Something that I can’t quite explain that takes place frequently on Instagram (not on LinkedIn or TikTok) is the amount of long, useless, and polished comments (200+ comments per post) that some people suddenly start getting out of nowhere, during a certain period of rapid growth. We’re talking about people below 10k. And many of them are below 4k. And then the phenomenal rate of growth stops at 50k followers or so. If that is not the result of being part of an engagement group, I don’t know what could be.

The problem is that these people always claim to have grown organically and authentically, not through any twisted methods. And their growth could not be entirely attributed to reels. They get that same amount and kind of engagement with disregard to the type of post they make. And most of the comments and likes they get are made by others who are already running businesses on Instagram. There are almost no consumers in the comments section, or people who are not expecting any kind of growth from such comments, or people who are not commenting for the sake of exposure to attract others to their own page, or expecting the same engagement back at some point.

Something is seriously wrong with all of this. It is not only hugely against the terms of service of Instagram and virtually everywhere else as well, it just doesn’t feel right. It is not authentic by any stretch of the imagination.