Have you heard people talking about ‘Instagram pods’ and not sure what they mean? Heard they are a great way to boost your Instagram engagement and want to find out more? Well keep on reading

WHAT IS AN INSTAGRAM POD?

An Instagram pod, sometimes called an Instagram engagement pod, is where a number of people are brought together with the specific purpose of engaging on each other’s content.

HOW DOES AN INSTAGRAM POD WORK?

The group will usually communicate via a group direct message. This can take place on Instagram, but a lot of Instagram pods prefer to communicate via Telegram.

Once you have posted on Instagram you go into the group and share the fact that you have a new post. Then everyone else in the group is meant to engage on your post. The rules of engaging will differ depending on the group, but usually, it will be a combination of liking, commenting and/or sharing content in Instagram stories.

WHY DO PEOPLE JOIN INSTAGRAM PODS?

Instagram pods were created in order to ‘beat’ the algorithm. Once upon a time, Instagram posts would show up on people’s feed in chronological order. However, in July 2016 Instagram stopped showing post chronologically and instead would show users content based on the algorithm.

No one is entirely sure how the algorithm works, however, the purpose of the algorithm is to show content that it believes will be most important to you.

People believe that by joining a pod there will be a surge of engagement on your content and that will show Instagram that your content is valuable and therefore should be shared with more users.

THE PROS OF JOINING AN INSTAGRAM POD

GUARANTEED ENGAGEMENT

If you ever posted on Instagram and had crickets you no longer need to worry about that. Every post will be ‘showered with love’.

INCREASED CHANCE OF REACHING THE TOP SECTION OF A HASHTAG OR EVEN THE INSTAGRAM EXPLORE PAGE

High engagement of a post within a short time of posting will increase the chances of Instagram thinking your post is great and as a result sharing it to more users, which if the engagement continues result in you hitting the top spot for a hashtag or even making an appearance on the Instagram Explore page.

THE CONS OF JOINING AN INSTAGRAM POD

BIG TIME INVESTMENT

Depending on the size of your Instagram pod it can become very time consuming having to like and/or comment on all those posts.

ONGOING RESPONSIBILITY

If there is a time restriction on when you need to engage by this may make you feel like you are tied to your phone because you need to respond to messages quickly.

RISK OF INSTAGRAM FINDING OUT

Instagram works really hard to keep the platform as real as possible. For years they wouldn’t allow third-party apps to auto post, they are known to be removing fake followers and they seem to be constantly working to get rid of any sort of ‘bot’ activity. If your pod communicates via Instagram then there is a chance Instagram will find out and penalise you.

HOW TO JOIN AN INSTAGRAM POD

Now that you know what an Instagram pod is and are aware of the pros and cons you might decide joining one is the right thing for you. The easiest way to join an Instagram pod is to ask if anyone is running a pod in a business-focused Facebook Group, like mine – Superstar Solopreneurs.