The power of influencer marketing and collaborating with social media influencers is not hidden from anyone. However, not all influencers build their followings organically. Many rely on Instagram bots to artificially boost their numbers without having organic engagement.
For brands, this can be a main challenge to ensure that your marketing budget isn’t wasted on fake engagement. That’s why in this article we will talk about the downsides of using these automation tools, how to identify influencers who use them, and how to find the right influencers for your brand.
What Are Instagram Bots?
Before anything else, let’s clarify what these bots are and why some influencers use them. Instagram bots are automation tools that perform various actions on behalf of users. These bots can automatically like posts, follow and unfollow users, post generic comments, or even send direct messages.
While all these activities might make an influencer appear more popular, they do not create genuine engagement, which is important for brands looking for real audience connections.
Why Instagram Bots Are a Problem for Brands
You may wonder why you should care about these bots. Do they affect your account, too? Here are the reasons why you need to be aware of bots:
1. Fake Engagement = Wasted Marketing Budget
Brands invest in influencers expecting genuine engagement and real conversions. If an influencer’s engagement is inflated by bots, your campaign will fail to reach actual potential customers. So in simple words, you will pay for the collaboration but won’t receive any customers in return.
2. Damage to Brand Reputation
Partnering with an influencer who relies on bots can damage your brand’s credibility. Audiences today are highly aware of fake engagement and can easily spot fake interactions. If they discover that a brand is working with influencers who aren’t genuine, it can damage a brand’s trustworthiness.
3. Instagram’s Crackdown on Fake Activity
Instagram continuously updates its algorithms to detect and penalize accounts that use Instagram bots. If you collaborate with an influencer whose account gets shadowbanned or removed, your campaign will suffer, and you may lose valuable marketing dollars.
Furthermore, if they give you fake followers, you may be in danger of Instagram shadowban too.
4. Inability To Measure Real Engagement
Even if you receive engagement after working with influencers who use Instagram bots, you can not have a clear picture of how well your marketing campaign is performing. It’s hard to tell if the likes and comments are coming from real people who are genuinely interested or if they’re just the result of bot activity.
This confusion makes it challenging for brands to understand what’s actually working and what isn’t, especially if you are running multiple campaigns.
The Dangers of Robotic Engagement on Social Media
Lots of people on Instagram use bots to get more likes and followers to increase their engagement on Instagram. But doing this can cause big problems and might even get you kicked off Instagram.
- Awkward Situations and Insensitive Comments: Bots leave comments based solely on hashtags, without taking into account the context or captions, often leading to inappropriate remarks.
- No Real Engagement: Bot comments are easily recognized by people, leading to low engagement, as they cannot replace human interaction.’
- Messy Instagram Feed: When you follow thousands of accounts, your feed becomes chaotic, burying relevant posts and affecting genuine connections.
- Violation of Instagram’s Terms of Use: Bots accessing Instagram’s API without permission violate terms, which include unauthorized API access, storing login credentials, and spamming. Users risk being banned for using bots that breach these terms.
- Daily and Hourly Limits: Instagram sets limits on likes, comments, and follows depending on account activity, typically restricting users to 150 likes, 60 comments, and 60 follows/unfollows per hour.
- Instagram Shadow Banning: Engaging in unnatural activity on Instagram can result in shadow banning, where your content becomes invisible to non-followers. According to the latest Instagram algorithm, while you can still interact with your current followers, you’ll struggle to attract new ones.
How Can You Recognize Instagram Bots?
Are you planning on clearing your page from Instagram bots and inactive accounts? Or do you want to work with an influencer and want to make sure they have organic followers? Here is how to spot these accounts.
1. Engagement Rate
One of the best and easiest ways to check if an influencer has organic followers is by checking their engagement rate. You can calculate it using the formula below or you can try lots of third-party tools that allow you to find the engagement rate by entering the usernames of public accounts.
ER = (Total likes + total comments) / followers x 100
A typical engagement rate on Instagram ranges from 1% to 3%. Rates lower than this often indicate the presence of fake or inactive accounts.
2. Unusual Growth
If you notice a sudden increase in an influencer’s follower count, it may indicate that they are using Instagram bots. Another sign of bot usage is a sudden drop in follower growth. Instagram actively detects fake accounts and removes them from the platform.
3. Strange Accounts
You can recognize Instagram bots from their profiles and remove them from your profile manually. Most bots don’t have a profile picture and their handle is a mix of random letters and numbers.
4. Spammy Comments
Checking an influencer’s engagement rate and growth rates of influencers is not enough. To determine whether they have genuine, organic followers, it’s important to review their posts as well. If you notice a significant number of spammy comments or comments that are unrelated to the content, this could be a red flag.
How To Find Influencers With Organic Followers?
Collaborating with Instagram influencers can be an effective way for a brand to attract customers through marketing campaigns. However, it’s essential to verify whether these influencers have organic followers or if they are using Instagram bots by following the methods we mentioned earlier. However, there is an easier and more accurate solution that can save you time and effort.
Ainfluencer is a free influencer marketing platform with a database of over 1M active Instagram and TikTok influencers across different niches. On this platform, you can use an AI-powered search tool and more than 20 advanced filters, you can find top influencers in your niche.
With just a click, you can view their engagement metrics, past collaborations, and the latest account insights to confirm they have organic followers. You can then invite them to join your campaigns, track the results, and manage payments inside the app.
As a brand, you won’t need to pay any additional fees to use the platform; all these features are available for free. To ensure you achieve the results you want, Ainfluencer keeps your payment in a trusted escrow system until you monitor the results and confirm them. So if you’re looking for safe and successful influencer marketing collaborations, join Ainfluencer for free now!
Conclusion
Using Instagram bots might seem like a fast way to get more followers and interaction, but they can cause serious problems. They can damage your account’s reputation by making fake interactions and can also break Instagram’s rules, which could lead to your account being hidden or even banned.
To build a safe and engaged following, it’s important to put in the time and effort to connect with real people. By avoiding bots and focusing on real interactions, users can create a loyal community and find lasting success on Instagram.
FAQs
If you want to stop bots from following you on Instagram, follow these steps to block their account immediately.
1. Go to the ‘Followers’ section to see your followers.
2. Find bot accounts and open their profiles.
3. Tap the three dots at the top of their profile, then tap ‘Block’ and confirm.
Instagram spam bots come in different types, but they all have one goal: to benefit their owner. One common type is follow bots, which automatically follow other accounts to boost their follower numbers artificially.
Instagram bots are automated accounts designed to perform tasks like liking posts, commenting, following/unfollowing accounts, and sending direct messages.
Yes, Instagram bots can be very dangerous. In addition to artificially boosting engagement, spam bots can also be used for more malicious purposes, such as promoting scams and phishing attacks. Fake accounts are often used to send direct messages containing malicious links.
