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Experiments

Experiment: Do LinkedIn Pods Work? (Or Are They Mostly Embarrassing?)

I joined a LinkedIn pod so you don’t have to. Here’s how it helped (and hurt) my posts over the course of one week.

Hannah Macready December 5, 2022 8 min read
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This past November, I decided to do an experiment. I wanted to see if LinkedIn pods actually worked or if they were just a waste of time.

For those of you who don’t know what a LinkedIn pod is, it’s basically a group of people who agree to like, comment and engage with each other’s posts. The theory is that by doing this, your content will be boosted by the LinkedIn algorithm. So, I decided to join a few pods and test it out for myself.

I’m not necessarily an established LinkedIn thought leader with thousands of followers, but I post about my writing work on a fairly regular basis and have even gotten a few clients through LinkedIn. So a few more followers and engagements with my posts definitely wouldn’t hurt.

Here’s what I learned from my experience with LinkedIn pods.

Bonus: Download a free guide that shows the 11 tactics Hootsuite’s social media team used to grow their LinkedIn audience from 0 to 278,000 followers.

What is a LinkedIn pod?

Let’s start with the basics.

A LinkedIn pod, often called an engagement pod, is a group of people who have agreed to connect and engage with each other’s content on LinkedIn. The idea is that by being in a pod, you’ll be able to increase your connections and, consequently, your opportunities.

In an engagement pod, members agree to like, comment, share, and react to each others’ posts on a regular basis. Often, this is done by posting your LinkedIn post in an engagement pod group or app, where members can view and interact with it.

Most engagement pods work on the principle of reciprocity. So, if you want people to like, comment, or share your content, you’ll need to do the same for them.

Why use an engagement pod on LinkedIn?

Engagement pods are said to be helpful because they can:

  • Amplify the reach of your content
  • Help you get more engagement on your content (likes, comments, shares)
  • Offer extended networking opportunities
  • Engage employees to support your brand

The theory is that LinkedIn favors posts with more engagement, so if you can get more likes and comments, your post will perform better.

This is especially important because the LinkedIn algorithm divides content on the platform into three types:

  1. Spam: Posts with bad grammar, too many hashtags, or accounts that post too frequently may be marked as spam.
  2. Low-quality posts: Posts that don’t follow best practices, or don’t get enough engagement, will be labeled “low-quality.”
  3. High-quality posts: Posts that are easy to read, encourage questions, and incorporate strong keywords will be labeled high-quality and, therefore, will be shown to more users on LinkedIn.

The question is: is engagement enough to make a post “high-quality” in the eyes of the LinkedIn algorithm? I set out to put this idea to the test.

How to join a LinkedIn pod

There are a couple of different ways to join a LinkedIn engagement pod.

First, you can start your own pod by creating a group message thread with LinkedIn users you’d like to pod with. We’ll call this a manual LinkedIn pod.

Second, you can use LinkedIn-specific pods, where you join LinkedIn groups focused on creating pods. Search “LinkedIn pods” or “engagement pods” in your LinkedIn search bar and see which ones relate to your industry.

There are also third-party apps like lempod specifically built for automating LinkedIn engagement pods.

Finally, LinkedIn pod groups exist on other social media sites. There’s the LinkedIn Growth Hackers pod on Facebook and various other pods on platforms like Telegram.

Methodology

I experimented with all four types of engagement pods to see which ones worked best. I used a different LinkedIn post for each method so that I could accurately track any differences in engagement across methods.

Here’s a breakdown of that process.

Manual pods: I used a blog post on scheduling Instagram reels.

Before the experiment started, I had 12 likes, 487 impressions, 0 shares, and 2 comments.

linkedin post promoting a hootsuite blog on instagram reels

LinkedIn-specific pods: For this method, I used a blog post I’d shared on recession marketing.

Before the experiment started, I had 5 likes, 189 impressions, 1 share, and 2 comments.

linkedin post promoting a recession marketing blog

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

Before the experiment started, I had 2 likes, 191 impressions, 0 shares, and 0 comments.

hootsuite social media share of voice article posted on linkedin

Cross-platform LinkedIn pods:

I was not able to join any cross-platform pods, so no posts were used here.

Manual LinkedIn pod method

I started off by creating a manual LinkedIn pod of my own. I chose a small group of my writer friends (because they understand the research process) to pod up with. I sent them a quick message outlining the strategy and encouraged them to interact with each other.

private linkedin message from hannah macready asking users to be in an engagement pod

Luckily, they’re all good sports, and I immediately started receiving a barrage of LinkedIn notifications showing the support of my pals.

notifications on hannah macready linkedin

I also immediately noticed some new (stranger) accounts creeping my LinkedIn profile.

1 person viewed your profile notification on linkedin

And I even got this message from a random “LinkedIn” employee (pretty certain this was spam).

private message from linkedin employee

That all happened in just a couple of hours!

LinkedIn-specific pod method

I also joined a few LinkedIn group pods focused on digital marketing and social media.

various digital marketing linkedin pod groups in a list

The number of members really varied in these groups. One had over a million members, at the others had just a few dozen. I chose a mixture of high-member pods as well as a few smaller ones. If vanity metrics have taught me anything, it’s that just because a lot of people are in your circle, it doesn’t mean they’re actually paying attention.

Some of the pods I found in my search were described as inactive, so I stayed away from those.

Of all the groups I joined, Game of Content was the only one that seemed to have regular posts from other users.

game of content linkedin header image

The rules of GoC were pretty simple:

There is only one post ever present in the group, and it’s made by an admin. They repopulate this post every couple of days so it stays relevant. Group members can then comment on the post with their LinkedIn post link and other members are meant to engage with them.

post from linkedin user in game of content group explaining group rules

As I went through the weekday post comments, I did see lots of people replying to comments with phrases like, “Done! Here’s my link.”

When I clicked through to their posts, I could see likes and comments from those same group members.

comments and replies from group members in game of content linkedin pod

So, yeah, this was working. At least in terms of garnering more likes and comments.

game of content users commenting on each others linkedin posts

I went in and followed suit, engaging with posted links and commenting with my own link after I was done.

hannah macready promoting posts in game of content linkedin pod

And I slowly started to see engagement reciprocated on my own posts.

game of content user engaging with hannah macready post on linkedin

Automated LinkedIn pods with lempod method

I also installed the lempod extension on my Google Chrome browser. lempod offers a digital marketplace full of LinkedIn engagement pods you can join.

lempod app homepage

I joined a few pods focused on digital marketing and social media.

digital marketing linkedin pods shown in lempod app

The first one I was accepted to was called “Content + Social Media Marketing pod”. That seemed relevant.

I immediately posted the link to my post. Once I shared the link, the screen opened up to a big graph, with a list of people “Members who will engage” and “Members who have already engaged.”

Content + Social Media Marketing pod on lempod

I cross-checked the “Members who have already engaged” tab with my actual post.

members who had already engaged lempod

And, yep. Sure enough, those users were now shown as new likes on my post.

lempod users liking and commenting on linkedin post

Within just a few minutes, my impressions had grown from 191 to 206. I also had six new comments. I watched this number steadily climb over the next hour.

graph showing lempod post engagement growth

While I was seeing lots of engagement, I wasn’t seeing any profile views, direct messages, or anything else that might indicate these users were actually interested in my work.

Not to mention, the engagement was coming in fast. Every 45 seconds there was another notification! Maybe LinkedIn would consider my post viral? Or, maybe it would get labeled as spam.

a long list of linkedin notifications coming in 45 seconds apart

I let the automation run until I saw that every member of the pod had engaged.

all members of linkedin pod who engaged with post

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

Cross-platform LinkedIn pods

I did try joining the “LinkedIn Growth Hackers” group on Facebook, but I was never approved. It seems this group may be inactive now. I did not find any other active LinkedIn pods to join on other channels.

Results

TL;DR: At first glance, it may look like the Automated LinkedIn pod was the most effective pod, but I actually think it was the Manual pod for reasons that I will explain below. Either way, none of the LinkedIn pods really made a big difference for me or helped grow my presence on the platform significantly.

MethodLikesCommentsSharesImpressions
Manual Pod1330507
LinkedIn-specific pod1362364
Automated LinkedIn pod54240261

Keep reading for more details and context on these results.

Manual pods

This seemed like the most organic, most consistent method. Because I was leveraging people I already knew, the comments were authentic, relevant, and sincere.

Not to mention, these people are actually in my industry–meaning if my posts show up in their feeds to their connections, it might help me network further.

Nothing about this method came off as spammy, though I don’t know how realistic it is to ask my friends to do this every week.

Over the course of one week, my post got:

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

new likes and comments on post gained from manual linkedin pod

LinkedIn-specific pods

While this method brought in the most comments, responses were vague and less relevant than those found in my manual pods. Plus, most of these people worked outside of my industry. So, there likely isn’t much benefit to my content showing up in their feeds or networks.

After the weeklong experiment, my post got:

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

new likes and comments on post gained from linkedin group pod

Automated LinkedIn pods

This method certainly brought in the most likes and comments. But, I didn’t see any relevant profile visits, direct messages, or connection requests come through.

Also, while there were a lot of new comments, they were all pretty much the same:

  • “Really cool Hannah!”
  • “Great post, Hannah!”
  • “Thanks for sharing Hannah!”

To me, these vague comments signal that none of these users actually read my post (which makes sense, considering their profiles are being automated).

I can only imagine that other users might see this and think the same thing. My spam alert is sounding.

After three hours, my post got:

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

final results of linkedin automated pod

Cross-platform LinkedIn pods

I did not gather any extra engagement from this method.

What do the results mean?

Here are the main takeaways from my experiment.

Authentic pods have merit

There is certainly some engagement to be gained from using pods that are made up of relevant, authentic connections within your industry can certainly help to amplify your content and get you more views, likes, and comments.

But we wouldn’t even go so far as to call these groups “pods.” You are simply sharing content with people who will be interested and supportive of your work.

Spammy pods won’t get you far

But, if you’re trying to game the system by joining pods that are full of fake accounts or that are unrelated to your industry, you’re not going to see much benefit. So what if you got 50, 100, or 200 likes? They don’t mean much if they’re coming from accounts that will never do business with you.

LinkedIn pods ARE embarrassing

I think what struck me most about this experiment was the discomfort that came with having so many unconnected strangers present on my posts. Sure, from a glance it looks cool to have 50+ likes, but if anyone took a closer look it would be pretty obvious the engagement was spam.

Just as I wouldn’t suggest businesses buy their Instagram followers, I wouldn’t suggest they use engagement pods. Maybe, in some cases, where the pod members are hyper-relevant to your niche, it’s worth it. But if it looks suspicious, chances are your audience will notice. And the last thing you want is to lose their trust.

LinkedIn pods go against LinkedIn’s Professional Community policies

If you’re looking for another reason NOT to engage in LinkedIn pods, take this one. LinkedIn’s Professional Community policies explicitly state: “Don’t do things to artificially increase engagement with your content. Respond authentically to others’ content and don’t agree with others ahead of time to like or re-share each other’s content.”

Basically, LinkedIn pods violate LinkedIn’s policies. And if you are caught using them, your content could be taken down, your account restricted, or worse.

Struggling to get enough engagement on your LinkedIn posts? Hootsuite makes scheduling, publishing, and boosting LinkedIn content—alongside all your other social channels—easy, so you can spend more time creating quality content, tracking your performance, and learning about your audience. Try it free today.

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By Hannah Macready

Hannah Macready is a freelance writer with 12 years of experience in social media and digital marketing. Her work has appeared in publications such as Fast Company and The Globe & Mail, and has been used in global social media campaigns for brands like Grosvenor Americas and Intuit Mailchimp. In her spare time, Hannah likes exploring the outdoors with her two dogs, Soup and Salad.

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