How Instagrammers Are Trying To Game The App’s Algorithm

The first five minutes are the most crucial. They can make or break you. Every double-tap, every comment, every DM in these first few minutes determines the fate of your post. Or at least that’s what the Instagrammers say. To get engagement in those first five minutes, you need people mobilized to respond to your content. You need, in other words, fans: people who pay such close attention to what you post and when you post it that they’re ready to comment the second you put something up. But for a young blogger, finding fans is the hardest part — unless, of course, she fakes it. That’s where Instagram pods come in. An Instagram pod is a group of (hopefully) like-minded creators who agree to comment on and like one another’s work in the hopes of boosting its visibility. Right now, Instagram pods are still underground. “I don’t think it’s that widespread,” Amanda Schulze, the founder of the Be.Well group, which focuses on health, wellness, skincare, and nutrition, says. But pods are certainly growing. Amanda’s group has almost 100 people in it, split into six groups that function as pods or squads. “I’m really passionate about women entrepreneurs and community and connecting people,” she says. “I realized I’d love to do that for a space I’m also really passionate about.” Bloggers who focus on fashion, for instance, might join a comment pod based on a style, or a particular brand, or simply on a color that permeates their content. Inside Facebook groups, text chains, and Instagram DMs, Instagram users are trying to game the algorithm to get views, and along the way they’re creating communities reminiscent of the early days of blogging. Read more at Racked.