Are you trying to build followers on social media but are struggling? If so, you’re probably making one of these 12 mistakes.
Spamming
Nobody likes being bombarded with content from a single influencer. It fills up their feeds and reduces the diversity of content that they are exposed to. This frustrates followers and might result in them unfollowing you to clear up their feed.
While you need to post every day to stay active, posting 50 times a day is going to drive people away. It’s important to strike the right balance to increase your followers.
Not Having a Specific Niche
A jack of all trades, master of none is fantastic, however, this is not the case in content creation. People follow influencer accounts that adhere to a specific niche. For example, if your niche is baking, most of your followers engage with your content to learn more about baking.
Suddenly switching to a new niche will cause your followers to lose interest and unfollow you. Not having a niche in the first place means you won’t gain any followers at all.
Low-Quality Content
This brings about the age-old debate “quality vs quantity”. Should you post high-quality content or post more frequently?
The simple answer is to focus on producing high-quality posts that engage your followers. Low-quality content that does not interest your followers will result in you being unfollowed.
Posts That Are Too Personal
Yes, your followers do want to know about you and your life but within limits. No one needs the gnarly details of your personal life or to be confronted with a sad story every time they log onto social media.
Trauma dumping on your followers will quickly result in you being unfollowed. People use social media to escape, not to be your unpaid therapist.
Posting Inconsistently
Sporadic posting and long hiatuses between posts will quickly cause your followers to lose interest. Why would they continue following you when another content creator will develop engaging posts in consistent intervals?
People like predictability and if you are not continuously providing content, they will lose interest and unfollow you.
Fake Followers
If you have used one of the many platforms online to buy followers, ‘regular’ people will be reluctant to follow you and consume your content.
It is extremely obvious when someone has bought their followers which makes the account seem tacky and will result in people unfollowing you. People respond well to authenticity, so try growing your followers organically.
Pushing a Social or Political Agenda
Do you feel strongly about certain social or political issues? If so, the way you create your content about these issues is extremely important.
You need to be mindful of the fact that not everyone has the same belief system as you and forcing your agenda on them might come across as disrespectful. This will result in you quickly losing followers.
Bad Social Media History
Nothing stays hidden on social media and ghosts of posts past will certainly come back to haunt you. If you have ever used racial slurs, discriminatory comments, or harmful stereotypes people will certainly unfollow you.
Always remember to only post content that is respectful and steer away from controversial topics that might offend some of your followers.
Being Negative
Are you always posting about how bad life is and then wondering why you are losing followers? People do not like a Debby downer who’s going to drag them down with their content. Guess what? Everyone has problems, it is not a situation that is unique to you. Instead, tell your followers about how you have overcome your problems.
Too Much Repetition
Would you follow someone who always posts the same thing? The answer is most likely no. So why would you expect people to continue to follow you if you post different variations of the same thing?
It is boring, monotonous, and unstimulating. We get it, there are many ways to bake a cake, but sometimes all your followers want to know is how to bake scones.
Not Accepting Criticism
Sometimes your followers will give you feedback or suggestions on how to improve your content and blissfully ignoring their comments will result in them unfollowing you. Graciously accept their criticism (within reason) and try to improve your content.
Not Giving Credit
We get it, content creation is hard and coming up with unique ideas can be challenging. Therefore, it is common for people to use other people’s ideas. However, not crediting the original source is considered plagiarism and will most certainly result in you losing followers.
No one likes a dishonest or fraudulent content creator so make it your personal mission to credit the people whose ideas you have used. In fact, your followers will probably like you more because of your integrity.