Instagram automation: What is allowed, and how to do it (+ top tools) 

Social media platforms like Instagram are no longer the fun, breezy, and creative part of a social media specialist’s day. They are now a critical component of a marketer’s strategy, with 60% of participants in a Birdeye study citing it to be mission critical. However, ever-changing algorithms and the precise science needed to drive success can be overwhelming. That’s where Instagram automation tools come in: the heroes we need to simplify the chaos and make the magic happen. 

Ditch the tedious tasks of manually posting, constantly monitoring notifications, and sifting through lengthy reports. Elevate your Instagram management with automation tools, freeing your mind to create brilliant campaign ideas.

This blog post uncovers everything you need to master Instagram automation and step into a world of effortless social media management. 

What is Instagram automation?

Instagram automation is using third-party tools to automate Instagram management for your personal or business account as per pre-written conditions. This includes automating content publishing, cross-platform sharing, answering DM (direct messages), account follows, likes, and comments. 

Instagram automation is often misunderstood as merely being about bots that leave comments or send links to followers’ bios. However, it is much more than that. 

Types of Instagram automation tools 

In general, Instagram or social media automation tools can help businesses in myriad ways only limited by budget or business requirements. Moreover, advanced automation tools with developer-level capabilities allow for customization within Instagram’s guidelines, enabling businesses to tailor the platform to their unique requirements. 

Instagram automation tools are available in two categories: 

1. Audience interaction tools: These help Instagram accounts automate following other accounts, interacting with their own or third-party accounts, and liking content. 
2. Instagram management tools: These help Instagram creators or business accounts to automate back-end activities such as content scheduling, publishing, optimization, moderation, analytics, and reporting. 

Instagram automation tools can be critical for businesses and creators, simplifying day-to-day operations and reducing the strain on their resources. 

What Instagram automations are permitted? 

Instagram is aware of the challenges of running a successful creator or business account. As long as you operate within the community guidelines, you can utilize the platform’s features without worrying about account restrictions or bans.: 

Some of the automation that is safe to deploy include: 

1. Content scheduling: Instagram users can use native or third-party tools to choose the best time to post their content and schedule them in advance. 
2. Content publishing: Simplify Instagram marketing with third-party content publishing across multiple platforms or accounts.
3. Audience interaction: To streamline interactions, set up rules to send automated responses to your audience via comments and DMs. 
4. Moderation: Automate blocking or deleting spam or offensive content from your comment section with third-party social listening/moderation tools. 
5. Analytics and reporting: Monitor audience growth, engagement rates, and advertising performance using third-party analytical tools. 

What Instagram automations are a complete no-no? 

Instagram does not mention anything outright regarding automation tools in their community guidelines. However, here are a few things to watch out for while picking Instagram automation tools: 

1. Avoid bots or tools that spam or mass actions in following, unfollowing, liking, or commenting.
2. Choose tools closely mimicking human behavior in language, interactions, and other activities. 
3. Don’t use tools that ask for Instagram user credentials or extract private information from accounts, as Instagram values privacy and safety more than anything else. 
4. Refrain from using tools that engage with Instagram’s API beyond the permitted uses. 

How do Instagram automation tools help multi-location businesses? 

The list of Do’s and Don’ts might make you apprehensive about using Instagram automation tools. However, the right Instagram automation tools are handy for social media management, especially for multi-location businesses. Some of the noteworthy benefits of employing automation tools are: 

Time and resource efficiency 

Managing multiple social media accounts across platforms usually requires hours of dedicated time. However, most of that time goes into repetitive tasks that can be diverted to automation tools. This optimizes resource and time efficiency, allowing your teams to invest in creativity and strategies instead. 

Increased engagement 

Cracking the Instagram algorithm to garner maximum engagement for your audience is a challenging task. Social media teams try different posting times, spend hours replying to comments and messages, and explore new ways to engage the audience.

However, DM automation tools and engagement automation tools make it easy. With the click of a button, you can ensure your accounts stay active, content goes live at the right time, and all your audience comments are responded to. 

Faster growth 

Instagram accounts thrive with consistency in publishing and engagement. You can position your Instagram account on every “For You” page by automating content publishing and audience engagement. This move means higher brand visibility, increased interactions, and faster growth for your business accounts. 

Actionable insights 

Driving meaningful Instagram growth requires actionable insights from your existing performance data on the platform. For teams managing multiple accounts, this usually entails generating individual reports and running complicated programs to gain said insights. However, using marketing automation tools that generate custom reports can drastically change this. 

Third-party social media management tools can automate monitoring metrics that matter to your business, identifying top-performing content and benchmarking your growth against your competitors. 

Best Instagram automation tools for your business in 2024 

Now that we’ve discussed the inner workings and impact of Instagram automation tools, it’s time to know what to use. This section explores the best Instagram automation tools, such as Birdeye, Meta Business Suite, Manychat, Kicksta, and Nitreo. 

Learn how these tools can be crucial in your Instagram and social media growth strategy. 

Instagram management automation tools 

Imagine your Instagram business account running seamlessly, like a finely tuned machine. It may sound too good to be true, but that’s exactly what happens when you use automation to manage your Instagram presence. 

Birdeye

Birdeye is a comprehensive reputation and social media management platform for location-based businesses. With this tool, you can leverage the power of AI and automation to boost your social media presence, customer engagement, and overall online reputation. 

How would you like it if you could dedicate a day or two to plan a month’s worth of Instagram content, set it up, and move on? That is precisely what Birdeye offers. 

With Birdeye Social, your social media team can:

• Use the built-in AI tools to generate content ideas, flesh them out, pick the right hashtags from the automated selection, pick from the recommended images, and schedule. All this happens from the same dashboard. 
• Schedule the content for multiple Instagram business accounts months in advance to ensure they go live during peak engagement times. 
• Manage your social media inbox with pre-written FAQ answers, chatbot services, and AI-generated replies. 
• Automate review sharing for four and 5-star reviews right from the dashboard.
• Generate high-quality custom Instagram analytics reports, including location-wise comparisons, top-performing content reports, and brand growth reports. You can automate these reports to your inbox every week, just in time for your CMO discussion calls. 

Birdeye is the top-rated social media management tool your business needs to manage multiple accounts across platforms without a hitch in their stride. 

Meta business suite 

Meta Business Suite is an excellent place to start for businesses experimenting with basic Instagram marketing automation. Within their dashboard, Meta offers:

• Organic content scheduling and planning 
• DM automation setup facilities 
• Paid campaign automations 
• Message management with custom labeling for easy identification

While this tool is a good starting point, it does not offer the robust capabilities that multi-location businesses need to streamline their campaigns. 

Businesses managing multiple accounts must supplement the Meta Business Suite with third-party tools. 

Instagram DM automation

Instagram DM automation is probably one of the most sought-after automations on the platform. If you’re an avid Instagram user (and at this point, who isn’t), you would have noticed the following automation from creators and business accounts:

• You receive an automated message in your inbox when you comment with a specific keyword on someone’s post. 
• Automated keyword-based replies when you message a brand or a creator, asking you to navigate to third-party links.

Since asking for links is one of the most common interactions on Instagram, automating this frees up time for businesses. Automation also ensures that the team does not miss any comment or message, which can be challenging while handling many responses. 

How do you set up a DM automation on Instagram? 

Business accounts can set up basic DM automation with the following steps: 

1. Log in to your Instagram business account. 
2. Navigate to the “Settings and Privacy”  tab from your profile. 
3. Next, go to “Messages” and tap “Message requests.”
4. Now, toggle “Sort and prioritize message requests” to on. 

These steps simplify inbox management for your business account. 

Instagram DM automation tools 

You can set up advanced DM automation with third-party tools like Manychat and Birdeye. While Birdeye can step in to act as a chatbot for your customer queries, you can set up keyword-based automation for direct messages and comments with Manychat. 

Tools like Manychat can provide limited support to answer frequent queries. However, Birdeye can help you with meaningful responses and allow you to extend quality support across your Instagram business accounts. 

Instagram engagement automation

Sometimes, you have to play a long game on Instagram and wait to reach your target audience. However, many creators or business accounts want faster results, and that is where tools like Kicksta and Nitreo step in.

With Instagram engagement automation tools, businesses can:

1. Connect with their business accounts and set up audience preferences by answering questions or choosing a few categories from a list. 
2. Next, the bots these tools offer engage on your behalf with people who may like your brand. 
3. You can automate post likes, comment likes, and story views on your behalf from these tools. 

The idea is that automating engagement can increase profile views and reciprocatory engagement. If you pick the right audience group, this should increase your account’s follower count. 

Note: Businesses must exercise extreme caution while using third-party automation tools. Any tool that spams with likes or comments may lead to account restriction or ban from the platform. 

Instagram automation: An efficient way to streamline social media management 

Social media requires your business to be at its best every day. Missing a message or a delay in publishing can prove costly to the bottom line. Working with Instagram automation tools allows your team to put routine tasks on autopilot and focus on finding growth opportunities for the brand. 

With the right setup, automation tools can handle everything from content management to engaging with the audience. Choose tools that allow for human oversight to avoid the risk of bots damaging your reputation on social media. 

FAQs on Instagram automation 

Automate and accelerate growth for multiple Instagram accounts with Birdeye 

As one of the most popular platforms, Instagram demands constant attention from social media teams. However, for most location-based businesses, this attention is split several ways, with multiple accounts performing for their brand. 

Automating more straightforward tasks, like publishing, answering messages, and generating reports, can optimize operations. 

A multi-location business specialist, Birdeye Social can help businesses manage and automate their social media activities more effectively. The advanced built-in AI capabilities also help generate efficient ideas, convert summaries, and streamline reporting. 

Automate workflows with Birdeye for your Instagram account so that the team can instead work on strategizing, monitoring, and growing your presence. 

Watch a free demo to learn more about Birdeye Social!