You’re trying to grow on Instagram but instead, it looks like every day,
you’re losing followers?! I know it can be very frustrating but I’m
here to tell you exactly why this may be happening and how you can fix it.
Ready? Let’s do this!
Hi my lovely people, it’s Natalia and welcome back to my channel where I share super actionable
ideas on content creation for entrepreneurs and creatives. Today, I have a topic for you that
seems to worry people who are trying to grow on Instagram - why do I keep losing followers? I
got quite a few messages about it and there always some tension related to the subject
so I’m here to relieve any worries. I’m going to share some of the biggest reasons why you
may be losing followers and, if it’s inside of your control, how to stop it from happening.
It may seem daunting to lose followers on a daily,
especially if you didn't have many to begin with. So without further ado,
here are the reasons why it might be happening and what you can do to fix it.
The first and probably one of the biggest reasons you may be losing followers is because of
Instagram itself. They are very transparent about the fact that they regularly remove spam accounts,
fake accounts and other profiles that don't follow Instagram’s **[Community
Guidelines](https://help.instagram.com/477434105621119/)**.
Besides, any follower that you block
(if you find them spammy or offensive in any way) is counted as an unfollow as well.
Think about those annoying bot accounts promoting some shady brands in your DMs
that ask you to become an ambassador... Some of them may follow you from time to time,
be it as some sort of an automated action or manually hitting follow
to make you feel like it’s more real and not an attempt to scam you.
These accounts, if reported enough by various users, would potentially be removed by Instagram.
Now, think about how many fake accounts out there are less obvious and as a result,
you may miss that they follow you. Any bots that
leave spammy comments can easily get removed by Instagram as well.
And you may not even realize how many of those fake or spam accounts follow you! You really
don’t have to have bought followers to have these fakes pop up on your profile as well.
The point is, your numbers may be going down by a few per day or in tens, or hundreds,
for this exact reason. There is nothing you can do about it and if you really think about it,
it’s actually very good for you. Since Instagram is showing your new posts to
a small pool of people who follow you, if you have some fake accounts in there that
will not engage with your content, it’s going to lower the chances of this post's success.
In the long run, having too many inactive or fake accounts following you can contribute
to a lower engagement rate and less reach. So don’t worry about losing them!
Let’s move on to another reason why you may be losing followers, point number two
When you organize a contest or a giveaway, inevitably, you’ll get followed by people
who are not your ideal audience. Giveaways or contests always attract some pro prize
hunters as I like to call them, or people who may not be interested in your content
at all and are only there to grab the reward. Even if a certain number of people stays with
you after a contest like that, there’s a high chance that in a few weeks or months,
they’re going to bolt and that should be absolutely fine with you as well.
By the way, that, among a few other things, is precisely the reason why
I’m not a fan of giveaways and I don’t think they’re a good way to attract new followers.
Your perfect audience is going to follow you not because of a prize you’re offering
but because of the great value you provide for them.
And just as with those spam accounts that don’t engage with your content, any real accounts that
followed you for all the wrong reasons will not engage with you either. And you already
know what that leads to so again, don’t sweat it if you lose some followers after a contest.
Have you ever followed a creator closely and then after a time you just didn’t enjoy their
content as much? Well, that’s the nature of any interest - sometimes, it can simply go away
and that’s exactly why some people may be unfollowing you. Whether it’s because they’re
no longer interested in the subjects you talk about, whether they’re at a different stage in
their life, whether they’re no longer entertained or inspired by what you produce, all that matters
is that you have no way of controlling it and it’s completely normal that this happens.
One more example of a “moving on” I want to give here is the famous follow-unfollow game which I
personally absolutely hate and was never on board to use this type of a shady “tactic”
to grow followers. Nevertheless, it is something that people do to this day and it may be one of
the reasons why you’re losing followers from time to time. To those of you who don’t know
what follow-unfollow is, it’s basically when someone goes to different accounts,
follows them, even engages with a post or two, in the hopes that they return the favor
and follow them back. After some time, they will inevitably hit unfollow to keep
their following count number down and move on to some new people. Honestly,
I think it’s very shady and I could probably make a whole video about these shady tactics,
the bot accounts included, but that’s neither here nor there. The point is, there will always
be people who will “move on”, shift their interests or just grow tired and that’s ok.
Now, I’ve talked about three reasons why you may lose followers that are pretty much
outside of your control. Now, let’s talk about those instances that
should make you think and adjust your strategy to stop losing people.
Having a good strategy is something I reiterate all the time because it’s an absolutely crucial
part of a successful online presence and here’s one of the reasons why. If you end up targeting
the wrong audience, posting content that is not in line with what they expect, content that doesn't
provide clear value to them on a regular basis and content around subjects that are not really that
interesting to them, you’re inevitably going to keep losing followers. How that process is
different from the previous three is that it may be happening on a larger scale meaning you
get tons and tons of unfollows when compared to actual new follows. Besides, you may also
hear some feedback from people sometimes about the content not being as nice, but what’s more likely
to happen is that they will just go and not tell you about it. If you notice that your engagement
rate is very low or people don’t respond well to your calls to action or don’t perform actions
that you want them to take, then this might be a good indicator that something is not right.
In this case, what you want to do is to get back to the drawing board and really analyze
your strategy. Think about who you can best serve, whether you’re a business or a creator,
and what these people may expect from you. I have a whole video about creating a strong
content marketing strategy and I highly recommend you watch it after this video, if that’s something
you may not have clearly defined. For now, stay here and see what the last reason for losing
followers may be, but then go ahead and check the other one. I talk a lot there on how to identify
the right audience so I’m sure you’ll find it helpful. Apart from that, I’ve actually shared
a post on Instagram about how you can learn more about your audience and I’ll link it down below.
This one may be a tough pill to swallow but I feel it needs to be said here. Just as people
tend to blame the Instagram algorithm for their low engagement, same goes for not
getting enough reach, getting unfollows, or growing way too slow. The truth is,
in most cases, the content itself is to blame. If your followers are not getting value from your
content consistently, and that’s very important here, they’re very likely to unfollow you.
The worst part is that once these people are gone, it’s very very unlikely that you’ll win them back.
That’s why I always say it’s much more important to produce quality content than to actually post
every single day to grow. Even one well-executed post per week that speaks to your audience the
right way is going to be better for your success on Instagram than seven consecutive ones, posted
Monday through Sunday, but not being thought out enough and not serving your audience properly.
I’m releasing a mini-course very soon that’s going to teach you how to produce quality
content efficiently so if you’d like to step up your Instagram game in 2022,
sign up on the waitlist now.
What I really want to emphasize here is that there's no quality content without really
understanding the audience because at the end of the day, they’re the consumers of that content
and they’re the decision-makers on whether or not you’re worthy of them following you.
That’s why your content should always have your ideal audience
at heart and improving this will lead to fewer unfollows over time,
and, more importantly, a more engaged community and that’s what we should all aim for!
Tell me, does losing followers make you feel a little bit anxious or upset?
You can tell me in the comments below if you’ve ever experienced it.
I know it may be daunting to lose followers on a daily,
especially if you don’t have many of them to begin with, but if you’ve listened carefully,
you’ll probably come to the same conclusion. It is completely normal to lose followers every
single day, both for small and big accounts and it usually has nothing to do with what
you’re doing specifically. So don’t sweat it and focus on improving your content quality
over time. And if you’re getting many more unfollows than follows, make sure you take your
time to really rethink your strategy and that’s why I recommend you check out this video here.
Otherwise, you can focus on growing your Instagram further and that’s exactly what
this video here is going to help you achieve. I want to wish you all the best for 2022,
have a wonderful holiday and I promise to be back in the new year with even more quality content
marketing videos so that you can learn and thrive. Have a fabulous day and I’ll see you... next time.