Losing followers on Instagram can be a terrifying reality. However, once you identify the cause, you can fix it and stop losing followers.

The followers you lose were never truly interested in you, your product or service, so it's actually very beneficial for you to lose them as followers, because they wouldn't have turned into customers anyway.

The Instagram algorithm favours accounts with a high level of engagement. This means that when it detects that your followers are engaged in interacting with you through likes, comments and DMs, your engagement level goes up. When Instagram realises you have a high level of engagement, it pushes your account further to non-followers and causes overall exposure to grow.

But if you have a group of followers for no reason, it lowers your Instagram engagement and blocks your account's growth on Instagram.

But what should you do if: you post consistently, you use the right hashtags, yet for some reason your Instagram follower count not only isn't growing, it's actually shrinking. Random follower loss in the app isn't actually that random, and if you think you're losing them for no reason, check what you're doing wrong.

How to stop losing followers on social media:

1. Post regularly, but don't be pushy - you're probably not posting often enough, or on the contrary, you're posting too much

When it comes to posting, it's important to maintain the right balance. You want to post enough to make sure you reach your target audience and don't disappear in the sea of posts. However, you don't want to post too much, so your audience isn't flooded with posts all over their timeline.

Tip:

First, post at least once a day on the social platform – whether it's Instagram posts, Stories, IGTV or reels. If you have to choose, Stories is a very popular option with followers.

Second, share a feed post two to three times a week. You can increase the frequency depending on how your audience reacts, but you probably shouldn't decrease it.

2. Stop sharing overly salesy content

The second most common reason your brand loses followers is that the content is too focused on selling. If that's the only type of content you post, you can put your audience off.

Tip:

Again, balance is key here.

In addition to posts that highlight your products and/or services, publish content that:

  • connects with your brand values
  • encourages conversation
  • builds community
  • evokes emotion - makes your audience laugh
  • inspires followers - shares an interesting fact

Funny content is the most effective at gaining followers, shares and engagement on Instagram.

 

3. Don't buy followers or bots

Although buying bots to create the appearance of a strong follower base is tempting, in the long run it brings no benefit at all.

Tip:

Instead, focus on organically building your follower list through a consistent posting schedule, sharing valuable content, following trends and analysing your data.

Losing followers in this case is an opportunity to rebuild your Instagram page and get more reliable data about your audience.

4. Create a consistent aesthetic and brand recognition

One of the things followers love is consistency in action.

Brand consistency and creative assets are key to building strong company recognition. What's more, it also helps build an visually appealing profile. The lack of it makes it difficult to understand what your brand is about, which in turn results in unfollowing.

Tip:

Find out what your brand identity and visual aesthetic are at an early stage of the company-building process. You can use tools such as Canva to build a visual profile that stays consistent across all platforms.

5. Keep up with trends and your followers

Selling would be so simple if your audience's interests and behaviours always stayed the same. Unfortunately, they don't, which means you have to stay up to date with what attracts and retains your audience. One of the most effective ways to do this is to rely on your data.

Tip:

If you used to use images, you might want to consider switching to video.

Your Instagram strategy should be directed where your content enjoys your followers' attention. Your data and statistics don't lie - read properly, they show what's worth posting.