A quick best of summary of two hours Instagram consulting lectures at the IBO fair in Friedrichshafen:

• Use more story than feed: As we all know, Story is more engaging than posts, because it’s closer to the person. Even as a company, Employees in the story to show casts a good image to the outside world.
• Young people as a target: As this chart shows, the most active Users are between 18 and 34 years old. Some companies target them directly as our pole course does. Other companies want to be visible for the younger generation to get new young employees.
• Constant content: It was often mentioned how important it is to post content regularly and that the focus on 30% content and 70% story is a good mix. Every few days is enough. We also noticed that this week, when we hadn’t posted anything for a week, that there was more of unfollowing than usual.
• The first 6 pictures the user sees are important: these are the first ones the user sees when he decides to click on your profile. do they follow a schema or are they just wildly uploaded out of an affect without consistently serving a specific theme?
• “Swipe up to discover the new Taste”: Call to action inside the story for more attraction to your site. Channels like “edeka” and “unsereoebb” do a good job with this.
• Same color and text everywhere:  Real companies always use the same color schemes and fonts to associate them with the brand. On Instagram, of course, this cycle must not be interrupted. “ah blue background with bright red -> that must be alpine”. Just a dominant color which identifies you as you!
  Also called Moodboard. What colors and emotions do you want to transport?
• Story quality expectation is lower: SisersStretching does a good job here. She keeps her follower up to date about what’s happening without using a SLR camera. Simply quick with the mobile phone. Storytelling is her perfection.
• Draw something and win: Some channels perform some challenges or contests with gifts for the winner. It involves the followers directly. One Account which was mentioned posted a picture of him and wrote down “Draw something and the funniest three ones will win a copy of my new book”.
• Define a persona: Age, behavior, income etc. Know your target and your posts will they’ll respond better. If you don’t know whom to address, you don’t address anyone.
• Plan your posting in advance based on the topics that will come in a few days. Both, Story and Feed. Example: your local flower shop will soon have strawberries on sale and you’ll be posting the 5 best tips on how to grow your own strawberries on Instagram now. This post can be planned ahead and scheduled.
• Image formats: portrait, because most of the users use their mobile phones. In Story you can vote, use sliders or geotags. BellaFlora did surveys inside the story with “do you want more garden or decor?” to get an idea of the needs of the users.
• Use no supersaturated, instead undersaturated: In one lecture, the photography guy talked about this. He said there was a trend towards it. Everyone has to decide for himself.
• Image composition: Symmetry, the rule of third, straight lines, central perspective. Just to name a few.

Instagram as a community: Use community input, communicate in both directions, followers want to be involved. People share their ideas if you let them.

In my last post, I talked about zombie accounts. In other words fan pages who are following accounts in our niche. We use these to keep our own following numbers low and maximize the number of daily actions. Per account is a maximum number set as a limit, which will never be reached as a normal user. A bot does, however, achieve this. That’s why we double our reach with two bots, quadruple it with four bots, and so on.
For that, we have to set up the zombies.

1. Where to find aged Accounts – preventing a direct ban
2. Creating logos – Logojoy and UCraft
3. Description – no direct link to your main
4. Posts – quantity and links

 

1. Where to find aged Accounts – preventing a direct ban

So what is an aged account? It’s just an account which was registered in the past. If you create an Account today and start 24/7 botting on it, you will get a ban pretty soon. If you follow a few simple rules instead, you’ll benefit from your account for a long time.  Instagram uses various parameters to find out if an account is acting strangely or otherwise than the normal user would. What our accounts will definitely become. That’s why we have to protect them as best we can. One of the parameters is the creation date.

There is no direct proof that a one month older account gets banned less. But if a newly created account only posts existing posts, again and again, this looks very obvious for users and algorithm.

Buy them

First, there is no direct big marketplace for that. It’s against the law of Instagram and if they get too big, they have to go underground to not get shut down. Googleing “aged Instagram accounts” is the best way here. Here are a few things you should have an eye on:

• is there a posting history, if yes it is more valuable because it looks like the user reusing Instagram.
• is the registered mail address a valid one like Gmail or a spam address like spambog.com?
• will you get access to the mail address for password reset or reconfirmation?
• the older the better
• which IP-Adress is used for creating. Is it the same location as your Proxy or Server IP?
• is it a Phone verified Account (PVA)? If so it’s definitely more secure.
• 1,25€ for a PVA, email access Account which is one year old is a good deal

Create them

If you create a bunch of accounts, make sure that these cannot be associated with your main account. Use proxies, an extra server for a few Euros a month or a VPN. Just to avoid sharing IP addresses with bot and main.

For this, you can use services like HideMyAss, because they have many IP Addresses that disguise your real ones. In addition, thousands of others who are concerned about their IP are using these VPNs (virtual private network) and it is impossible to trace back to yourself. It’s completely legal and could be used by any user who doesn’t want their IP to be written everywhere. I myself use this service to not leave any information about my person everywhere.

Naming: A general good way is to take a bunch of words of your niche and throw them together with an adjective. In my case it is:

• pole art
• exercise
• inspiration
• sports
• pole dance
• work out
• tricks
• combos
• passion
• wild
• bright
• polerina
• class

So I now can check if some combinations of that are available. Websites like Namecheckr do a great job if you want to create them not only on Instagram but on many social media places. Another way of checking is directly on the signup page of Instagram. In this picture, you see, that my first combination isn’t used, but the other one is.

You now can go on and create a list with available usernames, till you hit the amount you want to use as bot accounts. Through this naming, a reposting can be expected and it is not bad to find it there. If you are interested in this account, there is a good chance that you will also find it via the links to our account and also find it good, because it also has pole as a subject.

2. Creating Logos – Logojoy and UCraft

Accounts without a logo are a sign for an empty account, which nobody wants to follow or which is not used. Or worse: the algorithm puts it on the list of potential bot accounts when it starts to follow without having content itself.
To prevent this, and to give the Instagram algorithm no reason to block us right after a week, we will create logos and upload them. But no one has the time to create 20 different, new and attractive logos. At least I don’t have. That’s why I generate good looking logos via a KI System and use them as an inspiration for quick creation. These logos were generated within one hour. 100% free to use:

Logojoy – Ki System which helps you get ideas

This is a great website for generating Logos via a KI System. You can eighter buy their generated logos, or use them as an inspiration for creating your own. It’s pretty simple: Choose your title and subtitle. Choose some designs you like and some matching colors. Then maybe some Icons you prefer and click generate. The result is the picture above. Many different designs with your chosen colors. If you buy one of them, you have directly several by changing the color or icon.

I’ve chosen “Pole Dance” as a title, and “A fanpage” as a subtitle, because we are going to use them for our Fan Accounts. Playing around with some Icons and *magic*. You have plenty of logos for your accounts now.

UCraft – creating quick and in Browser royalty free pictures

This online tool is for creating royalty free pictures for your use. You can use Icons, Text, and shapes as you like or as your template from above uses it. Through this, you get very quick icons you can use online. Of course, an hour could be used on each image itself to make it perfect. But since our bots aren’t trying to look perfect themselves, but to push other accounts, this effort is rather counterproductive. If the bot itself generates more followers at the end than your main account, then you should modify it again.

 

3. Description – no direct link to your main

There are many rules out there for the perfect description or in short “bio”. This post summarises it quite good. But since we are not aiming at the perfect converting bio, but at our links inside the posts, there are some other things to consider here. If you are interested in how to set up a high-converting bio, check out my other post for that.

So how do we set it up? First of all, the bio is limited to 150 characters! We never link in here directly to our main account. Too obvious. We do this inside the posts. We talk about this later on. We have to answer a few questions, so the user knows what he’s finding here.

1. What is this account?
2. Why should people follow me?
3. Why are you different?
4. What are your credentials?
5. What’s your general outlook on anything?

Or you can use some templates and modify them for your needs. In that way, you can create fast bios, with the message you want to deliver. Multiple uses of some records on different accounts are not forbidden. Just be careful not to use the same as in the main account and exchange some words. Otherwise it is too easy for Instagram itself and the user to connect and become suspicious.

• ? Get inspired and motivated
• ? What are the latest pole tricks
• ? Follow if you are a pole addict / pole lover
• ? Let’s be on this journey together
• ? The pole world is full of great artists
• ? What are the latest pole tricks
• Follow for X, Y, and Z.

You also can play around with different emojis. Did you notice the duplicate directly at the top of the list?

4. Posts – quantity and links

As mentioned in my last post, these accounts will repost our own posts and these from others. Though that more users will see our pictures and find a way to our Main Account.

We have to make sure that we don’t just share only our own content over and over again because otherwise it can only be traced back to us directly. Therefore other contents of the same interest group should be found. The account gains in value and its posts stand for themselves as a fan account.

The key is to link to your main account inside the post and nowhere else. They now find the way to your main.

 

That’s it, happy Follow farming!

See here #4 of my Instagram posts: click

As seen in my last post, I’m testing around with some Instagram automatization. We reached 500 Followers today. (Two weeks of 10h daily botting) This week was less successful than last week, considering that at that time it was already almost 300. I’ve experimented with some setting. This week, not just random followers of large accounts were taken as targets, but those who left a like and comment.
Summary: hashtag list is created, posting tool found, color concept, layout and logo are in progress. Photo shooting in one month for Shoutout is scheduled. That will boost the quality of that account one more time.
Another 500 subscriptions are missing and the analysis tool Hypeauditor can start its work.

I’m about to send 10 zombie accounts on a V-server with its own IP on an advertising tour for various pole dancers, which will also “generate” followers for this account. Range and “be seen” is everything in this market.

So what are Zombie Accounts? Basically, they are the second, third and so on account of a person or brand. Its single purpose is to forward traffic to the main account. See the next picture as an example:

You see a women’s Account with waaaaay more followings than followers. With a very high chance this is a zombie because if you take a close look at the pictures, they all link to an account with millions of followers. The trick is simple. Find others from your own niche who have a similar target group. Choose your most popular pictures and link yourself to your own. Due to the variance, the account cannot be traced back to one person or brand, but the traffic of the users will still be forwarded. Via the marking. Let’s take a look at the picture top right:

A few likes and marking to some account. “Hmm maybe this is the person I see here, let’s check this out!” If we now take a closer look at this account, we will see that it already has 4 million followers. “Wow this account is amazing, I must follow her. How did I get here? Ah never mind.”

This method leaves the followings on the other account. The followers will migrate to the main account and stay there.

Might sound like not that much at first. Let’s take a look at the numbers. Within two weeks our account has convinced more than 500 people to follow us. 500 are not millions. But how about ten times 500 people every two weeks? That would be at least 10,000 followers every month. With twenty zombies that would already be 20,000 every…..single….month. Let’s remember the bot. A simple program. For it, there is no difference whether it controls one or 100s of accounts daily.

According to various sources, it is not recommended to put a link to the main account directly in the description. During the day it feels more credible. As if a fan had really created this account and linked his idols there – not a social media company who gets thousands of dollars for this…

I will test this for myself on our account and will share my experience here 🙂

See here #3 of my Instagram posts: Click

The internet is incredibly big. Can good content still be discovered at all? Marketing becomes more and more important to be found and seen at all.
Compared to other social media channels, Instagram accounts have relatively high interaction levels (Source). For instance, the average Facebook or Twitter user has an engagement rate of 0.5 – 1.0%. The average Instagram account, though, has an engagement rate of 3%. This can be used for collecting users, who may buy your product or service.
However, how can you stand out from the crowd and how can you reach enough people? A solution is either a social media marketer or a script that takes over his task as far as possible.

Short: The Bot generated more than 300 real followers in just one week:

 

The idea – find others with the same interest who gives direct feedback

I’ve started an experiment. My girlfriend has been practicing pole dance for some time now and publishes her progress on youtube, so I have enough picture material for sharing on Instagram.

I see how it drives her to interact with other athletes and learn from each other. So why not create an account by sharing it with 100s of users and getting direct feedback on her moves and tricks?

The idea was born, now I needed a clever way to find and convince others too look at her pictures and combos and write down a comment. For that we need range. I could search by Hashtags, like and follow some accounts and see what will happen. No there must be a clever way, something with code and efficiency.

The Program

The functionality is simple. Some accounts are given on a certain topic. Their followers are probably interested in this particular topic – this Niche. Follow, Link and or comment some of them and in that way show them we are here in the world wide web. If they like what they see on our page, they may follow or leave a like. After a certain time, the bot unfollows, because there is a maximum cap of following in each account.

Filter criteria

The followers of my account list will be considered as potential targets. It is recommended to take accounts from the same niche or competitors. To fill out your list, you can look at the leader of your niche and dig deeper who big account is following him. In this way, you feed your user list quickly and with high-quality users.

For comments, I only use smileys, for instance of this side, because they are appropriate in most contexts. Since many fill their Instagram account due to the search for confirmation, a “thumbs up” is helpful to everyone. An example: comments = [u’?’, u’?’, u’?’, u’?’, u’?’,u’??’, u’??’]

Since the bot should not simply follow any random account, further filter criteria must be defined as well. For example, the targets should have a maximum of 3000 followers of their own, but at least 50. This increases the chances of passing by zombie accounts that do not live. Additionally, they should have made more than 10 posts and follow at least 25 others, but not more than 1000. These settings can be set by myself and are values set by myself.

Furthermore, business accounts, private accounts and accounts without profile picture are ignored.

Interactions

• What is the maximum number of interactions target person: A maximum of two, randomized.
• How many of the interactions are Likes: 90%
• How many interactions are comments: 15%
• What is commented: see list above.
• How many of the interactions are followed: 40%, 1 time.

You see, I like and follow with the highest percentage share. My analysis will show if that’s the best way of reaching people. In a later test, I will create 5 to 10 similar accounts with little changes to check which change will have the biggest impact. Some say you can improve, just by knowing some data or Industry Researches. For an instance the best day to post on Instagram for Engagement is Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. My first guess would be the weekend…

 

Why all the effort with filtering…?

…because of target groups. Today I was followed by an account that makes it very clear that he is using a program and I will have 100% no interest in his account. He is not in my niche or in my language at all. The relationship between followers and following is completely unbalanced. I bet he will unfollow me the next few days. I do answer any comment and use this program for helping others to learn pole better. He is just spamming or in other words: wasting valuable actions he could use for better outcomes.

 

Sleeping – act more human like

The bot will sleep about 600 seconds in the meantime to not violate any limits of Instagram and look like a normal user. No user will have time to follow, like and comment 8h a day without a break.

Unfollow: important for the Instagram daily follow limits and the follower. If the following ratio is not correct, i.e. 10,000 are followed, but only 5 follow me, this doesn’t exactly speak for a very interesting account, because it is ignored by almost 10k accounts.
For unfollow, it can be decided precisely whether the own manually executed follows should also be unfollowed or not. Furthermore, the bot will unfollow anyone who does not follow back within 3 days.

A start page that converts

All the botting is useless if the content is not good or does not convert. For this purpose, the starting page serves the need of “what he is getting here” and “who I am”. Later on, there will be a Q&A section and all that high converting stuff, when this account becomes a brand.

The user can see fast, with eye-catching smileys, what this channel is about. Why my girlfriend is doing what she does, why you should follow her and a little push that you can do it as well. Sure, this would not convince my best friend to follow this page, but he is not the target group at all.

This link leads to youtube, where the users can find her tricks and connect with her as well. Eye leading smileys and a call to action, and the magic is done. More followers on youtube as well.

At least 9 pictures should be published when creating the account, because starting from this number the mobile devices offer to scroll and the account doesn’t look as empty as expected.

 

Quality followers over empty bot accounts

On the Internet, you can buy thousands of followers for a few dollars. But this accounts won’t comment or leave a like. Their only purpose is a higher number on the follower counter. They just poison your fanbase and bring no value.

When I reach 1k Follower, I will check how many of them are real followers and how many are fake. A tool you can use just for that is Hypeauditor. It checks your followers for things like no profile picture or no posts. For testing purpose, I checked a big account from a friend of mine with almost a quarter of a million follower. As expected, she has never bought any empty accounts but has built up a strong fanbase over the past years:

Conclusion

As of writing this, the account is one week old and have a bit more than 300 followers. I plan to keep running this script until my Account got a good fanbase or banned by Instagram. We will see. in the community they say, if you don’t overdo the following, nothing will happen. I’m really interested in seeing how far this can go.

This little example shows, that you do have to promote your products or services, to be seen. None of the Followers were forced to follow, they all did it of their own free will. They became only aware of the account through the bot and liked what they found there…

See here #2 of my Instagram posts: Click