No matter who you are or what you create, we’re all going to be a little biased when it comes to our own content. That last post of your morning coffee looks great. At least that’s what you thought. If you’re sitting there wondering why you keep losing followers, consider these common mistakes that could be annoying your audience.
Creating Content That Is Too Long Or Wordy
Keeping your audience’s attention is key to any sort of success on social media. The problem is, nowadays, in the fast-paced and always-on-the-go world we live in, it seems as though our attention spans really aren’t what they used to be. That makes keeping your audience’s attention all the greater of a challenge. Still, it’s a challenge anyone can accomplish if they take the time to do it right.
The biggest factor in losing your followers’ attention is creating content that is too long or wordy. Make sure to keep your content as clear and concise as possible. If you find you can’t get your message across in three paragraphs, be sure to link to a blog where readers can choose to read more on the topic.
Creating Content That Is Not Visually Appealing
After all, the most important element of social media is the visual. If you aren’t great with photography or design, use curated or user-generated content to your advantage. Great tools to keep your visuals on point include websites like Canva and Pexels.
“Online consumers can retain only 10 to 20% of the information they read or hear about, but once that information is paired with visual elements, the information retained suddenly goes up to 65%.” – Business 2 Community
When it comes to your captions, be sure that you are breaking up your thoughts into small paragraphs to make it easier for your readers. Long blocks of text can be intimidating and make your audience skip over your thoughts. You can say just as much but retain your followers’ attention just by dividing it strategically. Too much long, unbroken text too often is going to cause some followers to want to not stick around.
Getting Too Personal Or Not Getting Personal Enough
This can be a tricky one to find the right balance for. You want to create content that speaks to your audience and builds a relationship through honesty and authenticity. This is content that people can really relate to. But like any relationship, you don’t want it to get creepy.
You want to be interested in your audience and what they like so that you can create content targeted toward them, but you don’t want to take it too far. With privacy concerns becoming more and more prominent, you don’t want to have your audience feel like you’re pushing them and breaking boundaries. That’ll lose you followers immediately!
Posting Too Much
This is where things like content calendars can be really helpful to your brand. To gain and keep followers you can’t post way too much, but you also need to stay consistent, because you don’t want to completely disappear from your audience’s feed. Just like many things on this list, you need to find a balance. Make sure you post often enough that you stay on people’s minds, but not too much that they get annoyed with you or tired of you.
Posting on your feed more than a couple of times a day can feel kind of spammy. It can also do more harm than good with algorithms showing your posts to fewer people.
Have lots to share in your feed? Use the multiple photos option or even post the content in your stories.
Your Content Pushes Too Much For Sales
No one wants to feel as though they are just another customer to you. If people think all you want to do is make money, they’re going to unfollow you. Of course, they know you’re a business, but you need to show them that you care about them beyond a dollar sign.
Make sure your content is telling a story and not just promoting your products or brand 24/7. An easy way to make sure your followers don’t get bored fast is by posting content related to your industry or even a behind-the-scenes look at your company and the people in it.
Social Media Purges
You’ve gone through this list thinking, “but I am making sure not to do the above and I’m still losing followers?” Well, honestly, you could be a victim of the social media purges that get rid of all bots and fake accounts. In that case, be happy to see who your real and authentic followers are. Bots wouldn’t give you the engagement and new clients you want anyway. Fewer followers are better than inactive, fake followers.
Losing followers is completely normal and seeing a fluctuation in numbers is just part of the social media game. Your content really just might not be for some people. But with these tips, you should be able to build and keep a loyal following that will continue to follow along on your business journey.
Want help building your online community? Contact us today for a FREE discovery session with our team!
Don’t want to miss any of our awesome content? Then subscribe to our newsletter below. We will only email you once a MONTH, we promise!
This blog post was originally published in May 2019 and has been edited to improve accuracy and readability.
