Northern Girl on... Instagram Pods
It seems the whole blogosphere is whispering about Instagram pods and "beating the algorithm" but as a new blogger I wanted to share my honest opinion on them.
What is an Instagram pod and how do they work?
It's basically a lovely little bubble of fellow bloggers all in a group message on Instagram who will share a post when they've uploaded a new one to the group and each individual in the group will go onto their feed to find said post and like and comment. There are some rules such as the comments where possible must be a minimum of 4 words and not just be generic, some pods also introduce rules such as a maximum upload of 2 posts per day etc. but that depends solely on the person who has set up the pod and the rules they gave at the start.
Correct me if I'm wrong but in doing this, the post is bumped up in people's news feed as it looks as if there's a bit of hype and frenzy about it which Instagram LOVE and the post gets seen more easily.
Sounds great right?
For me, i'm going to say no.
I will reiterate again that this post is my own opinion. I am in no way slating Instagram pods on their own as there are things I like. Where I'm struggling is more a reflection of my own life individually and is no way aimed at all bloggers in general.
See, I work full time; in central London. I leave my flat at 7am and I return at 6pm. My journey requires using the LU ergo - no mobile signal except for the 10 second stops at each station where I may very luckily pick up WiFi. My boyfriend works shifts so when I get home if he's home we will do things together. We will go grocery shopping, we will go to the driving range, we will go out for dinner, we will stay in and cook dinner, we will go for a run or we might even snuggle up on the sofa to watch Gilmore Girls. Then I will shower, and I will go to bed and I will do it all over again.
Now how many times during that did I mention that I looked on Instagram.
Oh I didn't? How funny. Do you see where this is going?
Now I love discovering new feeds be it on Bloglovin', Twitter or Instagram. Those promo tweets people put out asking to be Instagram friends? 9 out of 10 times I'll follow. So the idea of discovering new people in a pod was super duper exciting and I have to say I love my Instagram feed all the more for it. However, I do this in my own time and at my own pace. I will hold my hands up now and say I am struggling, I am drowning in notifications of posts that I need to catch up on. I did not expect it to be this hard.
But that's only one part of the problem because I try my hardest to catch up I really do. However I am also struggling with what some people are posting. I am very aware that I am a new blogger, my instagram is not exclusively about my blog, nor is my twitter and maybe this will change in the future I'm not sure. So for me personally, I would never expect my instagram pod to comment on a selfie that is in no way relevant to my blog. I will only share with my pod the posts that I link to blog posts that I want to promote and given that I only post once a week at best, this isn't that frequent. Unfortunatley not everyone does this and I get that this is what works for them BUT it makes me physically cringe if I have to put " Oh my god you're so pretty" on your third selfie of the day.
I am not a beauty blogger and I am not a fashion blogger. I do not follow the latest trends religiously and I do not burn out my bank account on morphe pallets and embroidered bomber jackets. I would much rather go out and buy some new running shoes or a golf club. That's not to say I don't love your morphe pallet/jacket/jeffree star liquid lip. I do, and when you put your post on about these I will genuinely be intrigued, where did you get it? What did you think? and my comments will reflect that. I have no issue in doing that because it is genuine. However, there are only so many times a day I can say how amazing that cranberry colour is in your pallet and how pretty I think your new Topshop boots are - FYI when I say there are only so many times I mean once. It's because of this I feel like I would rather not leave any comment than a horrible, cringy, in-genuine one but I will still like your post because I still want you on my feed. This means I'm breaking the rules, and not to sound like a spoilt child, I don't care. Sorry not sorry.
I know that blog traffic is all about promotion, promotion, promotion. I'm not an idiot and if you share a similar ootd/make up post a week later on your Instagram, I'm ok with that, I'll still comment becuase I'm probably still lusting after your boots a week later and I'll tell you that but I'll probably get sick of them after seeing them 3 times a day for a week. Makes sense?
Maybe I'm not doing it right or maybe now's not the time for me to be in an Instagram pod (I'm probably going to get kicked out of the two I'm in when people read this).
What are your thoughts on them? Do you love or hate? Let me know what you think.
Ng x
*This was in no mean aimed at any individuals and is not intended to cause offence
What is an Instagram pod and how do they work?
It's basically a lovely little bubble of fellow bloggers all in a group message on Instagram who will share a post when they've uploaded a new one to the group and each individual in the group will go onto their feed to find said post and like and comment. There are some rules such as the comments where possible must be a minimum of 4 words and not just be generic, some pods also introduce rules such as a maximum upload of 2 posts per day etc. but that depends solely on the person who has set up the pod and the rules they gave at the start.
Correct me if I'm wrong but in doing this, the post is bumped up in people's news feed as it looks as if there's a bit of hype and frenzy about it which Instagram LOVE and the post gets seen more easily.
Sounds great right?
For me, i'm going to say no.
I will reiterate again that this post is my own opinion. I am in no way slating Instagram pods on their own as there are things I like. Where I'm struggling is more a reflection of my own life individually and is no way aimed at all bloggers in general.
(my Instagram feed @chlorebecca. It's an ode to me and my life, a little bit of blog and a little bit of life.)
See, I work full time; in central London. I leave my flat at 7am and I return at 6pm. My journey requires using the LU ergo - no mobile signal except for the 10 second stops at each station where I may very luckily pick up WiFi. My boyfriend works shifts so when I get home if he's home we will do things together. We will go grocery shopping, we will go to the driving range, we will go out for dinner, we will stay in and cook dinner, we will go for a run or we might even snuggle up on the sofa to watch Gilmore Girls. Then I will shower, and I will go to bed and I will do it all over again.
Now how many times during that did I mention that I looked on Instagram.
Oh I didn't? How funny. Do you see where this is going?
Now I love discovering new feeds be it on Bloglovin', Twitter or Instagram. Those promo tweets people put out asking to be Instagram friends? 9 out of 10 times I'll follow. So the idea of discovering new people in a pod was super duper exciting and I have to say I love my Instagram feed all the more for it. However, I do this in my own time and at my own pace. I will hold my hands up now and say I am struggling, I am drowning in notifications of posts that I need to catch up on. I did not expect it to be this hard.
But that's only one part of the problem because I try my hardest to catch up I really do. However I am also struggling with what some people are posting. I am very aware that I am a new blogger, my instagram is not exclusively about my blog, nor is my twitter and maybe this will change in the future I'm not sure. So for me personally, I would never expect my instagram pod to comment on a selfie that is in no way relevant to my blog. I will only share with my pod the posts that I link to blog posts that I want to promote and given that I only post once a week at best, this isn't that frequent. Unfortunatley not everyone does this and I get that this is what works for them BUT it makes me physically cringe if I have to put " Oh my god you're so pretty" on your third selfie of the day.
I am not a beauty blogger and I am not a fashion blogger. I do not follow the latest trends religiously and I do not burn out my bank account on morphe pallets and embroidered bomber jackets. I would much rather go out and buy some new running shoes or a golf club. That's not to say I don't love your morphe pallet/jacket/jeffree star liquid lip. I do, and when you put your post on about these I will genuinely be intrigued, where did you get it? What did you think? and my comments will reflect that. I have no issue in doing that because it is genuine. However, there are only so many times a day I can say how amazing that cranberry colour is in your pallet and how pretty I think your new Topshop boots are - FYI when I say there are only so many times I mean once. It's because of this I feel like I would rather not leave any comment than a horrible, cringy, in-genuine one but I will still like your post because I still want you on my feed. This means I'm breaking the rules, and not to sound like a spoilt child, I don't care. Sorry not sorry.
I know that blog traffic is all about promotion, promotion, promotion. I'm not an idiot and if you share a similar ootd/make up post a week later on your Instagram, I'm ok with that, I'll still comment becuase I'm probably still lusting after your boots a week later and I'll tell you that but I'll probably get sick of them after seeing them 3 times a day for a week. Makes sense?
Maybe I'm not doing it right or maybe now's not the time for me to be in an Instagram pod (I'm probably going to get kicked out of the two I'm in when people read this).
What are your thoughts on them? Do you love or hate? Let me know what you think.
Ng x
*This was in no mean aimed at any individuals and is not intended to cause offence
I definitely agree with you! I struggle so much to keep up! The pods can have 15 people in and I'm apart of 6, they are constantly being spammed with peoples new photos and some people post more than twice a day, I can't keep up, the only reason I haven't left is I love the support you get and everyone really does try and like/comment. I feel like I'm letting people down and I try to catch up when I get a moment, I like the idea but I'd prefer to be in smaller groups maybe, It's really improved how many likes and comments I'm getting though! xo
ReplyDeleteI'm never 100% sure on instagram pods, I mean surely if they're full of like minded individuals helping one another out then I can't see them as been a bad thing. I know I would struggle if I was to have to comment on pictures that I had zero interest in. I can't see it beating the algorithm or anything like that but if it build a little community then I'm ok with it.
ReplyDeleteMichelle
www.wanderingcuriosities.com