Your Instagram ‘like thread’ is just like a bot.

I want to talk about something that has been bothering me lately. There seem to be more and more groups on Facebook dedicated to like…

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I want to talk about something that has been bothering me lately.

There seem to be more and more groups on Facebook dedicated to like for like style threads on Instagram.

They tend to be threads that are open for 15 minutes – 30 minutes and you have to like all Instagram photos in a thread by a set time.

Your Instagram 'like thread' is just like a bot.

The reason for this is because since Instagram changed it’s algorithm to stop showing images in chronological order, people have been desperate to get their posts into peoples feed. The images that you see more frequently are the ones you interact with the most and those that have most likes and comments.

The idea is that if you post a photo to Instagram, link it into one of these like threads or comment pods to get it some engagement as soon as it’s posted, Instagram will boost that post in search and in peoples feed.

A few months ago I was feeling a bit doom about Instagram. I had gone from having 150 likes per post to about 30 over the last year.

Feeling the pressure of looking like my account was bad. You know, when people say things like this blogger has 6000 Instagram followers but only 30 likes per photo. BOT USER. FOLLOWER BUYER. 

I felt like I needed to do something.

My engagement on Instagram has decreased massively since I stopped following my own advice on how to get 1000 Instagram followers a month because I simply don’t have time anymore.

So I joined a couple of these groups on the advice of a friend and used it for about a month.

If you want to see the difference in my likes, look on my grid. This photo is the first one I put in a thread and this photo is the last one. You can see the difference in the likes while using the like threads and when I stopped.

Your Instagram 'like thread' is just like a bot.

Here are the pros I found to using the threads:

  • The photo got more likes than usual.
  • I got a few more followers than normal.

But there were somethings I didn’t like about the threads.

  • The followers I got were the type that unfollows a day later.
  • I was getting likes from the thread only, not any organic ones.
  • The threads were time-consuming.
  • It felt wrong.
  • Seeing people know and thought had organically popular accounts made me feel a bit disappointed in them. I wondered if others felt the same about me.
  • It didn’t have any long-term effects on engagement or interaction.

I think it hit me is when in one of these groups, someone started complaining about people who follow and unfollow.

I thought to myself, well you’re not getting Instagram engagement organically. Who are you to judge? You’re just as bad.

I thought to myself, fake engagement is fake engagement. Whether it’s in an Instagram like thread, comment pod, follow train, botting, following and unfollowing.

It’s all fake fake fake.

You can’t justify it by saying oh but the algorithm. It’s screwing me over. We have to do something! WE HAVE TO TAKE MATTERS INTO OUR OWN HANDS BY DOING THE THING THAT INSTAGRAM DOESN’T WANT US TO DO!

Faking engagement.

Listen, right. I don’t care if you use follow threads or are in a comment pod. I don’t even care if you use bots. I’m not here to out anyone or uncover all this fakeness in the blogging world and warn people about your dirty tactics. I couldn’t give a shit and I can’t be bothered. I just think some people need to have a quiet word with themselves and decide if they want to fake likes and comments or not.

The thing that bothers me is people thinking being in a like thread is acceptable. But following and unfollowing or botting isn’t.

In my view, they’re both the same and I’ve stopped using like threads now because it feels so pointless and a bit yuck. It’s fake. I was fake.

Have you had experience with comment pods or like threads?

11 comments

  1. I don’t have any experience with this sort of thing, but I’m not happy with the new Insta algorithm, it makes me miss posts from my friends. I also don’t have Insta install on my phone, so often I can’t access it.
    I started getting less likes on Instagram lately but after thinking about it for a while, I realized that I don’t really care. I only post my art and I feel like my art is improving, so that makes me feel good.

  2. I hate the instagrm algorithm it’s so unfair! As much as I don’t like it though I don’t like the idea of these either, yes it may help temporarily but it’s much better to find followers who actually enjoy your content.
    A very interesting post 🙂

  3. It’s true – I admit I’ve tried things like this in an effort to get better stats, but it’s just been time consuming and got me nowhere in the end, as all the ‘engagement’ falls away when you stop. It’s easier to stop worrying and caring about the numbers. I have so much respect for people who can put so much work into instagram, but I’m using and loving it less as it’s too much effort to maintain it at what it was before. You feel good in the like/comment/follow pods as things trend up, then you stop and everything else stops, like you said it’s not real. I feel silly for trying it to be honest!

  4. I recently had a company contact me and they said as a ‘thanks’ for reading their email they promoted 3 of my insta pics, and literally had 150-250 likes all of a sudden on those posts… I told them no, and saw most of the accounts that liked the images were bots, inactive, or fakes. I hate this as it makes those ones look fake as shit, and all my other images get about 30-40, which are usually the organic and genuine ones. I don’t like having fake likes!! 🙂 Tania Michele xx

  5. I joined a couple of these groups, but as you say it is still not organic engagement. I wouldn’t usually have liked the sorts of photos that I was liking due to these groups, and I know I was getting likes from people with no interest in my content. I stopped using them fairly quickly because it just didn’t feel right.

    In all honesty, I don’t mind the new algorithm at all. My engagement has improved without using groups like that anyway – just through myself engaging more on the app.

  6. Wow, this seems so interesting! I haven’t heard about like threads before but from what you told I get why people are using them. I kind of think this short term resolution until IG changes algorithm again.

    Now I am kind of curious if this works similary if you just follow hashtag and like some recent pictures. Would results be same?

  7. I was actually in the same situation as you, but I opened my eyes about those threads before getting involved. I was (am) frustrated that Instagram isn’t the same as it was, I wanted a quick solution to fix the problem. So I thought about pods. But then I thought about more and like you realise that in the end it’s all fake and the same as bots. Which I don’t approve. Instead I’m going to work harder on my Instagram account and find an organic way to get it where I want it to be 🙂

    Perrine

  8. I think it’s important to establish the difference between being in a ‘must follow everyone’ or ‘must like everyone’ type thread and getting involved in the groups that suggest you find ‘at least 2-3 others’, for example. At this stage, I tend to avoid the ‘follow everyone’ threads because, as you said, you just got a run of unfollowers shortly thereafter. However, if there is no forced ‘like everyone’ clause, I see these more as a directory. Go through, find the ones that interest you and engage with them. I love them, and have found some great connections through using them. However, I would, in no way, compare them to using a bot. There is honest connection involved, or you would just pass the person over.
    Britt | http://alternativelyspeaking.ca

  9. As much as the algorithm sucks I have never participated in these pods or groups either. I feel the same as you, it’s just fake. The whole follow/unfollow game really irritates me too. Often I get the same people following me, so I call them out! They don’t like it.
    Anyway, you’ve got a new follower in me, I like your content and you’re in North Yorkshire!

  10. I don’t think I’d join a thread where you had to like/comment on every single post in that thread. That definitely seems fake to me. I know I’d struggle to comment on everyone’s post genuinely or actually want to like it, so I wouldn’t join it. I rarely have time to join these sorts of things, to be honest but if I did, I’d look for ones that say “comment/like 2 in this thread”. I feel like that’s much more sincere, as I go through the list and find at least two that I really like and want to comment on. Usually, I go above the number, to be honest but it’s simply because I want to – rather than being forced to.

    I feel like the latter way is much more genuine. I completely agree with you that the former seems fake and I really hate the follow/unfollow game. It all irks me. My IG is low but it’s organic and I like that.

    Reema

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