If you’re promoting your business on social media, you know your sales depend on the followers who engage with your brand. Having only a handful of Instagram followers can be discouraging. While you will need multiple strategies to launch a successful social marketing campaign, one way to get Instagram followers more quickly in the early days of your startup is to join Instagram engagement groups.

In engagement groups, also called pods or rounds, members alert one another when they post to Instagram and like and comment on others’ posts in exchange for likes and comments on their own. Engagement groups that meet within the Instagram platform and communicate through direct messaging have a maximum of 15 members, so many entrepreneurs join multiple groups. Larger groups with no member restrictions meet outside Instagram itself and communicate via Facebook, Telegram, or WhatsApp. Both types of groups are closed to the public and require administrator approval to join.

Locating engagement groups in your niche often requires a multifaceted approach. Ask for recommendations from the Instagram users you follow; you might get an invitation to one of the more exclusive groups. A basic Google search turned up this list of top engagement groups on Telegram. Tag Scout offers its own recommendations, along with an automation tool for targeting and connecting with other Instagram accounts on a wider scale.

Engagement groups on other social media platforms are easily searchable. Let’s say you’re a mom who sells women’s activewear and blogs about fashion as well as your personal fitness journey. Of the many options available on Facebook, you might cast a broad net by requesting to join the Instagram Engagement Group [Likes and Followers], which has nearly 18,000 members.

Alternatively, you might focus on your demographic by joining the women-only GirlBoss Engagement and Growth Pod, or you could target your niche more directly by joining a smaller but more focused group like Instagram Engagement–Beauty/Fashion or the Mom+Lifestyle+Blogger Group.

Each engagement group has different rules, so make sure you’re aware of your responsibilities and whether the group’s activities meet your goals. For example, the Instagram Engagement Group [Likes and Followers] requires new members to comment on ten posts before posting one of their own and have restrictions on the type of content that is appropriate.

The Mom+Lifestyle+Blogger Group maintains a weekly schedule of Instagram likes and follows but also requires commenting and subscribing to blogs, liking Facebook pages, and following threads on Twitter. If you fail to follow the rules and are banned from the GirlBoss Engagement and Growth Pod, moderators charge a five-dollar fee for readmission, as their time is valuable.

Marketing and Growth Hacking explains how Instagram’s algorithm assigns a score to each post based on how well it performs with the small percentage of your audience who initially views it. The higher the score, the better your chances of appearing in the Top Post grid. When your group members bolster your posts’ performance with their likes, shares, and comments, your organic reach increases. If you have group members who share your interests, their followers and anyone following the hashtags they use are likely to become your followers and future customers.

To take full advantage of the opportunities engagement groups present, both your posts and the comments you leave for others must be high-quality content. Many groups have specific requirements for word count or hashtags. Posting nothing but a string of emojis or generic feedback indistinguishable from the work of bots will get you flagged and possibly banned. Avoid groups where these rules are not enforced.

Even if group rules don’t require it, make sure your comments are at least five words long, refer to specific details of the content, and tag the user or someone else whenever possible. Read through others’ comments to avoid duplicating the same feedback. Don’t neglect the comments on your own posts; replying to each comment personally makes your fellow group members and other followers feel appreciated, and creating a dialogue will boost your engagement further.

According to Go Rattle the Stars, the key to making your content go viral is achieving a high engagement rate within an hour of posting, and Telegram-based engagement rounds are the most efficient way to do so. Instead of posting and engaging sporadically, the group holds rounds at specific times throughout the day. Members choose a convenient time slot to post, and they have one hour to like and comment on one another’s content. This rapid boost in engagement can lead to your post appearing on the Instagram Explore page, the holy grail of social media exposure.

What Instagram engagement groups have you joined and how did they help you gain followers when your business was still brand-new? Let us know in the comments.