This is the Instagram hack people are using to get more engagement

And it’s so simple

Remember last July when Instagram changed its algorithm, stopping posts from appearing chronologically on your newsfeed and instead ranking them depending on success?

The Instagram community went into a state of panic, with users noticing that their photos weren’t showing up on other people’s timelines, instead prioritising celebrity social media, and as a result of that, the engagement on people's accounts dropped, losing them followers.

Well, some very clever Instagram celebrities have come up with a way to beat the system and outsmart the algorithm, and luckily for us all, we can do it too.

According to Racked, ‘like-minded Instagrammers are forming secret groups to drive up likes and pull in followers’ – a technique referred to as ‘pods’.

Instagram pods are essentially groups of Instagram influencers who are teaming up and agreeing to like and comment on each other’s posts in the first five minutes, giving them a boost. The first five minutes are supposedly the most important in terms of activity so giving each other engagement in that time period will propel them onto other people’s feeds, allowing them to build an audience and get more engagement.

There are certain rules to Instagram pods, however, to ensure that the posts in question are counted as meaningful and authentic content. The likes and comments must happen very quickly after the post is uploaded, and comments should be longer than three words, not just emojis.

There is of course the fear that if Instagram changes its algorithm again, the pods will be rendered useless, but for now at least, it looks like they’re working, so if you're not Beyonce and can't just casually upload the most liked Instagram picture of all time, why not give it a go.

If you’ll excuse us, we’re off to team up.