Workflows: Find Users and Run a Campaign in One Place

A workflow finds people for you, then has your account do up to three things to each of them, for example view their story, like their posts and follow them.

In this guide, we’ll build one together. It finds the followers of a popular fitness account, and one of your Instagram accounts views their stories, likes their posts and follows them, a few people each day. Nothing runs until you click Start Workflow, so you can take your time.

What can you use Workflows for?

• Do up to three things to the same people: for example, view their story, like their posts and follow them. Each person found gets every action you pick.
• Reach people who are likely to care: the followers of a popular account in your niche, people who use a hashtag, or people who comment on certain posts.
• Skip people who don’t fit: keep only people who posted recently, or whose bio mentions certain words.
• Use several of your accounts: share the people found between them, or give the full list to each one.
• Contact people directly: the separate Outreach type is a quicker setup for contact-only campaigns.

Setting one up means answering four questions: where to look, who to keep, what to do, and how fast.

Before you start

You need:

• An Instagram account in SMTasker that shows Valid. Need to add one? See Adding Accounts.
• Its phone online, with the SMTasker client running, but only once the workflow runs. You can set everything up and save it without them.
• A popular account whose followers would like your content.
• An idea of which actions belong together, for example view story, like and follow, so each person sees your account more than once.

To keep things simple, our example uses one account for everything.

Create the workflow draft

1. In the left menu, click Workflows (under Automation).
2. Click Add Workflow.

3. Give it a name you’ll recognize, such as Fitness – story, like, follow. Ours is called KB Demo – 3 Actions.
4. Choose Custom, then click Add Workflow.

Custom or Outreach? Custom lets you pick up to three actions, so we use it here. Outreach is a quicker setup for contact-only campaigns.

Step 1: Set your goal

The setup has six steps, shown at the top of the page. The first is Goal.

1. Check the End date: the day the workflow stops. It’s already filled in (one week ahead in our test). Change it if you like, and check the time zone shown under it.
2. Leave Stop after reaching target users unticked for now.
3. Click Next: Find Users.

Step 2: Choose where to find users

Now tell SMTasker where to look for people. This page has two tabs:

• Extraction Sources: where to look.
• Extraction Accounts: which of your accounts does the looking.

First, untick anything you won’t use. In our test, one option (comments on specific post urls) was already ticked, but empty. Empty options don’t count: the summary on the right still said Sources: 0 active.

You can look for people in five ways:

• Target Account Followers: the followers of an account you name.
• Comments on specific post URLs: people who commented on certain posts.
• Comments on the last X posts: people who commented on the latest posts of an account you name.
• Hashtag Search: people found through a hashtag.
• Specific Users: usernames you type in yourself.

For our example:

1. Tick Extract users from Target Account Followers.
2. Type the account name in the box. We use jeffnippard, a fitness creator; pick one that matches your own content. For several accounts, put one per line.
3. Click Add Usernames. Typing alone doesn’t add them.
4. Check that the name now shows in the list below, and that the summary says Sources: 1 active.

Choose which account does the looking

1. Open the Extraction Accounts tab.
2. Tick the account SMTasker should use to look people up. One may already be ticked: keep the one you want and untick the rest.
3. Leave Use any valid account for extraction unticked, so you stay in control.
4. Click Next: Filter Users.

Step 3: Filter users (optional)

This step lets you skip people who don’t fit, before any action happens. Only people who match go on to the next steps.

• Active users only: keep people who posted in the last few days (14 unless you change it).
• Filter by bio: keep people whose bio mentions certain words, or skip people whose bio mentions others. Put one word or phrase per line; capitals don’t matter.

Filters check every profile, so finding people takes longer. For your first workflow, leave both off and click Next: Destination Accounts.

Step 4: Choose the accounts and actions

This is the heart of a workflow: which of your accounts does the work, and which actions every person gets. Destination Accounts simply means your accounts that take action.

1. Pick your account: tick the same account as before, and check that it says Valid.
2. User distribution: leave Split selected. It only matters when you use two or more accounts (see below).
3. Pick up to three actions: under Workflow Scoped Automations, tick Follow, Like and Story Viewer.
4. Click Next: Follow.

Choosing actions

You can pick up to three from Follow, Like, Comment, Contact, Story Viewer, Reels Viewer and Repost. If you tick a fourth, the first one you ticked is removed.

Pick actions that make sense together for the same person. Viewing someone’s story, liking a couple of their posts and following them means they see your account several times, not just once. Choose carefully: you can’t change the actions after the workflow is created (see Step 6).

Using two or more accounts? Split or send all

• Split shares out the people found, so each account gets some of them.
• Send all gives every account the whole list, so the same person may get actions from more than one of your accounts.

Step 5: Set limits and working times

You now get one tab for each action: Follow, Like and Story Viewer. Each tab has its own limits, working hours and days, so set all three.

Lower the starting numbers. In our test, new tabs started at 5–10 an hour (10–20 for Story Viewer) and 100–200 a day, around the clock, every day. Our example uses the same gentle pace on all three tabs:

• Per hour: 1–2. Leave Increase daily with unticked.
• Per day: 5–8.
• Working hours (called Execution intervals): 09:00 to 18:00. Use Add Interval if you want a second time slot.
• Active days: Monday to Friday. Click a day to turn it on or off.

These are example numbers, not a rule, and no setting can promise your account won’t be restricted. Remember that each action counts toward the account’s activity, so three actions mean more activity than one. Think about how old the account is and what else it’s already doing. New account? Read Account Warm-Up: The First 7 Days Schedule first.

On the Like tab, set the same pace. It also asks how many posts to like per person (Likes per discovered profile, 2 by default) and Revisit a liked profile after (24 hours by default). We kept both defaults.

On the Story Viewer tab, set the same pace again. Leave Enable likes after viewing off: Like is already one of your three actions.

Each tab also has optional extras further down, such as Enable engagement on Follow and Like, and Filter based on profile data, Skip users who follow this account and Mute after follow on Follow. Each one shows more choices when ticked. Leave them off for your first workflow.

Step 6: Review, save or start

Check the summary: does everything match what you chose? If not, click Back, or click a step at the top of the page to fix it.

When everything is filled in, you’ll see Workflow is valid. That means the setup is complete. It doesn’t promise results. The Automation row should list all three actions. In our test, the review showed the limits of only one action (Story Viewer), so if you’re unsure, reopen Step 5 and check each tab.

• Save Draft: keep it and come back later. Nothing runs.
• Start Workflow: start it for real. Your account begins finding people and doing the three actions.

Saving takes you back to the Workflows list. Your draft shows Pending, with the Active switch off. Click its name to open it again. The Statistics column shows a quick count for today and the last 7 days.

Pick your actions before you create the workflow. Once it’s created, you can’t change its actions. You can still change which of your accounts take part.

Check what your workflow is doing

The Workflows list shows where each workflow stands:

• Pending (Active off): saved, not running.
• Started (Active on): running.
• Completed: finished, because its end date has passed.

Once your workflow is running, click its name to see three useful tabs:

• Results: everyone it found, with a row for each action. The same person can appear more than once, once per action, with what happened (for example, Followed).
• Statistics: a chart of how many actions happened each day.
• Activity Log: a diary of everything the workflow did, and when.

The screenshots below come from an older workflow that used two actions, Like and Follow, and has already finished. They are not from our example.

People found and actions done aren’t the same as new followers or sales. Use these screens to see what your workflow did, then judge whether it’s reaching the right people.

If something does not look right

Workflow not doing anything? Go through these checks in order, and stop at the first “No”.

Phone or account problems? See Managing Your Devices and Managing Your Accounts. Still stuck? Use Contact Support in SMTasker, and tell us the workflow name, the step or tab you’re on, and the exact message you see.

Build on your first workflow

Once this works, try another source, add a filter, use more accounts, or try a different set of actions, such as Reels Viewer, Like and Comment. For contact campaigns, try the Outreach type. And remember: for a single action, a plain automation is simpler (see Creating Automations).

Keep one goal per workflow. Start simple, see what it does, and add more only when you need it.