How I Got 13,000 Instagram Followers in One Month We go inside the strange, disturbingly popular world of 'engagement groups.'
By Jason Feifer
Many have had this experience: You see someone with a lot of Instagram followers and wonder, How are they possibly this popular?
The answer, at least according to ecommerce expert Trevor Chapman: They're not. They're using engagement groups.
These groups (also called pods) are coordinated, often automated clusters of people who work together to trick Instagram's algorithm. When they do, they boost the visibility of people's posts -- increasing the likelihood of it being seen, liked and leading to a follow.
Related: 10 Instagram Tools to Help You Build Your Following in 2018
How does it work? That's what BIZ Experiences Editor in Chief Jason Feifer wanted to understand. Watch as Feifer and Chapman sit down and run a live experience with Feifer's own Instagram handle, and then grapple with a difficult question: When popularity on social media can be manipulated, does quality ever really matter?
Full disclosure: Chapman has a financial relationship with a company that runs Instagram engagement programs. The company is not mentioned in the video.
