Maybe you have heard of them called “Instagram pods” or “Facebook pods”. But their purpose is the same. To boost engagement. So are these engagement pods bad? And what kind of effects can they have on a person’s social media account?
What is an engagement pod?
An engagement pod is a group of creators who have gotten together with the sole purpose of helping each other boost their social post engagement. These originally started on Instagram but have thus grown so large in popularity that there are entire Facebook Groups dedicated to being one giant engagement pod hive.
These groups are well organized and involve engagement games. These games focus on likes, comments, shares, views, follows, etc. They are moderated by the admins and are announced via post on a Facebook group. To engage with the game, you just pop into the comments of the game’s post and begin. The games are simple enough. Put the link to the social post you want boosted, and play the “game”. To name a few examples of these games:
- Must “like” the social post of the 50 people above you
- Must comment something, four words or more, of the 30 posts before you. NO copy and pasting. (ex. “This is so cute!”, “I love this idea!”)
- Must follow the TikTok account of the 10 people above you.
To ensure that participants are actually keeping up their end of the bargain, they are given 24 hours to complete the game. If they do not complete the game in the allotted time, the admins will punish the creator by banning them from playing these games for X amount of time. Or they can even be removed from the group entirely.
Are engagement pods good or bad for account growth?
Although we love to see creators helping other creators, this is not the way to do it. Engagement pods are extremely detrimental to your organic social growth.
Learn more on this topic by readying my blog “The Biggest Mistakes of Trying to Gain Followers“.
Final thoughts
Don’t do it. Do not stoop to engagement pods. I know that the algorithm sucks and it seems like if you don’t get the same engagement that brand deals will also disappear. But you need to remember something. The algorithm affects EVERYONE. It leaves no heroes amongst us. If your engagement went down after the last algorithm change, so what. So did everyone else’s. No need to sweat it!
I can guarantee that brands will continue to come to creators that make great content. And I can also guarantee that they will stop coming to those who partake in engagement pods. Speaking as both a creator and a social media specialist for a company that partakes in hiring influencers… we can tell who is using them and who is not.. 😉
Still need to be convinced NOT to partake in an engagement pod? Check out the blog, “Why Engagement Pods Are Damaging Your Value“.
