The Dark Side of Comment Pods

Chances are, if you have an Instagram account, you’ve heard of a comment pod. Or an engagement pod. If you haven’t heard of them, here’s the rundown: essentially, you join a group DM with a handful of other instagrammers(or hundreds) in a similar niche to your own. Every time one of you posts, you post a link to your post in the group chat. Everyone is then required to go like and comment on said post. The idea behind these pods, is to boost engagement. Sounds great, right?

Not really. I first heard of comment pods a little over a year ago. Someone in a facebook group I was in mentioned they had a few free spots in an engagement pod. I did a quick google search to see what one was, and immediately threw my username into the comments section. Instant engagement?? Of COURSE sign me up. The reason these pods are supposed to work, is that, in the moments immediately after a photo is posted to Instagram, the more likes and comments it receives, the more of your followers feeds it will show up in. So, as long as everyone in the pod is vigilant and immediately likes and comments on every photo, the algorithm should favor your photos.

I quickly saw that there were a few fatal flaws to the way Instagram pods work. First, many people didn’t post photos that I…liked. That sounds harsh. But it’s the truth. I was in a very general “lifestyle” pod, and there were some members of the group with less than 1,000 followers. Many members posts were not things I would’ve personally commented on. And honestly, they weren’t even people I would’ve followed. In fact, I ended up not following many of them. I hopped around, leaving and joining new groups, until I found a few groups of people who posted similar enough content that the comments were slightly more genuine. But that’s just the thing. Even if they were “more genuine”, they still weren’t genuine. Commenting on these photos became a chore. I’d dread opening my Instagram messages.

The second issue, is that no one actually comments and likes the photos as soon as they’re posted. Most people waited hours, if not days, before engaging with your post. And this immediately defeats the purpose of a comment pod. And yet, no one leaves these pods, when they notice it does nothing to boost your actual engagement. The reason for this, is because it helps you fake your numbers. You’re getting more likes and comments than you would get otherwise.

This is where it starts getting unfair for companies and people that want to work with you. Let’s say you’re getting 500 likes on your photos. But 100-200 of these are from comment and like pods. This may not seem like a big deal. But a company doesn’t know that all of the views they’re getting, are fake. If a company is going to be investing their time and money into someone, they should be spending money on someone transparent, and know that the likes and comments on your posts are genuine and real.

Really, what it boils down to, though, is that it isn’t genuine. You can tell that it’s fake, and it’s frustrating. It’s akin to buying likes and comments, except that you don’t pay with money, you pay with your integrity.

The Instagram algorithm is frustrating. I was a member of comment pods, but I was tired of commenting and liking photos that I didn’t truly care about. And once I left these groups, my comments(eventually) increased. But they were genuine. Now when I get comments on a photo, I know it’s because someone is actually interested in what I posted. And that’s better, to me, than receiving 50 comments from people who don’t actually care about my life. Comment pods take the fun out of Instagram. It’s 2018, this year Instagram is going to be (more) fun again.