is also money, and then strategy to maximise that income, so.

While I can definitely see the appeal of the auto like bot – and from accounts of those who have done the free trials so you don’t have to with combinations of the settings, bots clearly do generate more followers – they still don’t sit right with me. It’s not as overt as the massive spikes in numbers vs lack of increase in engagement that buying a following generates, but I can’t help but feel any gains are slightly less organic. Diluted. It’s a weird one.

If you’re a brand, I definitely don’t think using bots is a wise idea. Instagram has regular crackdowns on accounts that breach its terms of service (even though it has an interesting idea of what that can be sometimes), and if your store or business relies on revenue or reach via Instagram it’s not worth the risk of losing your account.

What are your thoughts on the matter of bots? It’s such a massive grey area – while I’m massively against buying followers and the bot options to auto-comment/follow and iffy about the targeted following thing, I’m less concerned about the auto-like function as it sounds like a really useful timesaver, even though I’d never really consider using it myself.

Let me know, I’d love to have more of a discussion on this in the future.

♥

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  1. Abigail Alice x says

    November 8, 2016 at 3:26 pm

    I have a really close friend who has bought all her thousands of instagram followers and I really have to bite my tongue when she talks about instagram because it really is just so obvious especially since ive always had jobs in social media!Abigail Alice x

    Reply
  2. Heather Chambers says

    November 14, 2016 at 11:46 pm

    This was a very interesting and insightful read. I don't like the whole bot culture, the whole idea of having automatic comments & the follow/unfollow thing is just not authentic! It's unfair for those that do really make the effort to grow organically and have to watch those using bots growing their followings in an instant and getting more opps because of it. But it does seem like that's the way the social media industry is going these days, due to bots being so widely accessible now. Heather Xx100waysto30.co.uk

    Reply
  3. Melanin Mommie says

    November 27, 2016 at 5:08 pm

    Very interesting and informative read!

    Reply
  4. Alyse (J.X.L.) says

    December 2, 2016 at 1:41 am

    I don't like the bot culture, but it exists because everyone is trying to the extend their reach to astronomical proportions (which is a whole other issue from this). I appreciate when people grow their followings organically because there's more a 'mom and pop' feeling and more authentic interactions. I like to use my blog and social medias as platforms to interact with others around the world, not as a way to amass a following for the sake of it. So I would absolute never use a bot and I frown upon it. I much appreciate the small, but engaging, following I do have then a bunch of strangers doing follow for follow or like for like. Seems a bit desperate, too, yeah?Alyse (J.X.L.) ▲ Lumière & Lens

    Reply
  5. Anonymous says

    April 25, 2017 at 3:03 pm

    I agree completely with this article. I think that what is most frustrating is that all of the comments now seem to be coming from bots. None of what I post on Instagram seem to really have an impact because they're all fake likes and fake comments. I don't know what to do except for calling them out?

    Reply
  6. Teas Ras says

    August 19, 2017 at 1:05 am

    Yes there are some misconceptions about buying instagram followers but the fact is this it totally depends on the type of followers like if you buy active followers then of course they will be long lasting but if you go with cheap then it will not good for youSmfollowersguru

    Reply
    • Fii Cridland says

      August 20, 2017 at 8:10 pm

      I don't condone or support any act of buying followers, regardless of the 'type'.

      Reply
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#협찬 Using the right sunscreen for your skin ty #협찬 Using the right sunscreen for your skin type is *drum roll* actually very important -- and I'm not just talking about SPF levels for different skin tones. 

Choosing the right sunscreen helps to avoid irritation, breakouts, and makes you more likely to apply it regularly, which gives your skin the best chance at avoiding things like melanoma (skin cancer) and premature aging. 

Determining your skin type >>
For me, finding my skin type was super easy. S E N S I T I V E. I'm horrifically eczema prone (have a whole series on my blog about this), and lean towards a routine that is simple but hydrating, staying away from too many actives. It's the reason I take forever to put up skincare reviews, because I have to check for reactions, or develop contact dermatitis from different ingredients. 

BUT - that's not all. See, I lean towards Sensitive-dry, which is why my skin care, and my sun care, focuses more on hydrating products. 

What determines your skin type? How much oil (sebum) your skin produces daily. 

Dry >> 
Does your skin feel tight? Less elastic?  Does it become rough or flaky easily? Dehydrated? Not a lot of shine in your T-zone? Then your skin type is probably dry. 

Oily >>
Do you get really shiny during the day? (Especially in your t-zone) Do you suffer from (manageable*) breakouts, blackheads and/or whiteheads? Then your skin type is probably oily. 

Normal >> 
Is your skin neither oily throughout the day, and doesn't feel dry, or tight, or often irritated? Your pores aren't too noticeable, and you rarely have breakouts? Then your skin is probably normal! Lucky you :) 

Combination >>
Are you oily in your t-zone (forehead, nose, chin) and dry or normal skin on your cheeks? Then you have combination skin <3. It's a little harder to care for, because you're often trying to battle with contrasting products 
(my tip: you're gonna want a sunscreen that's suitable for 'all skin types' ;))

So, now you know more about skin types, scroll through for my picks for each, and my current favourite sun screen <3 

Let me know your skin type AND your current sun screen in the comments below, and don't forget to #applysunscreenaddprotection <3
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then i have a cafe recommendation for you~~ 

this cute (deceptively large) place is @for_tourists_dotori_garden by Anguk station, and i had a great afternoon enjoying the atmosphere with great company and great baked goods and i’m not at all noting the aesthetics for my own future cafe 🤭

꿀팁 - if you search 분좋카 on instagram then you’ll find a bunch of very aesthetic cafes around seoul that all have a great atmosphere (분•위기 좋•은 카•페 = 분좋카) ❤️❤️ 

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mist: 
the fundamental ampule mist os a great product to have to top up when your skin is feeling dry, or as layered with 7 skins. it’s got so many nutrients to make your skin feel refreshed and hydrated. 

eye cream
i’m always a bit hmm over eye creams that don’t have actives (like retinol or derivatives) but i’ve been reading about the benefits of using peptides for the under-eye area specifically and i’m not saying the results are magic, but i’ve seen an improvement when i’ve been using peptide formulated products in that area. so. jury is still out but i’m not mad. 
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overall it’s been a great experience so far, and it’s definitely made me remember why i liked klairs products way back when i started blogging ❤️

products courtesy of @wishtrend via @nurilounge.official ❤️❤️

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the princess / abandoned castle vibes are strong here

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💼 @marhen.j  kai bag in urban black 
beauty products 
@romandyou waterfit cushion 
@keepintouch_makeup jelly lip plumper in bloody wine 
@espoir_makeup water splash cica tone up sun cream 

ipad cover is from @from.pick 

not pictured: work badge -,-, lip balm, assorted receipts 😅

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새해 복 많이 바드세용~ 🐰 happy lunar 새해 복 많이 바드세용~ 
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happy lunar new year from me and the floof and the personal growth we’ve been doing so far this month ☺️😊😌

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pov: you’re cafe hopping in seoul ❤️ tell pov: you’re cafe hopping in seoul ❤️ 

tell me a place and a time and i’ll come to hang out ❤️🥰 

📍 cafe seongbukro/ @seongbukro 
it’s beautiful~~~ 

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2022 was uh… a year (if u saw me trying to pos 2022 was uh… a year 

(if u saw me trying to post this already, no u didn’t 😂😂🤡🤡🤡🤡) 

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when ur as excited for coffee as u are for christm when ur as excited for coffee as u are for christmas and also music show broadcasts bc i am that girl now 😌😌😌😌😌 u only live once and all ✌️ 
merry holidays i hope ur day is merry and bright ⛄️ 

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