Top reasons why your social media following is decreasing

When you first set up your business and social media accounts, I can bet your goal wasn’t to lose followers via your social channels. While most businesses don’t expect to succeed overnight on social…

Introduction

When you first set up your business and social media accounts, I can bet your goal wasn’t to lose followers via your social channels. While most businesses don’t expect to succeed overnight on social media, they also don’t expect to see a continual decline in their following.

Before looking at why your social media following is decreasing, let’s first explore how users unfollow your social media accounts. Remember, this is something a user physically has to do, requiring a small amount of time and effort. This indicates there’s a clear reason why they’re unfollowing you.

How to Unfollow a Page on Facebook

1. Log into your Facebook account on PC or Mac
2. Navigate to the page you want to unfollow
3. Click the three dots next to the message and sign up button
4. Next to “unfollow this page”, toggle on

Aside from unfollowing a page, users also have the option to choose how they will see posts in their news feed. Default is always the selected option when a user first follows a page, however, this can be changed to favorites, default, snooze, and off. 

It’s estimated that 20% of Facebook users hide branded content. The reason they do this is that they find the content boring or repetitive. 

How to Unfollow a Twitter Account

Twitter users can unfollow accounts and brands easily by clicking the “following” button on any Twitter account. This will prompt a pop-up window to confirm that the user wants to unfollow the account.

However, there are other options too, including muting tweets so they don’t appear on a user’s timeline, without unfollowing them, as well as reporting or blocking accounts.

How to Unfollow an Instagram Account

Once a user has followed an account on Instagram, it’s very simple to unfollow them. However, there are now more options than ever before, including what notifications a user receives, the option to add them to a close friends list, mute them, or restrict them.

How to Improve Social Media Following

1. Best practices

Unfortunately with social media, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Each social media platform caters to a different audience, so it’s important that you understand the platform and optimize your content for the platform and your audience.

Focus on the social media platforms that are relevant to your business and audience. For example, B2B companies will find better connections through LinkedIn or Twitter, whereas if you’re trying to reach a younger audience, Instagram and TikTok would be a suitable alternative.

2. Be consistent

Posting regularly and at the right time will give you a better chance at reaching your followers and offering them what they want. Hootsuite analyzed the best times to post on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, but you should check your own analytics to ensure this information is adjusted accordingly.

To establish and maintain a presence on social media, you’ll need to post consistently and regularly. However, you shouldn’t post for the sake of it; quality is always better than quantity, and a content strategy is essential to maintain a routine.

3. Connect 

A recent study showed that images on Instagram get more likes and comments than other types of content. Images that contain photos are 38% more likely to receive likes. Consumers like to see the face behind a brand and will connect more with products and services if they feel they can relate to a brand.

For example, you could post a photo on your social media accounts introducing your team or staff members; if people can see themselves in your content, they are more likely to engage with you. While this approach may not convert followers into sales, it grows your social media following and has the potential to increase CRO in the long run.

4. Ask for engagement

What better way to get people to engage with your content and posts than to directly ask for it. It’s incredibly easy to ask a question on your social media accounts, for example, to learn more about your audience. 

An example would be to share some current or trending news within your industry followed by a question like “would you rather: a) work from home, b) work in an office, c) combination of both”. Encouraging people to respond with an emoji or via a poll not only engages people, but it can provide useful information about your followers and audience.

Reasons Why People Are Unfollowing You

1. You’re not sharing the right kind of content, and when you are, you’re either sharing too much, or not at all.
2. You’re not being sociable with your followers. Customer comments, complaints, and feedback should always be responded to. Remember, a negative comment can be turned into a positive one very easily.
3. You keep changing your branding. Users like to be able to recognize a brand through a color scheme or logo. If you change your profile photo or avatar too often, your users may feel confused or like you don’t have a solid brand.
4. If you’re clogging up someone’s feed it can feel overwhelming for your users. If they have to scroll through 10 of your posts before they find content from another account they’re following, they’ll probably get quite annoyed.
5. You have the wrong followers. If you’re paying for followers or trying to encourage people to tag friends in order to win a product, it’s likely you’re not attracting the right kind of followers.
    

Conclusion

If you’re feeling frustrated that your social media following is decreasing, it’s time to start acting. Understanding why you’re losing followers is the first step to regaining your following and improving your audience reach.

Once you’ve established why your users are unfollowing you, you can start to create a content plan for your social media accounts to engage with your audience by writing, designing, and publishing interesting and relevant content.