UPDATE: It seems not only Instagram and Massplanner who have been forced to close their service, but also other lesser-known bot sites.
Not so long ago, one of the most popular social media bot services— has been forced to discontinue their service at the request of Instagram.
A lot of people suffered from this move, especially social media marketers who utilize these kinds of automation services to save time and hack the growth of their Instagram accounts.
At the time, everyone went on the lookout for a reliable Instagram bot alternative. One of the most popular alternatives and arguably the best social media automation software on the Internet was the number choice for many social media marketers.
MassPlanner allows users to automate their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, Google+ and Tumblr accounts for 24/7. (More than any other social media bot service!)
But not anymore, MassPlanner has been shut down at the request of Instagram today (May 13, 2017)!
This is what you will see when you go to their website:
Due to Instagram cracking down on two of the most popular social media bots on the Internet in less than one month—the future of Instagram automation bots is unclear. It will not be a surprise anymore If Instagram decided to crack down on other social media bot services. In fact, many social media experts suspect this to be the case in the near future.
Social media button on a modern laptop keyboardThese types of social media bot services provide marketers and businesses with the ability to automate and grow their social media accounts for 24/7 while performing the below functionalities:
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- Following/Unfollowing users
- Liking posts
- Scheduling posts
- Commenting on posts
- Sending direct messages
- Blacklist/whitelist users
- Targeting users by hashtags, location, etc
- Running mutiple accounts
Not to mention the time that you get to save while using these bots. However, it seems Instagram doesn’t necessarily agree with that…
It’s important to realize that these bot services (Instagress & MassPlanner) we’re very popular, established, and reliable among social media marketers—Yet, Instagram managed to shut them down; which means that other bot services will not be risk-free anymore and they’re probably praying to not be next.
Not only bot services who are worried about these brutal ”shutdowns” by Instagram, social media marketers are also worried about what to do next. (It seems that alternatives may also not last for long, and are not immune to Instagram’s legal strikes).
The only remaining options for Instagram marketers to grow their accounts and promote their business are no more than:
- Growing their accounts organically
- Paying for ads
Unfortunately, both options seems to cost a lot of time and money. Bot services we’re much more effective, reliable, and faster than the above two options. But it looks like they’re not going to be an option any longer.
The only thing left to say at this current events is… ”Who’s next?”