Do LinkedIn Pods Work? (Or Are They Principally Embarrassing?)

This previous November, I made a decision to do an experiment. I wished to see if LinkedIn pods really labored or in the event that they had been only a waste of time.

For these of you who don’t know what a LinkedIn pod is, it’s mainly a bunch of people that agree to love, remark and interact with one another’s posts. The speculation is that by doing this, your content material shall be boosted by the LinkedIn algorithm. So, I made a decision to hitch a couple of pods and check it out for myself.

I’m not essentially a longtime LinkedIn thought chief with hundreds of followers, however I publish about my writing work on a reasonably common foundation and have even gotten a couple of purchasers by LinkedIn. So a couple of extra followers and engagements with my posts undoubtedly wouldn’t harm.

Right here’s what I realized from my expertise with LinkedIn pods.

• Amplify the attain of your content material
• Allow you to get extra engagement in your content material (likes, feedback, shares)
• Provide prolonged networking alternatives
• Interact staff to assist your model

The speculation is that LinkedIn favors posts with extra engagement, so if you may get extra likes and feedback, your publish will carry out higher.

That is particularly necessary as a result of the LinkedIn algorithm divides content material on the platform into three sorts:

1. Spam: Posts with unhealthy grammar, too many hashtags, or accounts that publish too regularly could also be marked as spam.
2. Low-quality posts: Posts that don’t observe greatest practices, or don’t get sufficient engagement, shall be labeled “low-quality.”
3. Excessive-quality posts: Posts which are straightforward to learn, encourage questions, and incorporate robust key phrases shall be labeled high-quality and, due to this fact, shall be proven to extra customers on LinkedIn.

The query is: is engagement sufficient to make a publish “high-quality” within the eyes of the LinkedIn algorithm? I got down to put this concept to the take a look at.

Methods to be part of a LinkedIn pod

There are a few alternative ways to hitch a LinkedIn engagement pod.

First, you can begin your personal pod by creating a bunch message thread with LinkedIn customers you’d prefer to pod with. We’ll name this a handbook LinkedIn pod.

Second, you should use LinkedIn-specific pods, the place you be part of LinkedIn teams centered on creating pods. Search “LinkedIn pods” or “engagement pods” in your LinkedIn search bar and see which of them relate to your business.

There are additionally third-party apps like lempod particularly constructed for automating LinkedIn engagement pods.

Lastly, LinkedIn pod teams exist on different social media websites. There’s the LinkedIn Progress Hackers pod on Fb and varied different pods on platforms like Telegram.

Methodology

I experimented with all 4 kinds of engagement pods to see which of them labored greatest. I used a distinct LinkedIn publish for every methodology in order that I may precisely monitor any variations in engagement throughout strategies.

Right here’s a breakdown of that course of.

Handbook pods: I used a weblog publish on scheduling Instagram reels.

Earlier than the experiment began, I had 12 likes, 487 impressions, 0 shares, and a pair of feedback.

LinkedIn-specific pods: For this methodology, I used a weblog publish I’d shared on recession advertising.

Earlier than the experiment began, I had 5 likes, 189 impressions, 1 share, and a pair of feedback.

Automated LinkedIn pods: I used a publish I wrote for Hootsuite on social media share of voice.

Earlier than the experiment began, I had 2 likes, 191 impressions, 0 shares, and 0 feedback.

Cross-platform LinkedIn pods:

I used to be not capable of be part of any cross-platform pods, so no posts had been used right here.

Handbook LinkedIn pod methodology

I began off by making a handbook LinkedIn pod of my very own. I selected a small group of my author associates (as a result of they perceive the analysis course of) to pod up with. I despatched them a fast message outlining the technique and inspired them to work together with one another.

Fortunately, they’re all good sports activities, and I instantly began receiving a barrage of LinkedIn notifications displaying the assist of my buddies.

I additionally instantly observed some new (stranger) accounts creeping my LinkedIn profile.

And I even received this message from a random “LinkedIn” worker (fairly sure this was spam).

That each one occurred in simply a few hours!

LinkedIn-specific pod methodology

I additionally joined a couple of LinkedIn group pods centered on digital advertising and social media.

The variety of members actually different in these teams. One had over 1,000,000 members, on the others had just some dozen. I selected a combination of high-member pods in addition to a couple of smaller ones. If vainness metrics have taught me something, it’s that simply because lots of people are in your circle, it doesn’t imply they’re really paying consideration.

A number of the pods I discovered in my search had been described as inactive, so I stayed away from these.

Of all of the teams I joined, Sport of Content material was the one one which appeared to have common posts from different customers.

The foundations of GoC had been fairly easy:

There is just one publish ever current within the group, and it’s made by an admin. They repopulate this publish each couple of days so it stays related. Group members can then touch upon the publish with their LinkedIn publish hyperlink and different members are supposed to have interaction with them.

As I went by the weekday publish feedback, I did see plenty of folks replying to feedback with phrases like, “Completed! Right here’s my hyperlink.”

Once I clicked by to their posts, I may see likes and feedback from those self same group members.

So, yeah, this was working. At the very least when it comes to garnering extra likes and feedback.

I went in and adopted go well with, participating with posted hyperlinks and commenting with my very own hyperlink after I used to be finished.

And I slowly began to see engagement reciprocated alone posts.

Automated LinkedIn pods with lempod methodology

I additionally put in the lempod extension on my Google Chrome browser. lempod provides a digital market filled with LinkedIn engagement pods you’ll be able to be part of.

I joined a couple of pods centered on digital advertising and social media.

The primary one I used to be accepted to was known as “Content material + Social Media Advertising pod”. That appeared related.

I instantly posted the hyperlink to my publish. As soon as I shared the hyperlink, the display screen opened as much as a giant graph, with a listing of individuals “Members who will have interaction” and “Members who’ve already engaged.”

I cross-checked the “Members who’ve already engaged” tab with my precise publish.

And, yep. Certain sufficient, these customers had been now proven as new likes on my publish.

Inside just some minutes, my impressions had grown from 191 to 206. I additionally had six new feedback. I watched this quantity steadily climb over the following hour.

Whereas I used to be seeing plenty of engagement, I wasn’t seeing any profile views, direct messages, or anything that may point out these customers had been really fascinated by my work.

To not point out, the engagement was coming in quick. Each 45 seconds there was one other notification! Possibly LinkedIn would take into account my publish viral? Or, perhaps it might get labeled as spam.

I let the automation run till I noticed that each member of the pod had engaged.

Two hours later, I had 54 likes, 261 impressions and 24 feedback!

Cross-platform LinkedIn pods

I did strive becoming a member of the “LinkedIn Progress Hackers” group on Fb, however I used to be by no means authorised. It appears this group could also be inactive now. I didn’t discover every other energetic LinkedIn pods to hitch on different channels.

Outcomes

TL;DR: At first look, it could seem like the Automated LinkedIn pod was the simplest pod, however I really assume it was the Handbook pod for causes that I’ll clarify beneath. Both method, not one of the LinkedIn pods actually made a giant distinction for me or helped develop my presence on the platform considerably.

Maintain studying for extra particulars and context on these outcomes.

Handbook pods

This appeared like essentially the most natural, most constant methodology. As a result of I used to be leveraging folks I already knew, the feedback had been genuine, related, and honest.

To not point out, these individuals are really in my business–that means if my posts present up of their feeds to their connections, it would assist me community additional.

Nothing about this methodology got here off as spammy, although I don’t know the way practical it’s to ask my associates to do that each week.

Over the course of 1 week, my publish received:

• 13 likes
• 3 feedback
• 0 shares
• 507 impressions

LinkedIn-specific pods

Whereas this methodology introduced in essentially the most feedback, responses had been imprecise and fewer related than these present in my handbook pods. Plus, most of those folks labored outdoors of my business. So, there possible isn’t a lot profit to my content material displaying up of their feeds or networks.

After the weeklong experiment, my publish received:

• 13 likes
• 364 impressions
• 2 shares
• 6 feedback

Automated LinkedIn pods

This methodology definitely introduced in essentially the most likes and feedback. However, I didn’t see any related profile visits, direct messages, or connection requests come by.

Additionally, whereas there have been a variety of new feedback, they had been all just about the identical:

• “Actually cool Hannah!”
• “Nice publish, Hannah!”
• “Thanks for sharing Hannah!”

To me, these imprecise feedback sign that none of those customers really learn my publish (which is smart, contemplating their profiles are being automated).

I can solely think about that different customers would possibly see this and assume the identical factor. My spam alert is sounding.

After three hours, my publish received:

• 54 likes
• 24 feedback
• 261 impressions
• 0 shares

Cross-platform LinkedIn pods

I didn’t collect any further engagement from this methodology.

What do the outcomes imply?

Listed here are the principle takeaways from my experiment.

Genuine pods have advantage

There may be definitely some engagement to be gained from utilizing LinkedIn pods. Pods which are made up of related, genuine connections inside your business can definitely assist to amplify your content material and get you extra views, likes, and feedback.

Spammy pods gained’t get you far

However, in the event you’re making an attempt to sport the system by becoming a member of pods which are full of pretend accounts or which are unrelated to your business, you’re not going to see a lot profit. So what in the event you received 50, 100, or 200 likes? They don’t imply a lot in the event that they’re coming from accounts that may by no means do enterprise with you.

LinkedIn pods ARE embarrassing

I believe what struck me most about this experiment was the discomfort that got here with having so many unconnected strangers current on my posts. Certain, from a look it seems to be cool to have 50+ likes, but when anybody took a more in-depth look it might be fairly apparent the engagement was spam.

Simply as I wouldn’t recommend companies purchase their Instagram followers, I wouldn’t recommend they use engagement pods. Possibly, in some circumstances, the place the pod members are hyper-relevant to your area of interest, it’s price it. But when it seems to be suspicious, likelihood is your viewers will discover. And the very last thing you need is to lose their belief.

Give attention to shut, related connections

Should you nonetheless need to be part of a LinkedIn pod after studying this, the easiest way to make use of them is to hitch ones which are related to your business and which are made up of connections that you may authentically have interaction with. This manner, you’re getting focused engagement that may result in worthwhile relationships (and, hopefully, actual prospects).

Listed here are a couple of ideas for locating the correct LinkedIn pods:

• Take a look at teams associated to your business or area of interest. Many of those could have pods related to them.
• Ask trusted connections in the event that they know of any good pods to hitch.
• Create your personal pod with a bunch of like-minded people.
• Keep away from overly spammy pods which are solely centered on selling content material and never participating in actual conversations.
• Most of all, concentrate on good, previous, natural LinkedIn advertising. Whereas “hacking the algorithm” by pods is interesting, nothing beats placing within the work, one publish at a time.

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