If you run a local business – salon, gym, café, restaurant, real estate office, car wash, beauty clinic, etc. – your customers are already on Instagram:
- They search “[service] + [city]”
- They compare photos, reels, and stories
- They judge how “alive” your brand is
- And very often, they decide where to visit based on what they see there
The challenge: doing all the right actions manually (following, liking, story viewing, DM’ing, cleaning your follow list) takes hours every week.
Onimator automates those actions for you in a controlled, targeted way:
- Follow/Unfollow
- Post Likes
- Story likes / views
- Filtering (to avoid junk accounts)
- Welcome messages (DM new followers automatically)
Real Devices = High Trust Score vs. Typical Bots
Unlike many browser-based or API “bots”, Onimator runs through physical phones or emulators. That means:
- Actions look like real human activity on real devices
- You’re using the official Instagram app logic
- Your actions have a much higher trust score compared to low-quality web bots that spam from datacenter IPs
This is especially important for local businesses that want long-term stability, not a quick spammy boost that gets flagged.
No Hardware? Use Onirent Instead (Fully Compatible)
Onimator normally needs:
- Either physical phones
- Or Android emulators you manage yourself
If you don’t want to deal with that, you can use Onirent, which provides ready-to-use remote devices that are fully compatible with Onimator and require no hardware setup on your side.
- You get cloud devices that behave like real phones
- Onimator connects to them seamlessly
- You keep the high trust score benefits, without buying physical phones
You can check the Onirent: Onirent.com
So the setup is simple:
Onimator + Onirent = high-trust Instagram automation without touching any hardware.
Step 1: Choose the Right Local Targets (Competitors & Niche Pages)
The core growth strategy for local businesses is:
Target followers of other local accounts that your ideal customers already follow.
Examples:
- Hair salon / barbershop
- Other salons in your city
- Local beauty bloggers / influencers
- “Cityname Beauty” or “Cityname Hair” pages
- Gym / fitness coach
- Nearby gyms and studios
- “Cityname Fitness” pages
- Local health influencers
- Café / restaurant
- Popular cafés / restaurants near you
- “Cityname Food” accounts
- Real estate / rentals
- Other agencies in your city
- “Cityname Apartments”, “Cityname Rentals”, relocation pages
Make a list of 10–30 Instagram @handles where your ideal customers already hang out.
Step 2: Set Up Follow Automation on Competitors’ Followers
Now, inside Onimator (connected either to your own phone/emulator or a rented device from Onirent), create a Follow task targeting followers of those accounts.
Typical configuration:
- Source type: “Followers of accounts” (or similar in your UI)
- Target accounts: Paste in all the @handles you listed
- Limits: Set reasonable daily/hourly limits to keep behavior human-like
- Device:
- Your physical phone / emulator, or
- An Onirent device if you’re using their infrastructure
Because actions are executed from real devices, Instagram sees high-quality, natural behavior instead of mass-datacenter spam. That’s where the high trust score comes in.
Step 3: Use Filtering to Avoid Junk Accounts
Not all followers of your competitors are good leads. Some will be:
- Bots
- Inactive accounts
- People with no content, no photo, no real presence
Use Onimator’s Filtering to focus on real, valuable users.
Common filters to use:
- Has profile picture – removes a lot of fake / low-effort profiles
- Minimum posts (e.g. 3–5) – cuts out empty accounts
- Followers/following limits – avoid spammy accounts with 0 followers or 10k follows
- Private vs public – choose what fits your strategy
For a local business, the goal is to focus on normal people in your area who look active and real.
Step 4: Boost Attention with Likes & Stories
Following someone gets you on their radar once.
Liking their posts and interacting with their stories gets you on their radar multiple times.
In Onimator, set up:
- Post Likes: automatically like 1–3 recent posts from users you follow
- Story Views / Story Likes: optionally view or like stories of recent targets
This does two things:
- Your name keeps reappearing in their notifications.
- When they tap your profile, they see a serious, active local business – not just a random empty account.
Make sure your profile is optimized:
-
- Clear bio: who you are + city
- Booking link / website
- Highlights with services, prices, results, testimonials
- Fresh photos, reels, and stories
Step 5: Use Welcome Messages to Turn Followers into Customers
Onimator’s welcome messages feature lets you automatically DM new followers.
For a local business, this is perfect for:
- Offering a first-visit discount
- Sharing a booking link
- Asking one simple question to start a conversation
Example templates:
Salon / beauty:
Hey! 👋 Thanks for the follow 🧡
We’re a [service] in [City]. First-time clients get 15% off this week.
You can book here: [booking link]
Gym / fitness:
Hi! 💪 Thanks for following us.
We’re a gym in [City]. Want a free trial workout? Reply “YES” and we’ll send the link.
Café / restaurant:
Hey foodie 😋 thanks for the follow!
Show this message and get -10% on your first visit.
Show: Onimator’s DM/welcome message automation with:
- Trigger: “New follower” (or equivalent)
- One of the above message templates filled in.
Step 6: Clean Up with Smart Unfollow
To keep your account looking professional, use Onimator’s Unfollow feature to:
- Unfollow users who didn’t follow back after X days
- Avoid ending up with “Following 5000 / Followers 300”
Best practices:
-
- Wait at least 3–7 days before unfollowing
- Exclude existing customers, local partners, and influencers using safe lists (if available in your setup)
- Keep unfollow limits realistic to preserve that high trust score
You’re Not Alone: Onimator Knowledge Base & Onirent Manual
If any of this sounds complex – don’t worry.
- Onimator comes with a knowledge base that explains:
- How to connect devices or set up Onirent
- How to configure Follow/Unfollow, Likes, Stories, Filters, DMs
- Recommended limits and safety tips
- Onirent has its own user manual (linked above) to guide you through using rented devices.
So even if you’re not technical, you’ll have step-by-step instructions to get everything running smoothly.
Final Thoughts
For local businesses, Instagram doesn’t need to be a slow “post and pray” game.
With Onimator running on real devices (your own or via Onirent), you can:
- Target followers of local competitors and niche pages
- Filter out junk and focus on real local users
- Increase visibility with post and story interactions
- Turn new followers into paying customers with automatic welcome DMs
- Keep your profile clean with smart unfollow
