Honestly, I thought this topic was dead…
But then it came back to life last week and I felt like it needed to be addressed again.
To finally put it to rest once and for all.
Instagram pods are RUINING you.
This is why…
What is a pod?
A pod is a group of up to 30 people who come together in a DM thread and decide that they’re going to support each other by liking and commenting on everyone in the pod’s posts within the first 30 minutes of posting.
You send a message with your post to the group and everyone goes and likes and comments.
The thought is that this will help boost your posts in the algorithm.
Which is technically true, BUT getting the same engagement every single time you post anything is going to seriously hurt you.
First, Instagram knows what you’re doing!
They have access to your DMs. They know that it’s all the same people that are constantly liking on commenting on your posts.
They know exactly what you’re doing and they’re not going to reward you for that.
Second, it’s only going to help you reach the people that are commenting and engaging.
AKA people in your industry (pod members) and NOT your potential clients.
And with the way the algorithm works, Instagram is going to show your posts to people like the people who are engaging.
Again, people already in your industry and NOT your ideal clients.
This makes that added reach completely and utterly pointless.
Third, on the flip side of this all, Instagram is only going to show YOU posts of people in your industry (pod) and NOT your potential clients.
Your feed is just going to be full of the people in your pod’s posts! Instagram sees that you’re constantly liking and commenting, so they’re going to show you MORE of their stuff and content like it.
When in reality, this is most likely not what you’re interested in seeing!
You want to see posts from your potiential clients. Not posts from people who don’t need your services.
Now you have to do a ton more work to seek those people out, instead of having them naturally show up in your feed because you’re using Instagram the right way.
So what should you be doing instead?
Enagage naturally! Be organic. Use Instagram like an actual human.
Seek out the people who could possibly be your potential clients and engage with THEM.
This is how you get a better reach, better engagement, and a better newsfeed.
Bottom line, people LOVE to put these shortcuts out there like they’re going to solve all of your problems, but they NEVER WORK.
The best thing to do if you want to grow your social media on any platform is to use it as you naturally would and pay attention to what the platform is telling you to do.
For Instagram, it’s stories and IGTV.
For Facebook, it’s Live and groups.
So skip the shortcuts and just put in the work. You’ll thank yourself later when you don’t have to undo all the work you just did that ended up hurting you instead of helping.
Speak soon,
