4 ms·
I used to know a few influencers. I still do. I was part of that culture since I was a photographer and cared about my social media clout. This was 3-4 years ag
by meowzero 5y ago
I used to know a few influencers. I still do. I was part of that culture since I was a photographer and cared about my social media clout. This was 3-4 years ago, when IG used to rule, instead of Tiktok. I don't know if things changed since then.
Most of these influencers looked miserable. It seemed like they were having the best times in various exotic locations. In reality, they were all broke. They barely scratched by staying at the cheapest places, eating cheapest foods, etc. They're stressed out trying to get content and followers
They're fake as well. I took some photos of one influencer in the my studio. She posted the photos few weeks later with the location tagged as Bali, NYC, etc. I thought that was funny.
Another, I mentioned to her that I noticed she's using comment pods due to the way some people commented on her posts. I wasn't accusing her, only stated a fact I noticed. She got embarrassed, denied, and acted like she didn't know what a comment pod was. I pushed it a bit more and she relented she was using pods. Why so fake?
I'm glad I'm out of that world. It adds too much stress in your life to produce content, find followers, and to create world where you seem cool and popular when you're not.
- dash2 5y agoWhat's a comment pod?
- rictic 5y ago> An engagement pod is a group (or ‘pod’) of Instagram users who band together to help increase engagement on each other’s content. This can be done through likes, comments, or follows.
- Invictus0 5y agoYou would think it would be trivial for an enterprising network scientist at these social media companies to identify these pods.
- acoard 5y agoI know of at least one person/group that does that here on HN, or at least did ~3-5 years ago. Honestly, there's no incentive to stop this type of work. IG wants engagement; comment pods are peak engagement, you've programmed yourself to beat the machine.
- kjkjadksj 5y agoThere would be no point. Big brands use these techniques and they are the clients for these social media companies.
- meowzero 5y agoI would say most people with a lot of comments are using pods already. If you've used pods, you'll immediately know if most of the comments come from pods. Also, I highly doubt any engagement on social media is genuine. Some people go through random profiles and mass like, comment, follow them hoping for reciprocity. There are bots that do that for your from your account. IG frowns upon that. But some bots have gotten sophisticated enough to randomize their likes/comments/etc to look more human. It's all a big game.
- arolihas 5y agoPods don’t really hurt social media companies though.
- lubujackson 5y agoOh, noble web ring, may you continue your life in the shadows.
- psychomugs 5y agoMy follower count doubled in the few months when I was heavily involved with a photography collective with a pretty sizable following. Obviously being attached to the collective's brand helped, but the organic engagement we had with each other was likely a key contributing factor to my personal account's "organic growth." To do this intentionally with these latent motives strikes me with the same sadness as a distant relative's pyramid scheme sales pitch, or someone pulling the slot arm "just one more time."
- SamBam 5y agoA group of people who all agree to like and engage with each other's posts, to try and drive up everyone's clout.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]