The Negative Impact of Engagement Pods and Follow-for-Follow Strategies

"Engagement pods and follow-for-follow tactics may seem beneficial, but they can harm your brand's reputation and long-term growth. It's essential to consider the lasting effects of these strategies before jumping into them. In the influencer community, the 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' mentality can send a very different message, potentially damaging your value and authenticity."

What are Engagement Pods?

An engagement pod is a group of social media users who agree to engage with each other's content, such as liking, commenting, and sharing, to boost its visibility and engagement metrics.

These communities often exist on messaging apps like WhatsApp, Discord, Instagram, and others.

The idea behind engagement pods is to increase the reach and engagement of each other's content, but they have been criticized for their potential to generate inauthentic engagement and for being frowned upon by social media platforms due to their artificial nature

This method was a killer movement back in like 2012-14 when the new algorithm was set.

Why did it work?

It worked because of course engagemente means that Instagram found you relevant and someone of value and popular so they would push you out!

Quick Fast Reach would get you Quick Fast Reach!

It was like magic.

I fell into the trap!

Back in that time I just started social media management and I fell into an engagement group with over 11k people in it!

It was great.

All you had to do was make a post, then immediately go to other peoples post in that same thread and engagement on it. As in like and comment.

I literally would spend all day doing this because you were obligated to reciprocate.

Time wasted! I spent at max 4 hours a day doing this!

I was drained.

Did it help my engagment on a post, hell yea it did! Until I discovered that NON of these people really gave a damn about my content nor wanted to buy from me.

The big Instagram shift

Now in 2016 Instagram did change it's Algorithm. It went from Chronological feed to feed based off of RELATIONSHIPS. What this meant is that whoever you engage with the most is who you will see in your news feed the most.

So guess what.... PODDIES were messed up!!!

Heres why:

If I am engaging with people that I am not following on a continuous basis and we are not following each other, who the hell is going to my feed and whose feed am I going to? NOBODIES!

We noticed this when our content stopped getting pushed.

From here people got worse and did this crazy method:

Follow for Follow

Yes the dreaded follow for follow strategy. Give me a follow and I'll follow you back. This way when we DO engage you will show up in my feed and I'll show up in yours and THEN more people will come in. Well here's the problem with that, there was STILL no outside reach!

This lead to me being like there is something dirty about these methods, I'm working this like it's a full time job, and its not even working anymore so let me stop.

Noow here is the bigger issue that people forget...

What about your Damn Business?

Is anyone even thinking about sales? marketing? ideal customer and client?

I'll answer for you, NO NO they were not.

With Engagement Pods and with the Follow for Follow all people care about is numbers.

Noone wants to buy from you, nooone wants to be apart of your community. They just want numbers JUST. LIKE. YOU.

Insert whiney complaints

I'm not getting sales

I'm not building my community

I have ghost followers

My engagement tanked

Let's attack these...

I'm not getting sales

Of course you aren't... they were your ideal customer and client, they just wantred numbers like you, those people in that pod were business owners LIKE YOU!

I'm not building my community

You didn't try to, you kept them on the platform of the pod. Did you build an email list, did you lead them there? Did you add them to a community platform? You probably didn't

I have ghost followers

Well duh, You stop engaging, so they will. Since you got the traffic inorganically again they weren't interested in you. Just the traffic and the numbers. So if you aren't helping them why should they continue to help you?

My engagement tanked

Instagram caught on. Don't believe me check this out... This is from instagram's personal @creators account FAQ page in their highlights. If you don't want to read it through pretty much what this is saying is that Instagram Algorithm is machine learned and constantly adapt. AS SOON AS it notices something is wrong it will "make adjustments" go ahead and insert the words "limit engagement"

Facebook Support Group Fakeness

The one thing I learned is that this is still going on in Facebook today but it is masked as support groups. Either the administrator of the Facebook group will drop an engagement post saying "post your business below let's go all support" or someone will post something within the chat saying "hey let's support each other I only need a certain amount of followers let's follow each other".

This can be cool but it also can be very damaging as well because once again you're collecting a whole lot of people that are not interested in your product.

Supporting one another is one thing but clogging up the feed with irrelevant numbers doesn't serve us anymore.

We have to remember that Instagram is now for business it is no longer a photo sharing app or a scrapbook.

Start thinking with your big business brain.

What you can do to grow instead...

I'm glad you asked....

1. Unfollow individuals or accounts that do not align with your niche or target audience. This helps streamline your feed and ensures you're engaging with content that's relevant to your goals.

2. Follow those who are involved in your niche. By doing so, Instagram's algorithm is more likely to associate your account with similar creators and businesses, increasing the chances of your content appearing in suggested posts to like-minded audiences.

3. Focus on posting educational content, such as lists, infographics, or live teaching sessions. This type of content provides value to your audience, giving them a reason to visit your page for learning and engagement. Remember, while selfies might be appealing, they often don't offer educational value.

4. Engage with top influencers by leaving insightful comments or thoughtful statements on their posts. The goal here isn't necessarily to get noticed by the influencers themselves, but by their audience. Thoughtful engagement can attract attention and potentially lead to new followers.

5. Shift your content strategy from posting what you want to what your audience needs. Use tools like polls to understand their preferences. For example, if someone needs toilet paper, they go straight to that aisle, ignoring everything else in the store. The same principle applies to social media posts: people will scroll past irrelevant content and stop at posts that fulfill their needs or interests. Tailoring your content to meet these needs increases the likelihood of engagement and growth.

To Wrap this up in a pretty bow

Pursuing your desires and goals is essential, but it's important to recognize that authenticity plays a crucial role in long-term success, especially in the digital world. While it might be tempting to use inauthentic methods to boost your online presence, such as purchasing followers or engaging in insincere interactions, these tactics often lead to superficial results.

Having a large number of followers might seem impressive, but if these followers are not genuinely interested in your content, it won't translate into meaningful engagement or sales. Authentic growth is about building a community of followers who are truly interested in what you have to offer, whether it's a product, service, or content.

Moreover, audiences today are increasingly savvy and can usually detect inauthenticity. They value genuine interactions and content that resonates with them on a personal level. When your followers are authentic, it becomes easier to maintain an authentic relationship with them. This genuine connection fosters trust and loyalty, which are crucial for any successful online presence.

In summary, while you should definitely pursue your passions and goals, remember that the path to sustainable success is paved with authenticity. Building a genuine, engaged community may take more time and effort, but it's more likely to yield meaningful and lasting results, both in terms of engagement and commercial success.