Instagram engagement groups also known as engagement pods or direct message (DM) groups are one of the most essential ingredients in the Instagram viral growth recipe. If you don’t have a lot of money to spend on shout-outs or power-likes these groups are a Godsend.
An engagement group is a group consisting of several accounts that like and engage in each other’s post to outwit the algorithm. It’s the Instagram equivalent of
“I scratch your back, you scratch mine”
Each account comments on several posts within the group before dropping their own content to be engaged upon. These posts are dropped within the direct message hence the name (DM) group.
If you are not up to date on how the Instagram algorithm works I suggest you read this detailed breakdown.
The Instagram algorithm gauges the quality of a post based on its initial engagement usually within the first hour or so of posting. If a post is seen as being valuable, it is then promoted further along the platform.
Engagement groups allow you to have several comments bombard your post as soon as you upload, increasing the probability of your post being promoted to the explore feed.
The hidden benefit of engagement groups
There is a hidden benefit of engagement groups that most people are not aware of. This benefit is best explained through an example.
Imagine you upload a picture of your cat Scruffles onto your Instagram profile, and Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner comment on the picture. Now you might have previously struggled to get 40 likes on pictures of your fat cat, however, after the comments you gain over 10,000 likes and a whole bunch of new followers.
The reason your engagement exploded on the picture is because it was touched by Instagram super influencers! Everything they touch turns to gold, Instagram will promote your post to a fraction of the influencer’s audience through the feed.
Instagram’s rationale for doing this is: if an influencer comments on a certain picture, chances are that their audience would also be interested in engaging with that content.
Now since these influencers have millions of followers, your post being exposed to a fraction of their audience will still yield incredible engagement.
Sadly, you won’t get any super influencers in engagement groups, they don’t need help to boost their engagement, however, the joint contribution of a few big authority accounts could create a similar effect.
Instead of having Kim Kardashian turn your post into gold, you could leverage 32 big accounts all with over 100k followers to comment on your post. This can be done easily if you are part of the right engagement groups.
How to join engagement groups
Finding people that are participating in engagement groups is easy. I recommend that you turn on your post notifications on a big account within your niche. When you receive the notification that they have posted, check out the post and pay attention to the first few accounts that leave comments. If the same accounts are consistently leaving comments on the account’s posts, there is a high chance that these accounts are in an engagement group.
You will then proceed to DM each account and ask if you could join their group. Things have changed over the years and it’s becoming more difficult to join engagement groups. Many of the people you ask will not reply, a few of them will play dumb and pretend that they are not in any groups. Some will say no, many will try to charge you.
It’s ultimately a numbers game if you keep asking around you will eventually be accepted, don’t lose hope and keep persisting. The benefits of the groups are tremendous and even being a member of just one could create a profound difference in your engagement.
Some advice about joining engagement groups
To increase your chances of joining engagement groups, I suggest that you start small. People generally will not accept accounts that are significantly smaller than theirs into engagement groups. For instance, if you have an account with 4000 followers, there is a low chance that you will get accepted into a 100k+ engagement group. Your small account will provide little value to these bigger accounts and as a result, you will be a leech.
You will have the most success when you ask accounts within a 10-20k follower range of your account. As you gain followers you will gain more leverage, for example, a 100k account could get into a DM group full of accounts that have 500k+ followers. Start small and work your way up the ladder.
As I mentioned before some accounts will try to charge you for entry into DM groups, I heavily suggest you don’t pay these accounts as there is a high chance of you getting scammed. The worst-case scenario is that you pay the money and the account doesn’t add you into any groups. At best they will add you into a group full of dead inactive accounts. They might also add you into a ‘diluted group’, a group with many smaller accounts.
Chances are that the person has also scammed a few other people and added their small accounts into the DM group. The problem with Instagram as of 2018 is that anyone within a group can add anyone to the group. Group creators ultimately have no power within the group after its inception. There are no measures to stop scammers within these groups from pretending that they own the group and charging you for entry. To make things worse, many of the bigger accounts within the group might choose to not engage with your content, after you paid! Remember they will see you as a leech…
If possible, I recommend you join groups within your niche. Having accounts that have followers with similar interests in your content comment on your posts will convert better than having accounts that are not related. For some niches it can be difficult, however, the advantage becomes substantial when you are in several groups that are dedicated to your niche.
Other places to find engagement groups
If you are having trouble finding engagement groups, you can also join FB Instagram groups or telegram groups. Each of these platforms has a huge range of people who are willing to engage with you if you engage with them! There a number of forums that constantly have groups forming. Keep an open eye and you will find no shortage of opportunities.
Boss mode, how to make your own group
Sometimes you just want to be the boss and take matters into your own hands. In this case, I suggest creating your own groups. Although the process might take longer as you will have to recruit several accounts by manually direct messaging them, the end outcome can be incredible.
Creating your own group gives you leveraging room. If you have a 3000-follower account and you manage to gather several 50k follower accounts. They will happily engage with your content as you would have provided value for them by adding them into the group. Most people will respect you for that, and it can become a shortcut to rapid Instagram growth.
When making your own group, just ensure that the accounts you are adding are active and are not lechers. Also, ensure that everyone agrees to the rules and will follow them before granting them access to the group.
I advise that you make as many groups as you can, it is a good way to build your name on Instagram and to network with other accounts. As the group admin, many accounts will be more open to talking with you and exchange information about what is working for them and what isn’t.
Instagram is a social network my friends, it’s time to get social!
