The Problem with Growth Hacks

The problem with growth hacks is that most people are mislabeling their latest trick to boost their content's reach as a growth hack.

Over the past few months, three things have come up over and over again: Pods, PINS, and Follows:

Pods
What it is - A group of individuals bound together (typically in a shared spreadsheet) over a content calendar. The purpose is to help boost the reach of each other's content by knowing when and where they will post.
Example - Say you have an IH post that you want to jump to the top of the charts. It's much easier to do if your Pod knows when you'll publish the content. Bonus points if you've blindly upvoted their content in the past as you should expect the same in return.

PIN - Private Influencer Network
What it is - Similar to a Pod, a PIN is a group dedicated to providing each other with backlinks to their future content.
Example - If you're looking to create 10 quality backlinks this month, you've got some work to do. It's much easier to find 3-4 other creators looking to achieve the same goal and work together on backlinking content together and divvy up the work.

Follow/Unfollow
What it is - A way to gain followers by following new users with the sole intent of unfollowing them a few days later. The key is to make sure you maintain a good followers/following ratio so be sure routinely unfollow people.
Example - Gaining 100 new followers in a week is tough. It requires consistent engagement, quality content, and more. It's much easier to have a bot follow a 100 users each day (estimate 30% will follow you back) and if you start Monday, you might break 150 by EOW.

Here's my gripe...

1. Every platform and search engine is relentlessly fighting against these tactics to maintain their credibility/reputation. These algorithms are constantly changing. Do you really want to base the success of your future efforts (no matter what you're working) on being able to always out-smart the algorithm?

2. You're not proving your expertise, you're proving your ability to cut corners. Growth hacks are just that, unique ways of pivoting your product offering/messaging until you find a scalable solution and then figure out how to streamline it. How do you win with these tactics? How can you find a repeatable way of making money this way?

3. It's downplaying how much hard work goes into making something successful. We read that 9/10 startups fail but somehow believe we are different. Say employing these tactics in 2019 boost your company to an incredible amount of success and you get bought in 2020 for more money then you can count.

You spend 2020 traveling the world and return in 2021 rested and amped to start something new... What will you do? Whether it's your new idea or joining in on someone else's; you 'hacked' your way to an exit last time and now the landscape has changed. Those tactics don't work anymore, so what will you do?

You haven't proven that you can see an opportunity, understand the customer need, develop a product, and scale the business.

Rant over. Thoughts?