No, I've never used bots on my content and I've never really needed them. A lot of people don't realize that most of the voting power a bot gives you have to pay for and in a lot of cases you won't get a positive return, although sometimes you do.

The best thing to do is post content regularly, try to find your niche and get your own Steem Power up so that you can upvote your own content and reward your followers. 

That's the key to success on Steemit.