This is controversial...

“It’s all fake.”

“You’re cheating!!”

“You’re not a REAL creator.”

These are some of the things I hear when it comes to a controversial topic for growing on social media.

Using engagement groups.

Now, if you don’t know what an engagement group is…

It’s when you pay for or trade accounts with a sizable following to:

• Repost

• Comment

• Give any other type of engagement

With the goal of getting more eyes on your content and profile to grow your social media.

So the million dollar question is…

Should you use one?

Will it help you go viral, unlock the untold riches you were promised from growing your personal brand?

Or will it ruin your reputation and make your family will disown you?

Why Engagement Groups Are “Bad”

Here are some of the arguments creators make about why engagement groups are bad:

• It’s unethical because you’re manipulating people

• All the engagement is fake, so it hurts your following

• It’s cheating because other people don’t use engagement groups

And I get it…

These people work hard to create content to grow their following without engagement groups.

Only to watch someone with crappier content use an engagement group and get 5x more growth.

It can be frustrating and make you bitter.

Hence why you see people getting their panties in a knot on social media crying about how it’s unfair.

But, as someone who’s grown with engagement groups and without…

Here’s my honest take…

If Engagement Groups Are Bad, Then We Should Ban Advertisements

Are advertisements ethically immoral?

I mean, think about it…

They’re the same as an engagement group.

• A new company wants to sell more products

• Nobody knows about their product, so they want to get it in front of more people to sell more

• They either sponsor a creator with a big following to promote their product or pay for ads on a social media platform

Is this “unethical” because you’re making your product known to a larger audience who wouldn’t see it otherwise?

Does this attract “fake” customers simply because you put your advertisement in front of people?

Is this “cheating” because other companies can’t afford to pay for sponsorships or ads?

Not in my eyes.

And the same goes for people who use engagement groups.

You’re just showing your content to more people you probably wouldn’t have seen it otherwise.

It’s the same as advertising on a billboard next to a high traffic highway.

The billboard is your content.

The traffic is the person you’re trading/paying for engagement.

Putting your content in front of people doesn’t force people to follow you.

If your content is bad and you pay for engagement, it’s like putting whipped cream on dog shit (I do not recommend).

Trading/paying for engagement just gets you the opportunity to be put in front of more people.

Just like a advertisement, the content determines whether it converts or not.

And the content you continue to put out determines whether they continue to follow your or not.

Do I Use Engagement Groups?

Cue the dramatic drumroll

Yup, I do (go ahead and get your pitchforks and torches out now).

The only platform I currently use engagement groups for is LinkedIn.

I trade/pay for comments from a few high quality accounts that have the audience that I want.

And on that note, it’s important to mention:

I don’t use or recommend using engagement groups with a ton of people with low quality accounts.

Associating with low quality accounts will make you appear low quality by association, so be mindful of this.

I recommend picking 5-10 creators who have the audience you want, and trading or paying for engagement from them.

I don’t recommend using an engagement group with more than this because it can skew how your content is actually performing.

If your posts get a hundred likes, but 90 of those are from people in engagement groups…

Then I’m sorry to say, your content is still shit.

It’s just inflated with BS engagement that doesn’t mean anything.

If 20% or more of your engagement is from people in your engagement group, then it’s a sign your content needs improving.

But aside from those few nuances, I think using engagement groups are beneficial.

So, I hope this clears some things up for y’all.

Happy Thursday.

Your Canadian friend,

Dakota “Engagement” Robertson

P.S.

Engagement groups are only one piece of the puzzle.

If you want to grow on social media starting from 0 followers, check out this step-by-step video I made showing you how.

Click here to watch