When people unfollow you it can be very disheartening. You work so hard to build your social media presence through great social media marketing. You spend serious time sourcing and creating great, engaging content, yet you still find people ‘unfollowing’ or ‘unliking’ your page or account. It’s important to know that this happens to everyone. Don’t feel disheartened. A few unlikes or unfollows here and there are nothing abnormal and you should expect that if you are active online.

Originally published in Get it Magazine

On Instagram there exists a “marketing” strategy where accounts follow you, so you kindly follow back, then they unfollow you. This helps boost their follower count and leaves you wondering why your follower count is down by 1.

It’s also good to know that social media sites regularly clear out spam accounts, so, if any of those are following you, you may drop 1 or 2 followers. Aside from the normal rise and fall of your audience, there are some specific things you may be doing that are causing people to unfollow you. So, bite the bullet and have a look at where you may be going astray.

  1. You post too much. No one wants their feed filled with 10 images from you (especially on Instagram). It looks spammy. It also looks like you did a big photo dump because you forgot to post for the last week. Posting once a day is a good amount that won’t look spammy.
  2. You post inconsistently. Your fans get used to seeing your posts at a certain time of day, and, if they appear at another time of day, that can annoy them.
  3. You post something they don’t agree with. There’s some topics that will divide people, such as parenting, religious beliefs and political affiliations. These are generally better to steer clear of unless you want a discussion happening on your social media… and are prepared to lose followers as a result of their values or beliefs not aligning with yours.
  4. Your content is too salesy. Believe it or not, people don’t follow you to be sold to. If you think of social media only as a sales device, you’re doing it wrong. It’s about connecting, engaging and providing great quality content (not just photos of your product).
  5. Your content is all over the place. If you usually stick to gorgeous flat lays, flowers and pastel colours then, suddenly, there’s an intoxicated selfie you thought looked cute when you were drunk at 2am, that’s inconsistent. Create an outline of what you will post and stick to it. Personalisation of your page can be a great thing, as long as people are prepared for it.
  6. You don’t engage with people. If you ignore questions, comments or messages that is poor customer service. Not everyone needs to be responded to, bu,t some certainly do. Most probably these people will be annoyed if you don’t reply (their annoyance warranting an unfollow).
  7. You recently ran a giveaway. Giveaways are a time where your follower count will rise and fall. Some people follow to enter your giveaway and will unfollow afterwards. There’s no avoiding it. You are never going to please anyone in life or on social media, so, do your best to please your loyal fans.

Let the players of the follow/unfollow game come and go without causing you heartache – and carry on with your social media marketing for your business.

If you’re after some advice on your social media accounts of some social media marketing on the Gold Coast and beyond, get in touch with us today!