Whether you like it or not, social media automation tools are here to stay. Those who aren’t using them are fighting an uphill battle. You must find a tool that works effectively on most platforms and doesn’t get your accounts banned.
It is easier said than done as there are so many options. You are likely to miss at least once before finding the right tool for your needs. We will save you some trouble and review one of the contenders for the title of the best social media automation tool.
What is social media automation?
Social media automation is a process of optimizing social media accounts by minimizing the amount of manual labor you need to do. Automation tools use internet bots – software designed to complete repetitive tasks on the web while mimicking human behavior.
The tasks include all of the usual actions on social media – liking, following, posting, commenting, and more. The effectiveness of bots is far superior to that of humans, so it saves a lot of time and even adds some additional functionalities not present in the platforms themselves.
Marketers and influencers use them daily to help manage multiple accounts and increase their popularity. While many use social media to increase efficiency, automation tools are sometimes known to be used for spreading misinformation or spam.
For this reason, all major social media platforms fight against bots and third-party automation tools in general. All write warnings in their Terms and Conditions that using such methods will result in a ban or other restrictions.
Social platforms will never eradicate automation tools. It is a never-ending battle as with every new tracking method, new ways of avoiding suspicion are developed. Proxies, for example, are the most successful supplement to automation tools nowadays. Every provider recommends changing your IP address and allows a proxy integration option.
FollowLiker
FollowLiker is a social media automation app (supports Windows, Mac and Linux) with a claim to be the best one available. At least, that’s the impression you get after looking at the features it promises. It is a multi-platform tool that can automate Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr.
The features can differ depending on the platform you use. A complete list of everything the software does is too large to present here and pricing plans are all-inclusive. Therefore, we will categorize them into a few groups and present them separately.
Auto following/unfollowing of users can be easily automated according to set parameters. Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest have the largest choice of options. However, on all platforms there is some customization of the following and unfollowing based on various metrics.
Engaging with other users is equally available in all four supported platforms. Many features are available, from a simple welcome message to newcomers, comments, retweets and auto mentioning. However, take care as it is easy to go too far and start spamming.
Task scheduling functionalities are here to solve this problem and are quite advanced. You can delay almost any action but must provide the timeframe in seconds. You will need a calculator, but it gets better once you get used to it.
Scraping with FollowLiker isn’t what you would expect – collecting and extracting data from the platforms. Unfortunately, the tool doesn’t have such capabilities, and the downloading of photos is available only on Instagram. The command ‘scrape user’ means making a list of users you can target with likes or followers.
Other notable features include task randomisation, CAPTCHA solver, account statistics, white-listing and blacklisting of users. There are more features to mention, but these are especially important to automation tools because they allow you to protect your account against bans and track progress.
Drawbacks
The list of features we described isn’t extensive, but it is still impressive for a social media automation tool. Despite this, FollowLiker has received harsh criticisms on review platforms, such as Trustpilot. The most warning feedback is that the FollowLiker stops working after some time, and customer support isn’t responding to inquiries.
After some investigation, it seems that many users get their accounts banned while FollowLiker avoids any responsibility for how their tool behaves, even if there are some technical difficulties! However, it is fairly common for automation tools to take such a stance as many customers use them recklessly.
As it is easy to spam and attract the attention of platforms with FollowLiker, it’s equally as easy to get banned. Other social media automation tools have more safeguards to avoid spamming. My advice is to use a secondary account until you know what you are doing and then automate your main one.
It is costly if you want to add multiple accounts because you need to purchase a license for every one you use. If you are serious about automation, the price per account will get expensive. The unlimited plan is still quite expensive, and on top of that, you will still need to pay a monthly subscription fee.
The worst part of the pricing is that there is the ‘no refund policy’ and no possibility to try it out before buying. You will have to take the word of FollowLiker that it works as intended, which isn’t very reassuring when you account for the number of bad reviews it has on the internet.
Alternatives
The drawbacks of FollowLiker are quite substantial, so it is reasonable to look for alternative services. Most of them are more flexible in pricing, refunds, and pricing packages. Negative reviews exist for any automation tool, though, so it’s hard to find the perfect one.
- Socinator can automate all the same platforms and also adds a couple more. For a fraction of the price, you will get support for more accounts and the possibility of a refund.
- Jarvee is probably the best-rated social media automation tool you can find for all the major social media networks. It is expensive, but you can start a free trial without any commitments.
Conclusion
It is worth researching FollowLiker before deciding, but don’t make a hasty decision. The features of FollowLiker seem promising but mixed reviews, no refund policy, and high prices don’t create much trust. Proceed with caution.