*noise* Just wanna keep calling your name, til you come back home.
Why do you always tell me to be quiet?
I'm not a bad singer.
I know but I just don't want you to sing.
I appreciate the honesty.
We need to have a serious conversation about Instagram pods.
Now if you don't know what a pod is, basically it's about 10 or 15 people and they group
together on Instagram and whenever one of them posts the rest of them go and like or
comment.
It's essentially an engagement gamifying situation.
And the hopes is that their post will possibly get to the popular page or start to trend
a bit better algorithmically?
You know what, I'm not even entirely sure of the hope of it.
I have a conservative 6 reasons for you why Instagram pods suck.
The first reason is the algorithm.
The Instagram algorithm is nothing like the Facebook one.
The Facebook one is such where you share it, you like it, you comment on it and those pieces
of content tend to show up in your family and your friends feeds as well because Facebook
go "well you like it and these people like you, so maybe the people that like you will
like the content that you liked or engaged with" and obviously if you share it they will
see it too.
Instagram's a little bit different.
Our feeds are more private so just because I like something or I engage on something,
it doesn't show on your feed because the only things that show on your feed are the accounts
that you've already followed.
So let's think about that for a second, if we're engaging in this pod situation and we're
going around liking each other's stuff and we're engaging in each other's stuff it's
not going to show up in our friends or our family's feed or our followers feed, it's
only going to show up in our feed more regularly.
The discoverability on Instagram is unlike any other platform and this leads me to talking
about hashtags which was my sixth reason for why this whole Instagram pod thing sucks but
I'm going to bring it up now because it's a pretty big deal.
So the way that you discover anyone on Instagram for the most part is to search via a hashtag.
Now, let's just run with the theory that an Instagram pod is a good idea (it's not) and
assume that by us commenting and liking each other's posts gets us to the popular page
on the popular posts for that hashtag, we need to think about this for a second.
If we get to the popular posts of a big hashtag, we're only going to be there for 3.5 seconds
before we're pushed down.
So for example, I'm in social media.
If I make it to the social media hashtag, I ain't gonna be there long before somebody
else puts up a better post and pushes me down and it's pointless anyway.
But the main point about hashtags that I'm trying to make is that you actually need a
strategy in the first place and if you aren't all over hashtag strategy then you ain't in
the Instagram game at all.
No matter how much you want to gamify it, you need a solid hashtag strategy.
Getting to the popular page of a hashtag is probably the Instagram equivalent of 'going
viral'.
So before you try and 'go viral' you might want to have a really great hashtag strategy
in place otherwise chances are you're going to go to the popular page of a hashtag that's
probably got very little to do with you or is very very broad and the type of follower
that follows you out of it, isn't going to be a very qualified follower and this is also
why your hashtag strategy needs to be on point.
So my third reason as to why Instagram pods suck is because it's gamifying the system
and it takes the fun out of the platform for most of us.
Let me just say that gamifying any platform rarely results in anything good.
My fourth point and possibly one of my most favourite points is that Instagram pods relies
on people being reliable and people notoriously aren't reliable.
I do this kind of work for a living, right?
And it's hard enough being paid to be reliable for a client day in and day out and that's
just some hard truths.
So what makes you think that some random, just because they're in your niche is going
to be reliable longer than 3.5 days before they bow out or you never hear from them again.
They're not being paid to be there for you and in fact, if anything remotely more important
comes up like I don't know, their dog gets sick or they have a coffee date with a friend
- they're not gonna care that you posted and I would argue that you're wasting your time
expecting people to be reliable for you when the reality is, is that although you think
that there's a value exchange, there's actually not a value exchange because if they valued
Instagram and the platform they would be investing their time in creating consistent content
and being reliable for their audience in the first place.
Aka, they wouldn't need you to do in their Instagram pod to do their dirty work.
And my fifth reason why Instagram pods suck is much along the lines of the last one, it's
consistency.
I'm just going to give you a hard truth about the human race and the human condition.
Most people suck at consistency.
It's just a reality.
Again, this is my job, to be consistent for other people because one, they don't have
the time and I get that but two, because being consistent is hard.
It's hard.
It's never been easy.
You watch any content creator on YouTube or Instagram or any other platform and they will
preach that consistency is one of the winning factors that have driven success for them
because it's just the truth.
Any my final point about why Instagram pods suck is that quality is a legitimate thing
on Instagram.
ie - when you go to a hashtag and the popular posts page you will see that the content that
most often finds its way there is high quality and high value and I would argue that if you're
not already putting that content out then you should not be investing your time in being
in an Instagram pod and putting all that extra time into making high quality content for
the platform.
I guarantee you that if you invest in your hashtag strategy and you invest in high quality
content you are going to do 1000x better than investing time into an Instagram pod in fact,
that's going to take up way more of your time than sitting down, coming up with some kind
of a process and some kind of content plan for Instagram and just investing some hardcore
time in making sure you get it done and that' it's consistent and that you're engaging with
your own community.
I just feel like, don't waste your time kissing other people's butts.
Like their content if it's good but don't sit around and gamify Instagram, it's a waste
of time.
I guarantee you in a few days or a couple of weeks that little pod will have forgotten
their duty to you and it's not actually going to make a difference anyway.
I have way more than 10-15 people who consistently like my content and yes it's anecdotal but
I'd argue that it doesn't necessarily make a difference as to whether I get to a popular
post page or not.
What it does mean, is that I have a loyal community because I've spent time there and
I've built that and when I ask a question, they answer and when they talk to me, I respond
and they know that I will respond and I would petition you to spend the time there and do
the same and that that's going to drive far more value for you and your audience in the
long run than to invest your time in other people's content.
This has been brought to you by Sarah Moore ranting.
Geez, 18 minutes.
Need some heavy editing on that one.
We need to have a serious chat about Instagram pods.
Out of my space, girl.
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