Everyone is always talking about how to gain and get more followers so I thought I’d write a little article on how to lose them. I mean, how good can your overall social media strategy be if for every 100 followers you gain, you lose 100? Here’s my top five ways to lose followers and they are in no particular order. If you’re doing any of these, rethink your strategy immediately.
1. Post about politics or about anything political! Do you know who should be talking about politics? Politicians. Do you know who has an opinion about politics? Everyone. Do you know how many people actually care about YOUR political opinion? Not many. So if you’re looking to lose followers, one of the best things you can do is post something political.
If you own a business and you’re trying to sell a product or service, do you care whether it’s being purchased by a Republican or a Democrat? I hope you don’t. Because if you do, you’re limiting your ability to turn a profit! At the end of the day, you want as many people to buy from you as possible because you want your business to succeed. So why include a politically charged caption or comment on a post? Why alienate half of your business’s audience to take sides or make a point? If you really need to get something off your chest, create a separate dummy account and spam your political rivals that way!
2. Post boring stuff! Yes, if you want people to unfollow you, just keep sharing mundane, Debbie-downer type content. Nobody wants to see boring stuff in their feed. People want to be entertained. They want to laugh, see cool things, and they want to be the first person to find the next big viral post to share with their friends. If you’re posts look like a Sears catalog from the 70s, expect people to unfollow you!
3. Post several times a day. Well, unless you’re a celebrity or something of course. Chances are that you are not a celebrity or a multi-billion-dollar company like Nike or Apple. So over-posting comes off super spammy. Maybe the person following your business likes the scooters you sell, maybe they’re slightly interested in the custom pens you carve and that’s great. Well imagine seeing these posts every time you log into Instagram. It’s like being force-fed spinach out of a baby food jar. It sucks and it’s annoying! So if you’re over-posting, expect to lose followers.
4. Post and log off. If all you’re doing is posting your pictures and captions, you’re not being very “social”. Times have changed and simply posting and walking away doesn’t work anymore. The market is too competitive and very saturated with content.
You need to interact with other people and other accounts. Respond to comments promptly, answer questions in your direct messages, like other people’s content, and leave comments on they’re posts. In other words, BE SOCIAL! People can tell when your account is on autopilot. The second they notice it they’ll pull the ripcord on the ejector seat and bail on you.
5. Be careful who you follow and what content you like with your business account. Many people don’t realize that your account activity is very public. Anyone can click and see who you’re following. Imagine how that new client feels when they discover you like to follow accounts specializing in adult content or even worse, if they find out you’re actually a Raider fan! In fact, these social platforms are actually recommending content to your followers based on YOUR activity. Pictures you’ve liked will sometimes even have your handle below the picture telling your followers that you already liked the post. Oops, you just lost another follower!
So there you have it. You now have several solid ways to help you lose followers. Do me a favor and share this article with other people currently shooting themselves in the foot. It’s fun, I promise.
Article written by Jason Rodriguez, founder and social media expert at Post My Content. Need help or have a social media question? Contact Jason here: jason@postmycontent.com
