A few weeks ago a friend told me that a friend "to receive a lot more like, like real, on Instagram, he did add a WhatsApp group in which all participants are required to set like and / or write a comment every time someone posts a picture. "

He told me just as scartabellavo Instagram, at that moment when my 15 seconds of attention to our previous conversation had already vanished.
Still, this news has caused me immediately from a certain lethargy and led to think that maybe Darwin meant just that for 'evolution', and that I should investigate the matter-because on Instagram we spend a lot of time, and probably you.
These groups do exist, not only of WhatsApp, but also Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and on the same-or better, the inbox of Instagram.
They are called "Instagram Pods", "Engagement group", or defined more unofficial groups of "dumb-aid" or "self-help."
Their slow expansion can be traced conventionally last March, when Instagram announced that "to enhance your experience, your feed will soon be ordered in order to show you the first moments in which we believe you to hold more."
Some Instagram pod that are on Facebook.
All this means that in recent months we have ceased to see posts from the people that we follow in chronological order, and started to do so according to our interests and especially the visibility that these posts can get in the short term (it seems within the first five minutes the publication).
That's why if you follow Chiara Ferragni and your ex, almost always see them before your former classmates as you well forget the name.
"The Instagram pod are the evolution dell'hastag #likeforlike and were born in an attempt to escape from this new form of classification for relevant content on Instagram," he explains Joseph Colaneri, social media marketer.
"Gradually, then, have become more and more sector: first started to get each other like those who work in social media marketing, then the blogger, the make-up artist and so on.
At least until it became a bit 'a whorehouse, because people [also with their own personal profiles] started to put like anyone. "
Joseph is one of the authors of the various guides -in this case in Italian -on Instagram pod that are found around the web.
She explains that they are closed groups with often very strict rules, can consist of thousands of people, and to access it you must receive an invitation or to register.
To try to understand how they work, because no one ever invited me, I try to send my application in the different groups-almost always in English-language that can be found on Facebook.
I have to give the name of my Instagram account and above all begin to follow the Pod administrators.
I annoy me, but what can I do.
The registration request.
A few days later, I get a notification: I was accepted into a group-and I already feel a bit 'more influencer.
The group is quite small, with just over a thousand participants, and bio reads: "Welcome!
This is a group to increase the engagement of your Instagram, the number of followers and likes!
[...] Your profile Instagram must be public and must follow guidelines to participate.
[...] This is to keep you and our members to secure and ensure a positive experience and quality.
"I do not know what I should be protected, but when he appears before me the first thread that I can join, I understand that the answer might be myself.
1.
COMMENTS LIKE PUT and to all the images before posting yours.
2.
Post your image to Instagram in the comments (just with the link and without preview).
3.
Put like with every comment in this thread.
4.
Put like status when finished.
5.
If you do not participate at least once a week to a thread you will be removed from this group - Thanks.
"As you can see the pod problem is that it is not automatic, because it has to happen that actually have people come to your profile and go to put like, and is not as trivial," continued Colaneri.
"Obviously the more the group is small, the more niche and more guarantees of certain like.
Let's say, however, attend assiduously to Instagram pod can take you also receive a variable like number between several hundred and a few thousand. "Not bad.
But what would drive people to abide by rules of this type?
On a purely pragmatic level, beyond the fact of wanting to cheat the new algorithm, the reasons would be at least three.
First, the fact that now you can see immediately if you use bots that make you earn more or less like in a fake stone.
Ever noticed, for example, after receiving 600 like in a minute and for the majority of profiles with a nickname like @ ororr2016, no photo and no profile post?
Then accordingly, the fact that, like getting from real profiles in the short term, even those who want to get a little 'fleas must surrender to the evidence that you have not bought anything.
Finally, the question "gain" in terms of visibility and in the strictest sense-but on this we come back later.
However, in the following days I am accepted in other Instagram pod on Facebook.
Many people always ask exchanging likes and comments, or you notice the creation of specific groups of mostly-Telegram that much faster.
The question that upsets me most is the following: all human interactions are reduced to a minimum, as if all were, in fact, of the bots with a very specific purpose for which to strive in the shortest possible time.
Colaneri specifies me that "Italy is a phenomenon that is expanding now" -and the various participants in the groups are actually the most diverse nationalities-so I decided to contact all the Italian States where I run.
It is not easy: the dozens of people who write me it seems that nobody wants to answer.
"JOIN OUR GROUP ON TELEGRAM!"
At least until I find Antonio, an influencer to 181k followers.
"I found the Instagram pod when I saw under the posts from people you follow a lot, and many like there were many comments, almost foolish, and a friend told me where they came from," he says.
"I think in many prefer not to answer it with their Instagram profile we will work and will not want to talk about these comments, that as real, they are fake.
In the sense: maybe sponsor a product, users put like and comment asking for information about it, but then I'm not really interested. "For this reason and for the fact that you" take away a lot of time, depending on how many reactions would like to receive, "Antonio tells me that his experience is very little time and it came out.
Another user has to answer Stephen, 4K.
For his part, he explains to be entered in the pod to see other profiles similar to his, not to have an interest in becoming an influencer, and that for him Instagram is fun.
"When [the Instagram pod] do not take me a long time, an hour a week, but this is a time when I am not a frequent visitor," he says.
As noted by attending these groups, however, everything is different in the case of those who have tens of thousands of followers, "because the more the higher your engagement, more companies, stores, the press offices will contact you to post a photo of Instagram-and obviously not for charity. "
Arrived at this point, it seems to be no doubt: as i pod for those who are born with Instagram "work there", there is as much people for their own personal gain is a bit 'the same.
And, actually, leafing between the groups that I have fallen into my hands seems that this category is much larger.
Finally, to answer there is also Federica almost 5k, with a passion for photography-and probably on the border between the two categories above.
"I personally have found the pod very useful to raise the profile of my photographs, because I grow this business for many years and Instagram is a good tool to give visibility to some of my work and I advertise," he admits.
"The fact remains that like all tools, it is very powerful, but if used with excess becomes an instrument of destruction rather than creation."
Despite subscribes that excesses always lead to quarrels, it seems to me that the phenomenon itself is nothing so shocking.
Since there Instagram a bit 'all have tried tricks like that.
And that's okay.
So even if everything seems ethically not always very correct, "in the pod are the platform level, at least until Facebook probably will drop the ax," I Colaneri says.
In all this, at the end of Colaneri confess to having participated myself in a thread to experience the thrill (and investigate thoroughly, of course), but gaining only twenty, and like many rambling comments.
"Eh, but that really depends on what kind of person you are," he says.
I wanted to ask, "How?".
But I did it.

From Vice