10 Mistakes On Instagram Can Make You Lose Followers

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide – with millions of active users today, this app is the number one platform you and your brand should be using. As a brand, in order to become successful on Instagram gaining a following is top priority. Unfortunately, the reality of getting people to follow you is harder than you think, but losing them is easy!

Most brands spend days, weeks or even months working on their account but seeing no results and/or worse, seeing an overall big drop in followers. There are several reasons why you could be losing followers on your Instagram; and the last thing your business should be doing is driving away followers because of these common mistakes.

So want to know what you’re doing wrong? Here are the 10 mistakes you are doing on Instagram that could be the reason why you are losing followers:

Photograph Quality

Photography is everything – if you didn’t know by now! Low quality photos are not going to cut it, sorry! Don’t think it’s EVER okay to post hard to see – blurry, dark and fuzzy photos. If you’re using Instagram professionally, take the time to choose, edit and post all of your content.

Maybe ask for a second pair of eyes to check for you just in case!

Not Consistent or Posting More Than You Should

Which of them are you doing? First of all, not posting consistently, people will start to forget you, and you definitely don’t want that to happen. You’ve probably heard it before and I’m certain you’ll hear it again; Consistency is KEY. On the other hand, if you’re posting way too much, let’s say 5 or more times a day, your audience will easily get annoyed by you which will lead them to hit the unfollow button.

The best way to keep an audience to remember you and happy is keeping it to 1-3 posts a day, or at a bare minimum, 5 posts per week.

You Aren’t Making Your Feed “Easy On The Eyes”

If you have no visual theme going on your feed – what is the point? Your brand should have a consistent theme that flows together; after all you’ve brought in a specific audience who is engaged with your content, if you randomly post a picture completely opposite from what you represent, don’t be surprised when you see your following decrease.

Before starting an Instagram account, brainstorm ideas of how you’d like to present yourself as an individual and/or brand. Using apps like VSCO, Planoly or UNUM are great to use when planning and previewing your photos before actually posting it on Instagram.

No Engagement

Do you really think if you post, sit back and relax, magic will happen? Think again; you should treat others the way you’d like to be treated. If you want engagement to happen, you need to work for it.

If someone leaves a comment on your recent photo, reply to them; it’s an opportunity for you to start a conversation, maybe even turn a follower into a customer. Block out some free time when you post so that you can respond to any questions or comments quickly.

Buying Fake Comments and/or Likes

It’s tempting right? I mean, you are paying something to do your work for you! Unfortunately, as it may be the easy way out, it could get you in trouble, and by trouble I mean, Instagram might end up deleting or banning your account – and that is probably the last thing you would want to happen.

It may take a big chunk of your time each day, but if you want your account to grow, focus on being genuine, providing value and engaging with your audience in an authentic manner!

Horrible Captions

It’s easy to post a caption – but if it’s not engaging enough or doesn’t keep your audience invested, it could cause you to lose some followers.

Brainstorm catchy, appealing and/or captions that provide value to the content you are posting. Think and consider including some of the following things like, the context behind the image, the story, asking a question and using a call to action.

Not Using Hashtags

Hashtags are a big factor of Instagram – if you don’t use them, nobody will find you. Hashtags allow your content to be seen by users worldwide, it’s a way to build a new audience every single day.

Make sure you are using proper hashtags that are related to the content published. If you are unsure of what hashtags to use, you can easily type in the search bar on Instagram to see the most popular hashtags or check out your competitor’s pages to see what they may be using.

You Provide No Value or Entertainment

Ask yourself this – does your profile provide any purpose? If not, then that’s probably why you aren’t seeing any success on your account. If you want to grow an audience, or keep the ones you have now, happy, you need to provide some kind of value or entertainment.

For instance, are they trying to eat healthy? Provide them with some tips or video tutorials of healthy quick recipes. Fill a void for them and they’ll want to keep coming back.

You Are Not Being Proactive

Like I mentioned above, you can’t expect your Instagram to grow by sitting back and doing absolutely nothing Like everything else, there is a level of effort and work that needs to be put in to see upward growth and to keep your current followers around. That effort comes in the form of engaging with your audience, or potential audience, on a daily basis.

You need to set some time aside every single day to like, comment and engage with others in the same niche as you; this is the secret to getting people to start noticing your feed.

You Are Being “Too Salesy”

If you’re constantly promoting your product without providing any value, your audience will get bored and unfollow you. Obviously, Instagram is a platform where you can easily promote your products to your audience in hopes you make a sale(s), but there is most certainly a difference between selling and being sales-y.

Recently Adidas posted a photo of new shoes with a caption saying, “Design with purpose. The new @adidas by @stellamccartney Parley #UltraBOOSTX. Swipe to discover how high performance meets eco-innovation through Parley Ocean Plastic.” The photos were close up details of the shoe as well as an overall shot. This caption, not even once, forces you to buy the shoes, instead it provides value in the form of education.

If every caption you write states, “Buy these sneakers for $30, just click the link in my bio,” you will no doubt lose a ton of followers.

Which of these are you already doing? Now that you know these common mistakes, it’s never too late to fix them! Sooner or later, you’ll notice a sudden change to your Instagram account!