A Beginner’s Guide To Instagram Automation 📸

How do Instagram algorithms work?

Becoming big on Instagram used to be a doddle. Google “buy Instagram accounts” or “buy Instagram followers” and you’ll dig out some relic websites left from those times when the Instagram algorithm was way less complicated. Yup, there were days when you could easily get away with buying 20k followers without any bans. 

But all that is as old as your granny. Instagram has built up some rippling muscles, tweaked its algorithms, and implemented a mysterious shadowban to delete all fake followers and put engagement on a pedestal. Likes, comments, story views, and DMs have completely eclipsed the follower count. 

These changes affected the chronological order on your timeline, too. Every new post that you make is visible to your most loyal followers first. If they engage with it, Instagram will show it to more followers of yours. 

How does the fact that Instagram favors engagement impact you? The thing is that if you have bought followers, they’re less likely to like or comment on your posts. If there’s no engagement, Instagram will see your posts as not worthy of being shown even to your own followers. 

And this leads to the funeral of your Instagram account. Your posts will get buried somewhere deep in the timeline and never see the light of day. So yup, you’ve got it right – you can easily kill your account and stop any future growth.

So how do you automate your Instagram, get real engagement, and don’t make Instagram super mad? Well, it’s not impossible. We have two words for you: bots and proxies.

What is Instagram automation?

Instagram automation is a process of using software to emulate the actions of a person on Instagram. Such software can post or share content, follow and unfollow other users, like and comment on others’ photos, etc.

Tips and tricks for automating Instagram

There’s a limit to the frequency of actions that users are allowed on Instagram before an automated shadowban is handed out. An Instagram shadowban means that your interactions on Instagram will be muted and invisible to everyone else, although everything will look normal to you. 

When a suspected bot is shadowbanned, there’s no warning from Instagram. Very often, the bot’s owner doesn’t even realize something is amiss at first. So if the behavior of your bot is too artificial, it’ll trigger a temporary or even permanent ban.

As Instagram is after fake followers and bots more than ever before, let’s bat around five handy tips on how to run your bot undetected.

#1 Use proxies

There’s a maelstrom of conflicting opinions when it comes to running multiple accounts. Some people claim that you can run up to 5 accounts from the same IP, others swear by 3, still others vote for only 1. And even if you manage to get your accounts up and running, you might keep getting logged out or asked to verify your phone number over and over again.

Why risk it? Get Instagram proxies and never worry about blocks again. We recommend using residential proxies as their IP addresses come from real-life devices. No way Instagram will be able to clock anything suspicious.  

#2 Be human

Your bot needs to give off that human vibe. No real-life person would be able to post 24/7. Sure, your bot can, but it doesn’t mean it should. The key to Instagram automation is not to give away that you’re using a bot. So set aside a realistic sleeping time where your account is not active, e.g. 6-7 hours.

In addition, keep the number of your likes, follows, and comments realistic. A regular user shouldn’t have more than 150 likes, 60 comments, and 60 follows/unfollows per hour. Get any more than that, and Instagram will mark your account as spam.

#3 Define your accounts

Filter your targeted accounts by English use, follower numbers, activity, engagement, etc. Starting with a clearly defined audience will make your targeting more focused, which will lead to faster growth. So if you want to snatch some fans from a fitness lifestyle account, start following, liking, and commenting on profiles that are active on your target account.

#4 Beware of competition

Avoid accounts that follow many other users because you won’t get a lot of exposure on those accounts. If a profile follows thousands of other users, your posts will have to cross swords with all of them. And trust us, you don’t want to become Don Quixote.

#5 Do some networking

Use direct messages to welcome new followers and mass messages to the follower base of any target accounts. DMs are excellent when promoting products but hold your horses – if you overdo it, you’ll be blocked. Keep it under 200 messages a day to stay safe. 

Some automation tools, including the Jarvee bot, also let you set automatic replies or welcome messages for new followers. If you do so, use the Spintax field with the Standard format, i.e. { | }, to make your messages unique.

Common mistakes

There are a few things that look suspicious to a regular user. And if that’s the case with your accounts, you know damn well that Instagram will be onto you in no time. Here’s what you should avoid.

Lack of photos

At the end of the day, Instagram is a photo-sharing platform. So if you have 5 photos and over 5k followers, you have to admit that it might look a bit weird.

Suspicious usernames

A random jumble of numbers and letters in your username is a major red flag that’s easy to notice. Ghjtskstfd937 is defo weird so let’s avoid that, shall we?

Unrealistic phone numbers and email addresses

Make sure you have real phone numbers and verified email addresses associated with your account. With the recent purge of fake accounts, Instagram now loves to log people out and ask to verify their accounts via a phone number or email address.  

Gray face

Eww, that classic gray face! Admit it to yourself: no one’s gonna look at that and go “yeah, that seems legit.” Having no bio/profile photo is another red flag!

Too promotional content

No one likes the “Thanks for the follow! Check out my product!” messages. Just scroll through any social media platform, where automated DMs rule, and you’ll see that people hate them with a passion. Keep your automated DMs and comments generic, down-to-earth, and non-promotional.

Instagram automation tools

With such a myriad of options out there, finding out the best Instagram automation tool can be a tough challenge. Not to overload you with tons of information, we’ve selected three tools you should know about.

Jarvee

Jarvee was a social media automation application for scheduling posts on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Youtube, and some other social media websites. Some peeps would call Jarvee a bot because it could fully automate multiple social media accounts. However, it has been permanently closed and is no longer available to the public.

The Instagram automation tools on Jarvee were among the most advanced out there. In addition to automating the basic functions of Instagram like likes and follows, Jarvee could also research hashtags and identify the most relevant keywords to target your niche.

Follow Liker

Another popular tool is Follow Liker, an automation service that provides bot tools for social media websites. Follow Liker is comparatively simpler than Jarvee, and is easier to use as a result. With this tool, you can set automation tasks to follow or unfollow accounts, like or unlike photos, blacklist or whitelist users, comment on photos, etc. Besides, Follow Liker has very easy integration with proxies.

Inflact

One of the most beloved tools for Instagram automation is Inflact, formerly Ingramer. This tool is renowned for its extremely user-friendly dashboard that you can download on your local desktop and customize to suit your niche.

The second thing that makes people’s hearts leap with joy is its hashtag generator. It allows you to find the hashtags that you need through a link or a photo. In addition to all this, Inflict lets you export Instagram analytics of your account for better promotion.

Buy proxies to power up your Instagram automation

If 2021 has taught us anything, it’s that automation tools have become an integral part of the way that social media platforms function and Instagram is no exception. Wanna get noticed, grow your account, and increase your conversion rates? If so, employ automation software and power it up with residential proxies!

Smartproxy residential proxies have no subnets or setup fees, come along with unlimited connections, and spring out from 55M+ IPs from 195+ countries and cities. Get them in your dashboard or contact our 24/7 customer support, and don't miss out on a 3-day free trial!