---
title: Follower Bots and Why Brands Won’t Work With You - TRIBE
description: Brands use influencer marketing as a powerful way to reach potential customers. It’s extremely valuable for brands to have you recommend their product to your trusted audience. But if bots have been used, this authenticity is tarnished.
image: https://www.tribegroup.co/hubfs/Blog%20Assets/00%20-%20All%20Blog%20Headers/November%202018/bots-why-brands-wont-work-with-you.png
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[Brand Safety](https://www.tribegroup.co/blog/topic/brand-safety) [By TRIBE](https://www.tribegroup.co/blog/author/tribe)
# Follower Bots and Why Brands Won’t Work With You
[
@a_littlebitoflife
for The Telegraph
](https://www.tribegroup.co/blog/bots-why-brands-wont-work-with-you)
*2018 Update to Influencer Rating:*
In a bid to protect the energy of both our influencers and brands, we have updated TRIBE’s influencer ratings to penalise any current bot activity detected on influencer accounts.
See [here](https://www.tribegroup.co/blog/tribes-influencer-ratings-explained) for more details.
Once you completely stop using these tools, your rating will begin to recover.
---
Growing an Instagram account is hard.
It’s tricky being patient in an industry growing as quickly as influencer marketing.
Unfortunately the fear of ‘missing the boat’ is driving many to set up FOLLOWER BOTS to cut corners.
While these can boost numbers in the short-term, brands are now lumping Follower Bots in the same bucket as buying fake followers, likes and comments.
But it makes sense. In fact, we’ve recently noticed at TRIBE how many influencers are being declined because of them.
Bots are costing talented content creators LOADS of valuable collaborations.
#### So What Is a Follower Bot?
#### Why Do Brands Hate Them?
Brands use influencer marketing as a powerful way to reach potential customers.
It’s extremely valuable for brands to have you recommend their product to your trusted audience. You’re an ‘influential customer’ who spreads the word about a brand you love.
But if bots have been used, in the eyes of the brand, this authenticity is tarnished.
When brands see a healthy follower number, it gives them confidence that not only is your content engaging enough to build an audience, but those potential customers are here to stay.
As soon as a bot starts to like and unlike, follow and unfollow, this casts doubt over whether or not your content is engaging enough. After all, your audience most likely followed you because you pretended to show interest in them.
#### How Do Bots Cost Me?
If you’ve ever had a random account follow you and then unfollow straight away, you’ve most likely been the victim of a bot.
Naturally, you unfollow them.
It’s because of this common reaction, bot-driven growth doesn’t last.
Worse yet, these bots generate fake engagement.
Which is why it’s against the Terms & Conditions of all social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook and Twitter’s) causing them to [shut down](https://www.businessinsider.com.au/instagram-cracks-down-on-fake-accounts-by-shutting-down-instagress-2017-4?r=US&IR=T) third party bot providers.
Fake engagement is extremely bad for everyone.
But none more so, than the brands you hope to collaborate with.
Likes and comments prove that their investment into you, was worth it.
If you use bots, you’re releasing fake engagement into the ecosystem and brands will no longer tolerate it.
#### How Are Bots Detected?
Easily.
On TRIBE alone, your account is scanned by our [AVS algorithm](https://www.tribegroup.co/blog/why-fake-influencers-dont-stand-a-chance) upon entry and then four times every day afterwards.
But forget us, brands can audit your activity within seconds via online sites.
One of their measures is HISTORICAL FOLLOWER GROWTH.
Here’s an example of an influencer naturally following and unfollowing accounts VERSUS an influencer using a follower bot.
HEALTHY ACCOUNT
UNHEALTHY ACCOUNT
Plain as day, huh?
A brand is likely to avoid the second influencer.
#### Undoing The Damage
For a start, turn off any automated activity on your account.
You’ll then need to do a sweep of any ghost or inactive followers you may have picked up as a result of these tools. Once identified, you’ll then need to block these from your account.
More information on maintaining a healthy account [here](https://www.tribegroup.co/blog/how-to-remove-fake-followers-from-my-instagram).
#### Even After Cleansing, Will Past Bot Activity Affect My Ability To Earn?
Well, if YOU can see it via an online audit, so can the brands.
The sooner you stop using these tools, the quicker they’ll forgive you.
A history of bot usage will also impact your TRIBE influencer rating which is designed to share your holistic value to a brand, beyond your follower count or price.
More deets [here.](https://www.tribegroup.co/blog/tribes-influencer-ratings-explained)
#### At The End Of The Day...
Your biggest asset isn’t your follower count - it’s your stunning content and the relationship you have with your tribe.
Rather than trying to grow followers, concentrate on engaging the ones you’ve got.
Think videos, stop-motion, cinemagraphs, epic photography, funny content etc.
Get this right, and they will come.
Both the followers and the brands.
_
P.S: Think this is important? Fwd it onto your social-loving friends. They’d do it for you. 🙌
### Related posts
[ Brand Safety ](https://www.tribegroup.co/blog/topic/brand-safety) [TRIBE's Commitment to Brand Safety](https://www.tribegroup.co/blog/tribes-commitment-to-brand-safety)
Influencer Marketing is about to become the next Billion Dollar Industry, so as this channel takes up an increasingly larger share of marketing strategies, it's never been more important to ensure the platforms and agencies you work with are committed to the highest standard of integrity. TRIBE was built with these values in mind, which is why we we’ve always delivered content up front, the ultimate safety for any Brand. Not only do you get to ensure each piece of content aligns with your brand and strategy but you can also be confident that the content in your TRIBE inbox has been crafted by authentic influencers. We ensure this by running periodic scans on each and every Influencer on TRIBE to identify irregularities that might indicate fraudulent behaviour. In the earliest stages of TRIBE’s development, we created fake accounts that emulated the worst behaviour such as ripping content, buying engagement and using follower bots. The findings of this study were then dissected by our data science team who constructed a set of patterns and key indicators to identify fraudulent influencers. This became our proprietary Audience Vital Signs (AVS) algorithm. By scanning every influencer on entry into our network and multiple times per day we’re preventing any inauthentic accounts from entering our platform and more importantly, from entering your TRIBE inbox. So not only are you saving yourself time checking each influencer but your campaign budget goes further. We’re constantly refining and updating our AVS to make sure we’re picking up on any new fraudulent techniques so that we can maintain our platform integrity, and you have less to worry about! Today, there are four main components of our brand safety pledge. If you’d like to know more about each of these components, please click through to a more detailed explainer.
[ Brand Safety ](https://www.tribegroup.co/blog/topic/brand-safety) [TRIBE's Commitment to the GDPR](https://www.tribegroup.co/blog/how-tribe-is-committed-to-gdpr)
TRIBE is committed to compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation...
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