Using satellite accounts for growth

[Paschke000]

After having one account grown to 50k followers over the last couple of months, I decided to stop botting on it and transferring it into a personalized account. I've got a product to sell but felt that an account with copied/pasted photos from the web wouldn't do, so I got a gorgeous looking female friend of mine on board in order to have some quality content - she will be the brand's face.

One depressing issue, however, is that the engagement on the account simply is very poor since I have stopped botting (we're talking about 90 to 200 likes per photo on a 50k account). It wasn't necessarily good before but with 500 follows a day it at least convinced some more ppl to tap the like button.

We did not do a 180 degree change of the niche, it is still more or less the same. So this leads me to believing that my reach somehow has been limited and that the posts are not shown to all followers. The account is not shadow banned, I have checked this.

As a first measure, I have decided to give the account a little pause, so I logged off and have not touched it for about a week.

As I have stopped botting on this account and in order to get some "organic"-looking traffic on it, I have set up 30 accounts which are supposed to act as satellite accounts, meaning that I will post pictures that link to the main account from time to time.

As long as I am not overdoing it ( e.g. by posting the same picture with a link to the main account at the same time or something like that) I shouldn't be raising any red flags, right?

Anyone of you having any tips for my situation or experience with:

1. Getting back the engagement on an account
2. Using satellite accounts to grow a main account
3. Changes in the accounts content, I.e. shift from a "faceless" bot account to a personalized account

Appreciate any help!

P.S.: The product is not launched yet and I am not doing any advertising that could look trashy.

 

[Paschke000]

Anyone?

 

[InstaSwift]

It is hard to say something without knowing the account or having more data.
How many likes were you getting in your time of botting?

Maybe people that followed you in the first place aren't particulairly interested anymore since the content changed.
It's a good move you plan to have quality content because that is very important.

Why did you stop botting in the first place? You should grow more targeted followers that are interested in the NEW content.

If like count degrades with your recent upload it could turn down potential followers so supplying additional likes there could help you.

 

[Paschke000]

It is hard to say something without knowing the account or having more data.
How many likes were you getting in your time of botting?

Maybe people that followed you in the first place aren't particulairly interested anymore since the content changed.
It's a good move you plan to have quality content because that is very important.

Why did you stop botting in the first place? You should grow more targeted followers that are interested in the NEW content.

If like count degrades with your recent upload it could turn down potential followers so supplying additional likes there could help you.

Many thanks for your reply!

During the time of botting the posts usually had between 300 and 400 likes. Probably likes currently are lacking due to a bit of confusion. Together with the transition from faceless content to quality content that features one female individual, I also changed the accounts name and deleted the majority of the old content. This means that currently the figures are not really matching. 50k followers and less than 50 pictures uploaded... Probably this also contributes to the low engagement.

Do yo have experience with satellite accounts featuring the main account? Is this an issue for the algorithm? (I will try to hide it as good as possible)

How to best "supply additional likes" as you called it?

 

[alexinstaplus]

Hi-hi!

I haven't used bots, actually, just an automated tool for IG promotion. But I have also found liking and following target users manually really works, sometimes even better, because you can define them as real target users. There are also some other tips I have found to increase IG engagement:
using galleries,
using videos (works really-really great, more followers can see it comparing to just an ordinary pic post, so IG rates these posts higher)
using Stories (it seems like IG rates your profile higher when you share Stories, because they are interested in growing this tool)
engaging your followers to get involved and to add comments (any kind of questions about themselves, opinion sharing, etc
using official IG ads)

In case you are using your amazing friend as a product face sharing her selfies and personal pictures will work great as well. I have also found a healthy mix of product posting + posts just for fun works well.

Hope it helped. Good luck with your promotion!

 

[Paschke000]

Hi-hi!

I haven't used bots, actually, just an automated tool for IG promotion. But I have also found liking and following target users manually really works, sometimes even better, because you can define them as real target users. There are also some other tips I have found to increase IG engagement:
using galleries,
using videos (works really-really great, more followers can see it comparing to just an ordinary pic post, so IG rates these posts higher)
using Stories (it seems like IG rates your profile higher when you share Stories, because they are interested in growing this tool)
engaging your followers to get involved and to add comments (any kind of questions about themselves, opinion sharing, etc
using official IG ads)

In case you are using your amazing friend as a product face sharing her selfies and personal pictures will work great as well. I have also found a healthy mix of product posting + posts just for fun works well.

Hope it helped. Good luck with your promotion!

Thank you for your message. Valid points! We will especially involve more in IG stories in combination with calls to action.

 

[madblackhatter1000]

Looking @ likes as a metric for growth is a bit flawed because of the "One Hit Wonder" phenomena...I've noticed when posting photos when mass following, I get HUGE likes, and when unfollowing, the # of likes goes way down.

Example:
When I get a follow, I'll check that person out, like 2-3 of their top photos because they liked 2-3 of mine, and then I may never go to their page or like their stuff any more. Their stuff may never hit my wall ever either because of the algorithm...

 

[Paschke000]

Looking @ likes as a metric for growth is a bit flawed because of the "One Hit Wonder" phenomena...I've noticed when posting photos when mass following, I get HUGE likes, and when unfollowing, the # of likes goes way down.

Example:
When I get a follow, I'll check that person out, like 2-3 of their top photos because they liked 2-3 of mine, and then I may never go to their page or like their stuff any more. Their stuff may never hit my wall ever either because of the algorithm...

That's true, I have noticed that as well. However, my current engagement is simply poor... I just hope that it comes back with consistency in quality content. I am not even sure whether it's some kind of throttle that has been imposed on me by IG or whether it is due to the change in content.. I hope time will tell and bring some improvement.