What are Engagement Pods?

Gaining followers and interactions with your platform can be difficult when you’re first starting off. Having support from other businesses looking to grow their online community can make all the difference in helping both your channels grow.

Engagement pods are defined by Hootsuite as Instagram users who work together to help increase engagement on their pages. There are different types of pods and requirements in order to join. Some are interest specific pods, require you to have a several number of followers to join, and have strict guidelines that must be followed in order to stay in the pod.

Many are turning to pods in order to beat Instagram’s algorithm which switched over from chronological order to interest based posts. This is a great option for those looking to grow their platform at an organic and inexpensive rate! Pods increase the visibility of your page among your pod network and their followers, which is why it’s important to join a pod that shares the same interest and audience as yours.

Now, there are automated pods software which you can pay for which allow you to have more control over how the engagement on your page. Such as frequency, what comments are left and whether you would like to engage with other pod members or just have them engage with you. This is a nice feature for automated pods since regular pods joined on Instagram usually have rules that make users interact with each other, so everyone gets a fair share of engagement. Not engaging with other pods can result in getting removed from the group.

What should you look out for when looking to join a pod?

Focus on quality:

Quality over quantity is important when looking at engagement pods. Larger pods don’t necessarily mean better. Smaller pods carry less risk with the algorithm since there’s fewer chances of repetitive behavior,

Figure out which type of pod would suit your brand best:

Like mentioned before, in order to gain visibility and followers relevant to your target and brand it’s important to join a pod that shares the same interest and audience. The chances of gaining support outside of the pod that will organically interact with you will be higher than if you were to join a random pod.

Now you may be asking yourself, do these pods works?

After some quick research, the feedback was inconclusive. Some found pods to be useful in increasing visibility and engagement. While others found that that they were time consuming and didn’t get them the results they had hoped for. Some found the best results from automated pods with sites like Lempod, Alcapod, Tag Scout, or Jarvee.

If you’re looking for more tips on how to grow your exposure checkout our FREE Social Media Strategy Guide.