Losing followers on Instagram is not easy, it’s a little heartbreaking even, but I promise you that after you read this article you’ll be able to keep that from happening often and have a different view on things.
When you’re trying to create great content or generate more exposure for your brand and this happened, you can’t help but think “what am I doing wrong?”.
There are a few reasons this could be happening to you. We’re here to help you understand why and provide some possible solutions.
Before we get into the reasons behind that, you should set your growth expectations correctly.
Setting your growth expectations
If you have been using Instagram, you probably know that it grew a lot in recent years.
The platform has roughly 1 billion active users right now, which means there are a lot more people, creating tons of content to supply the demand, so you have more competition than ever.
So what does that mean for you? Basically, accounts won’t grow organically at the same rate they did a few years ago, and you have to understand that, or the entire experience could be frustrating.
Of course, there are ways to work around this with paid promotions, or you could try out Nitreo for example.
The bottom line is, once you accept this, including the fact that you might be losing Instagram followers from time to time, things will be a lot smoother.
Post consistently, post correctly
We’ve talked about this in a previous article, and don’t want to repeat ourselves too much, but if we’re saying it again, it’s really important.
You should have a posting schedule based on the time your audience is active, this is part of our article on developing your growth strategy.
If you post only once or twice a week, this is a problem as your content won’t be out there for people to interact, and the more people interact with it, the more it will show up for them and others on the Explore page.
Now, if you post too much every day your account might be tagged by Instagram as spam, and this will heavily affect it, it could even result in a shadowban.
Your goal should be to post at least once a day on your feed and stories, taking some time to engage with your audience a few times over the day.
Losing Instagram followers is not that scary
Don’t get me wrong, you shouldn’t be losing followers constantly, if this is happening something might be wrong and there are ways to remedy it.
Sometimes people will follow you instantly because they saw your content and enjoyed it, but maybe it wasn’t really what they were looking for and that’s ok.
There is no way to please everyone, remember that your content will always be enjoyed by the correct audience. You should keep creating your content to provide content to them and your page will flourish.
We talk more about it in this article on organic growth.
You might be promoting too much
Instagram is great for brands and small businesses, but you want to engage with your audience with the correct amount of content vs. promoting.
Take me as an example, if a page I follow goes on a promoting spree and posts sales-related content several times a day, let’s say over a period of a week, it doesn’t look good, it might even damage your image to a few followers.
In the end, you might be asking yourself “why am I losing Instagram followers?”, and the answer could be just that, you forgot to post cool content about your brand or niche and focused too much on the business side of things.
Try to find the balance on this and you’ll have a much happier following, I assure you.
Check out your follower’s profiles
You don’t have to do this every single day, but it’s good practice to pick a few profiles every now and then.
If they have cool content, interact with it! Like and comment on their posts, this will give them a good feeling and show that you’re all about keeping a good relationship with your community.
You don’t have to follow them, as it is always good to keep a good follower/following ratio, but just interacting with the audience is a great boost to your brand identity.
If you do this, followers are less likely to unfollow your page, since you’re such a cool guy/girl (⌐■_■).
Work within your niche, but be flexible
Certain niches are highly saturated with content and with that comes a lot of competition.
You can consider changing your page a bit and post content related to another niche. You don’t have to change it entirely, but try exploring different subjects to attract more people.
Doing this in a unique way can be quite helpful and will also be interesting to your current followers, as changing things up from time to time will pick up their attention.
Remember to keep the focus on your ideal audience though, as you don’t want to wander too far away from what they are used to.
Master the essentials
Stop and take a look at what needs improvement, there is always something new to learn or a new strategy to apply.
Review things you already know and look for new information on them. Too much knowledge on a subject is not a thing.
As you master each of the essentials, your content will be a lot better and you should stop losing Instagram followers, or at least bring it down to a point it won’t make a difference.
Take time to write your bio
Your bio is a short introduction to your content and one of the most important features of Instagram.
Users should be at least interested in following you from just reading your bio, but many creators choose to leave their bio blank don’t use it correctly.
Always try to include in your bio a sample of what the audience will find as well as a link to your website, store or newsletter.
Take those pages as examples:
All of those brands are on point with their profile bio providing accurate information and linking to their portfolio or store.
Check out brands you follow and see what you might be doing differently and what you can replicate.
Final thoughts
If you make adjustments based on what you just read, you will see followers sticking around for a lot longer.
Running Instagram for your brand is no easy task, but if you dedicate yourself things will be a lot better.
There is no way to change how Instagram works or what people like, but if you create great content, your brand will definitely thrive not just on Instagram but on any social media platform.
I hope to keep on helping you grow and optimize your page.
Be sure to check out Nitreo if you are looking for a safe and easy way to boost your account!
Red is the content creator for this blog, working directly with the Nitreo team, he aims to help clients and Instagram users to optimize their content and metrics. He is also a photographer obsessed with urban photography and portraits, so you can expect a few posts about Instagram photography from time to time as well.
Red has worked as a Portuguese translator and interpreter for over 7 years, he also felt really weird writing this bio in the third person.