Bots : The Dark Side Of Instagram Marketing

Ever wondered how a certain Instagram account is growing without much of quality content or one of your friend’s account growing ten folds overnight? Ever knew people recommending you buy followers on Instagram to make your account more popular?If you have answered “yes” to any of the above questions, you might have at some point googled articles to increase Instagram followers or thought to yourself “How does this work”? Like you, many others have delved into this topic to gain more visibility for their page. So, let us ask this question, How does this work?

Instagram marketing is the new rage and people are leaving no stones unturned to make the most of it. Be it a company, individual brand, blogger, social media influencer, everyone wants to reach millions of people, they want to expand their horizon so that they will be able to influence consumer’s choices. What happens is, when you are new to the game you want to succeed at much higher rate and this strategy exactly helps you in that. After the initial reluctance you are met with much more lingering questions. Is it authentic? Is it possible to gain 1,000 followers just by paying a meagre amount? What if they unfollow you after processing the fee?

The answer to these is Yes, it is a full proof method of gaining followers over a short period of time. There are websites like Buzzoid, Hypze or Buy Instagram Followers which is providing 100 followers for as low as $3(around 210 rupees). The websites provide easy transaction method making it hassle free for customers with a promise of lending them with a pledged follower. The catch here however is the followers are actually “bots” operated from inactive or dummy accounts which will be just used to increase your number game without liking or commenting on any of your posts. That is like having a huge audience, but a handful are actually active accounts, the rest of them are just present for namesake.

The pros are the obvious. It will give a kick start to your Instagram profile because let’s be honest, it is the number of followers or profile views which is necessary and when people see you have such a large audience, that gives them a credibility factor. Also, the followers who will follow after this will anyway be active and they will like the profile on the basis of content & quality alone. This might be a way for new entrants to use it for their advantage if they are ready for adverse effects as well.

The cons however are not that drastic but anyone doing business with you would not want your followers to be fake or would not want to be associated with such brand. Again, this raises questions on credibility and even confidence/integrity of the person. It put the person in a dicey situation. For a social media platform such as Instagram, Customer engagement is the key. Your engagement ratio is important to see if your profile is growing, how you can improve your page and how can you increase the visibility. The dummy bots would not able to add any value to your engagement ratio they would not able to comment or like thereby it will be superficial and superfluous. Now, It is debatable to discuss its authenticity because whereas the process seems compliant at a macro level, the mere idea does not align with Instagram’s policy. Instagram keeps a check on these kinds of profiles and keep removing the dummy accounts at regular interval. So, even if you have guaranteed paid followers now, there is no assurance they will be there forever.

In a world where “All things which glitters are not Gold”, engaging your customers in quality content should be the striving point of social media influencers, bloggers, brand rather than running behind dummies. You might be too blinded by the glitter to focus on the qualities of gold. So, Choose wisely!