Do Social Media Engagement Pods Provide Value to Your Business?

FBCBlog, Calgary Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Insights

Have you recently heard of a business or influencer using an engagement pod to increase likes and comments on social posts? Have you wondered if this is something that your business should be looking into to? Here, we will break down everything there is to know about engagement pods.

What is a Social Media
Engagement Pod?

Engagement pods are private groups who engage with each other’s content to manipulate social media algorithms. By generating a high volume of likes and comments at the moment of publication, podders influence the virility potential of their posts, gaining additional reach as the algorithm believes the content is likeable and meaningful. Once you’ve joined a pod, each group has its own rules and stipulations to reaping the benefits, aka engagement. Pod members are essentially guaranteed a certain number of likes or comments on each of their posts and often can request specific comments that endorses the post.
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To keep engagement pods covert, pods communicate behind the scenes or on alternate social media networks such as Instagram DMs, Telegram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn or Facebook. Sites like Lempod, and LeClap.club will help you notify your pod that you have recently posted and find relevant pods to your brand. With these groups, you can send a notification to other members and asking them to engage with your newly published post. Often you are required to engage the 20 most recent posts within the pod thread before you can leave a link for engagement on your own post.

Groups may have 15 - 1,000 members. Each member of the pod promises to regularly engage with each other's content. To get the most out of a pod, you can join a group that has similar interests and is a bit smaller. To continue to be a part of a pod, you need to keep up engaging with member's posts and follow group rules, or you will be removed from the group.

What Platforms Use Engagement Pods:

  • Instagram

  • Facebook

  • LinkedIn

  • YouTube

  • Twitter

 

Should You Use an Engagement Pod to Increase Your Social Media Followers or Likes?

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Being a Part of an Engagement Pod is Time consuming – having to like and comment on every post of your pod members can take a lot of time. Imagine having to like and comment on 20 people's posts five times a week. And that’s on a smaller pod. It can also take a few hours to find a pod that fits your brand, and that has engaged members. If members aren’t engaged, then there is no point joining.
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Engagement Pods do not Guarantee Meaningful Results – this is especially true of the bigger pods. Other people in these pods aren’t really interested in your content. Brands should be using social as a meaningful way to connect with their audience and build relationships that drive sales and brand loyalty. While pods may increase your reach and engagement, it’s not with the right people.
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The Algorithm and the Social Media Networks Could Figure it Out – social media platforms are constantly working on updating their algorithm so that users are seeing the best post and the posts that are most relevant to that user. Most social platforms are already aware of these pods and have been keeping their eye out to ban the pods and potentially even members, so they are probably working on fitting this into the algorithm. Most networks have a penalty system that will limit your interactions with an account that has been flagged.

Does Full Blast Creative Recommend Using Social Media Engagement Pods?

Full Blast Creative does not see any real value in using these engagement pods as the majority of the engagement that is coming off your posts isn’t authentic to your brand. There are better ways that you can get your company name out, build brand loyalty and drive conversions. If you are on social media to only get thousands of likes then this is one way to do it, but if you are looking to properly build out content that drives real engagement that turns to conversions this is not a good approach for you.

Full Blast Creative has worked with companies in a variety of different industries who are looking to build meaningful engagement and connect with the right audience. Full Blast Creative sets up systems to ensure that ads are reaching the right audience and your advertising dollars are not wasted. When you run a paid social media campaign, both your paid engagement and organic engagement increase. This is because social media advertising ensures visibility and reach. More customers, outside of your immediately following, will see your content and have an opportunity to connect with your brand. Learn more about Full Blast Creative's strategy to increase your social media engagement.

Did this blog post resonate? Let us know if you have used an engagement pod for your brand, and what your experience was like. We would love to hear from you and keep the conversation going. Contact Full Blast Creative if you would like to discuss how to increase your social media presence and boost your business performance.