Comment pods.
Social media dandruff.
Your very own locust plague on Instagram.
If you’re not familiar with these, consider yourself lucky.
If you’ve been dragged into one of these horrendous self-congratulating wormholes, then you know exactly what I’m about to rant about.
Cutting to the chase.
Comment pods suck.
They suck more than your Miele vacuum cleaner, they blow harder than a Dyson hand dryer.
I can hear the whining already…..”But…but…I built my personal brand using comment pods and now I get a heap of free shit from brands” …
*Slow clap* … you made it. They will be giving out Logies very soon.
I’m not even suggesting they don’t work.
They work the way they are intended right?
Drive up fake engagement,.
Manipulate the metrics, and create a facade that the person actually has a community that gives an arse about who they are. So amazing.
Hell, with some growth, you may end up in 10 comment pods with even fancier influencers who are harvesting hundreds of comments through a process like this.
You’re gonna need an offshore VA to keep up with all the comments.
Ohhh, you might end up on MAFS! Goals babes. Goals.
I know all about the comment pods, because I’ve been on the other side.
I managed social stars, before I managed brands.
One of the perks of that is being invited into these comment swapping hell holes.
There’s only so many ads about fake tan that I have time to appreciate….that number is zero.
Fake engagement. Fake Metrics. Fake Value.
Participating in Instagram comment pods might give engagement metrics a boost, but they don’t equal to sales.
They don’t even equal authentic reach – It’s the same 100 people that commented some mundane shit on the last post.
Influencers will say anything to justify these pods too. I’ve heard it all before.
“We’re a community that supports each other”….” We care about each other’s posts”….. they’ll chant, conveniently omitting the fact that this support is transactional, revolving around reciprocal comments rather than a sincere appreciation for content.
They get so many brand deals though. Why?
For every social media manager who does their due diligence, there are 100 who don’t.
And look, if the content is genuinely GREAT, eventually an influencer will grow on their own, without the need for deadhead comments.
The comment pod is there to make them feel good in the interim.
Then there’s the budget.
Some brands have a nice fat marketing budget, so a few misses aren’t going to break the bank.
For some social media managers, it’s not even worth the time trawling through engagement to spot the same freaking “Woohoo love it”…. “omg slay queen” comments on every post.
It’s a numbers game at times, and I wish it wasn’t.
There are other times when it’s more about being able to re-use the content for the brand’s channels than it is building any brand awareness or sales.
If the content is good, but the comments are from pods….doesn’t make a great pitch to charge big fees to reuse content. That’s a shot to the foot, isn’t it?
It’s the ultimate Instagram paradox
Have you ever seen those comments that make you question whether people are real? “Nice one! 🔥” or “Great shot! 💯”…….. It’s not engagement.
Bots, and bloody comment pods.
It’s a mindless ritual that adds about as much value as an inflatable pool in a tsunami.
Everyone’s talking, but is anyone actually saying anything?
Finding the right influencers.
Get yourself an influencer that has some real engagement, and isn’t afraid to show you some real metrics.
If you’ve got a massive budget, fine, throw money at the wall and hopefully half of it sticks.
Personally, I can’t sleep at night being that wasteful.
I have a huge respect for influencers who reply to comments too, and really get in there and have some one one-on-one time with their audience.
You are never too good for the crowd who put you on that pedestal, and you never know when you might launch your own product. That communication PAYS.
That’s the kind of vibe I’m looking for when we have paid collabs available, that’s the kind of thing I advocate for when someone asks me about engaging an influencer.
The end.
P.S. Comment pods suck.