The Tricks of the Influencer

Instagram did not have an algorithm before it was taken over by Facebook. This algorithm was introduced in August 2016, since then the Instagram feed is no longer displayed chronologically, but prioritized by Instagram for users.

Previously, you could post a photo at 5pm and were sure that many likes and comments were generated because people were on their way home. Meanwhile, Instagram determines which photos are displayed at the top of the feed, which leads to new methods for the user to trick the algorithm:

1st WhatsApp Groups

The Instagram algorithm rewards posts that get a lot of likes and comments in the first 30 to 60 minutes. For this reason, there are so-called “engagement” groups on WhatsApp and Telegram. There is a group for every imaginable topic (fashion, fitness, car, etc.), often hundreds of participants are in such groups. If someone has published a new post on Instagram, they immediately post the link to the corresponding group, and everyone has to link or comment on the post – even if they don’t really know each other (see below for admission rules for such groups).

The Russian messenger Telegram is even more popular than WhatsApp: groups at WhatsApp can have “only” 256 participants, but at Telegram up to 30 000. There are engagement groups on Telegram with more than 8000 participants.

PowerLikes

PowerLikes are likes from large, real accounts. PowerLike providers offer several dozen large instagram profiles with hundreds of millions of followers. If you buy automatic instagram likes, you get Likes from these accounts, which also has a positive effect on algorithm and range.

Unfollow-Bots

Very popular are so-called Follow/Unfollow-Bots. These bots automatically follow any profiles day and night and then follow them again a few days later. It’s a kind of virtual net on Instagram: Ignorant users follow back and don’t notice that the corresponding profile unfolds secretly again a few days later.

With this trick these bots collect many new followers in a few days. Because you can only follow 7500 accounts at Instagram, these accounts have to keep their balance and follow profiles sooner or later. Unfollow bots are often used by brands and influencers because they are very effective for a short moment. But they are not sustainable: if you disable the bots, you lose more followers than you win. A vicious circle.

Buy Follower

The cheapest and fastest method: Buy Follower. But today almost nobody does it anymore, but it happens again and again. No matter if 500, 5000 or 50 000 followers: If you pay, you can order any number of followers. For about 9 dollars you get 1000 followers on your own profile, 10 000 followers for about 65 dollars. The quality of the followers is, as expected, poor, since they are usually not “real” accounts: The new followers do not interact with new posts and gradually disappear from the profile because Instagram constantly detects and deletes such accounts.

This is not effective, but it makes the number of followers look good at first sight. Companies are still dazzled by the number of followers, but more important is how many followers actually interact with the content, i.e. how many posts are posted with likes and comments (engagement).

Buy Engagement

Instead of simply buying 50,000 followers, you can also opt for the “slower” version. The new followers are not added to the profile in one go, but at regular intervals, for example 50 per day. If you dig a little deeper into your pocket, you can also buy fake engagement.

The followers you buy then write comments and liken all new postings, which at first glance looks pretty real. But if you take a closer look at the comments, for example, you will see that many only contain emojis and do not refer to the photo at all.

Buy profiles on the black market

Even though Instagram’s terms and conditions expressly prohibit it, large Instagram profiles are offered for sale on the black market. Payment is usually made with Bitcoins, as the providers want to remain anonymous. If you buy an Instagram profile on the black market, you will practically get reach on a silver platter: The accounts have thousands of followers, and the providers usually promise how many likes per post can be expected.

Hashtag Bots

Hashtag bots are used to pretend that Instagram is always active on Instagram. They are a bit more “friendly” than the Unfollow/Follow-Bots, because they don’t follow and follow other users all the time. Hashtag bots automatically liken posts with a certain hashtag, attracting the attention of the corresponding users.

Not only hashtags can be clicked automatically, but also posts from a certain city/region or with a certain number of hashtags. The system makes sure that the bots do not automatically send more than 1000 likes per day, otherwise Instagram will suspect.