Around mid 2016, Instagram changed their timeline algorithm in a way that made the posts appear in a different order than how they used to be. This resulted in decrease in engagement rates for a lot of accounts. Later, the Instagram stories update has reportedly been another cause for the decrease in engagement rates. All of this lead to a change in Instagram marketing strategies & made increasing engagement rates organically and for free more tricky. In this article, I am talking about an organic and free way to grow your Instagram engagement rates and possibly to gain more followers.
Recently, the idea of starting Instagram groups called pods has popped up. Those type of groups have been an effective way for increasing engagement on Instagram posts.
What is an Instagram Pod ?
I don’t who proposed this naming to such groups. A pod is a group of dolphins living together and supporting each other. According to Wikipedia, a pod is:
Dolphins are highly social animals, often living in pods of up to a dozen individuals. Membership in pods is not rigid; interchange is common. Dolphins can, however, establish strong social bonds.
And this is how Instagram pods work. Once a member posts something new, he/she sends it to the group. The group members get notified, and then they like and comment on the new post. Joining multiple pods can be very effective for getting better results but it means that you need to invest more time into this.
Is joining a Pod right for you?
Joining a pod can be a bad idea if you are a top Instagram influencer with tens or maybe hundreds of thousands of followers. But if you are still in the beginning or midway of building your Instagram presence, it can be really a great idea.
How can you benefit from joining an Instagram Pod ?
Joining an Instagram pod can be beneficial in several ways, like:
- Increasing engagement rates on your posts.
- If you select your hashtags carefully, joining multiple pods can help your post getting featured on some specific hashtags.
- Some pod members do shoutouts & featuring which can help getting more followers.
- You can possibly increase your professional network through a pod. Usually, pods are created to include similar profiles like travel bloggers pod, food bloggers pod, .. etc.
In conclusion, growing you Instagram following base & increasing the engagement isn’t a straightforward process & it is getting tougher overtime. To do it organically, you need more dedication, research, time & commitment. Using pods is one way effective, free & organic way to increase your engagement rates on your account. I have created several pods and it is working well for me until now. Feel free to DM me on Instagram @NomadicPharaoh & I can help you to joing a pod or multiple pods.
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