Outsourcing vs. Automation

The situation seems to be looking grim concerning automating Instagram. I was considering using a bot and after careful research I'm seeing more and more posts about accounts becoming banned from their use. I've heard everything from bad/unreliable/expensive proxies, follow/unfollow ratios being closely monitored, and numerous automated services being shutdown. I also researched organic companies for growing my account and they also seem to be underwhelming in performance or scams.

I was curious to know how the community feels about Outsourcing some of the menial tasks such as likes and follows through Upwork or Fiverr. From my understanding of beating the algorithm, every process needs to be appeared as organic. Well, why not use an actual real human being who works for a fraction of the cost of an American outsourcer? I checked fiverr and upwork and their prices seem to be somewhat reasonable for somebody with a single account, roughly around $10-20/week. Obviously even the cheapest outsourcers overall cost would be higher than an automated tool such as Everliker, but the additional cost seems safer than constant shadowbans and account removals.

Is this a reasonable thought process or am I just fooling myself?

You're fooling yourself. There is a high chance that the person would automate that themselves and that's it.

xHustlerx said:

You're fooling yourself. There is a high chance that the person would automate that themselves and that's it.

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I appreciate the honesty. Trust is an issue no matter what medium you look. What about if the instructions given to the freelancer were specific to the point that automating the process would be difficult. Maybe test out their work ethic on a dummy account before switching them over to the real account.

Syntell said:

I appreciate the honesty. Trust is an issue no matter what medium you look. What about if the instructions given to the freelancer were specific to the point that automating the process would be difficult. Maybe test out their work ethic on a dummy account before switching them over to the real account.

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That's possible. You can attempt something like a one week trial to see their efforts.

You're done one type of research: secondary; so you're relying on other people's OPINIONS.

Do some primary research. Run some experiments, automate vs going it yourself.

Good automation is like superpower humans - it does the same thing, but doesn't sleep and complain and costs much less.

We use automation all the time, so why not for Instagram?

I consider automation is the best option.
It depends which service you use.
Some of them are really great and provide interaction with adjusted target audience which is very beneficial.

europog said:

You're done one type of research: secondary; so you're relying on other people's OPINIONS.

Do some primary research. Run some experiments, automate vs going it yourself.

Good automation is like superpower humans - it does the same thing, but doesn't sleep and complain and costs much less.

We use automation all the time, so why not for Instagram?

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Thank you for your response. I understand what you are saying completely. There are numerous people on this site that have stated they have lost accounts with automation. Normally if there were a chance to not lose the account I would take a leap of faith and just test out the automation, but the price is pretty steep for making a mistake like that. I think a betting man would notice that the likelyhood of automation becoming easier in this regard is a lot less likely as the algorithm continues to update. Instagram appears to be making shining examples of people who are operating outside of their TOS. Are you really willing to bet account with 10's of thousands of followers or client accounts when you know what the penalty is for being caught? I'm just trying to find another angle.

Syntell said:

Thank you for your response. I understand what you are saying completely. There are numerous people on this site that have stated they have lost accounts with automation. Normally if there were a chance to not lose the account I would take a leap of faith and just test out the automation, but the price is pretty steep for making a mistake like that. I think a betting man would notice that the likelyhood of automation becoming easier in this regard is a lot less likely as the algorithm continues to update. Instagram appears to be making shining examples of people who are operating outside of their TOS. Are you really willing to bet account with 10's of thousands of followers or client accounts when you know what the penalty is for being caught? I'm just trying to find another angle.

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I wouldn't suggest that you experiment with your main account. Try starting or buying a small account and test with that.

Also, I believe that it's a myth that automation is against the Instagram ToS. Violating other people's copyright/IP and spamming is against the ToS, but - unless you can prove me wrong - I don't believe that human-like automation with sincere intentions is. Generally I believe that users get banned for spamming, not just doing normal follow/unfollow, and they would have been bannedanwyay if they did that manually or automatically.

your point of view makes total sense when the account is important--thousands of followers or a client's account--i would agree that automating those would be irresponsible specially when you know the penalty. You could also automate on very low settings to stay outta the radars. I personally favor outsourcing to be honest but then there is the problem of trust and it's hard to track what they really do. They could claim anything but still automate the account on your behalf. you don't know

They will do botting on your accounts too. If you don't like botting on your main accounts because you don't want to put it at risk, the best way is to try child accounts/fanpages method. It's definitely safe for your main account.

Good luck!