A recent question on a Facebook business group prompted a frank discussion on why people unfollow social media accounts. Here were some of the different reasons people gave for unfollowing on Instagram:
Follow then unfollow
The biggest pet peeve people didn’t like was accounts who followed and then unfollow a few days afterwards. This was a tactic used in the early days to quickly grow your total number of followers to a large number. It was a tactic used by bots and may be paid for. Fortunately, Instagram now penalises this type of activity.
Selling and advertising
People agreed that posting too many advertisements for their business was a reason they unfollowed. Other people disliked too many sponsored posts. You might like to keep your number of calls to action to a minimum.
When you set up your social media accounts it is good to write down your goals. For example, the main purpose of my Instagram account is to drive traffic to my website. However, it’ll probably annoy my followers if I add a call to action like ‘visit my website’ on every photo caption.
Poor photo content and quality
The responders complained about the content of the photos. Different people had different personal preferences here. Some people didn’t like shopping trolly hauls. Other people were turned off by mixing personal topics with business. Oversharing might work for celebrity influencers, but it is best to keep your personal life on a separate personal account.
I’m not a fan of hearing about your religion, weddings, births, health issues and injuries that aren’t directly related to your product and services.
Responders disliked over edited photos and blurry photos. I try to take photos in natural sunlight and minimise my use of filters to a couple so the overall look is consistent.
Creating a Patterned Feed
Some people found the grid photo set up annoying. This is where someone will post 9 photos in a row so that it creates a mega photo in their feed. Remember that very few people will look at your feed and profile by itself (usually when they first follow).
Captions and Comments
Other turn-offs on social media were overly sexist comments, swearing, calling children sexy or using inappropriate language.
Posting frequency
People decided to unfollow accounts if the owner posted more than three times a day, or if they posted a few times straight after each other. This might be a sign that the user is brand new to the platform and still working out the rules.
Loop competitions
Loop competitions annoy me to no end. These are ones where you have to follow everyone in a long list. It’s so easy to get distracted and then not complete the task. I tend to ignore loop competitions now.
What are some of the reasons you unfollow a social media account?