How to stop losing followers on Instagram?! Being unfollowed on Instagram is an inseparable part of a creator’s life and something we have to accept – that’s just a part of the process of growing your profile. You lose some people, but you gain new ones (who are hopefully more engaged and more interested in what you have to say and offer, than the ones who got away). Tough love, and it hurts anyway, I know! Noticing a sudden follower drop can feel like having your heart ripped out, and you start asking yourself: hey, what is wrong with my content? Why don’t they love it? What’s happening? It can be highly discouraging – I’ve struggled with it as well, and the same set of questions popped into my mind at the time. Honestly, I think every single creator out there has struggled with the concept of losing followers, old followers going away, and being overwhelmed with the challenge of building a thriving, LOYAL community. And that’s why many of them give up on their content before seeing success.
That’s why I’m here for you! – to help you figure out why you’re losing followers and what to do about it, instead of worrying or giving up. In this article, I’m covering how to find and understand the reasons your followers are unfollowing you, how to make them stay, and whether it’s true that you can check who has unfollowed you. Let’s dive in!
In this post, you’ll learn the following: 🌟
Is It Really Normal to Lose Instagram Followers? How to Stop Losing Followers on Instagram?
Tough love, once more: not everybody will adore your ideas and your posts forever – they have the right to change their mind, and hey, everybody’s interests and hobbies change with time. Of course, you might unknowingly be doing some things your community doesn’t like, the things that cause your followers to unfollow you, but trust me: most of the time, the reasons why they leave you aren’t even personal, and it’s totally normal.
Instagram has a simple policy when it comes to the following-unfollowing thing. If someone unfollows you, ‘Gram will neither ask them for a reason behind their decision nor will it let you know. That’s actually the beauty of the platform: they respect our privacy.
What to do When You Lose Instagram Followers
Is It Possible to Check Who Unfollowed You? 👀
The answer is both yes, and no.
Well, we don’t have access to a long list of people who unfollowed you if that’s what you are looking for. There is no special feature to check it. You can’t check the usernames of the people who unfollowed you, but you can see how many users left your profile last week, and last month, so it’s absolutely possible to track the numbers, but not the (user)names.
However, if you’re someone who has 100 or even 200 followers, theoretically, it might be possible to see who unfollowed you. But when you’re a content creator with more than 500 followers, you just can’t possibly remember the names of all your followers or keep a log of who followed or unfollowed you – your community is just too big to track this data. It takes a looot of memory, time and scrolling. So yeah, if you have a large following, it’s a challenge to know who unfollowed you – actually, I think it’s almost impossible.
Why have I used the word almost? Of course, some apps out there make it possible, BUT (yup, I use caps lock intentionally!) the whole 3rd party apps thing is very controversial. I’d recommend using only the official Meta partners; apps (like our IQ Hashtags’ one), because using anonymous apps that don’t guarantee you data security can be hazardous – and you don’t want to give your login and your password to anyone, right?
Is Losing Followers Always Bad for Your Account? Why Do People Decide to Leave Your Profile?
I bet you have the same tendency if you’re just like me.
When someone unfollows me on IG, I can’t help but overthink and overanalyze what I did wrong. But just as I’ve said before, most of the reasons why people unfollow us aren’t personal, so we should stop overanalyzing because it leaves us feeling a little crappy, right? The definition of good, engaging content is VERY subjective. There are plenty of reasons why we shouldn’t take it personally. Let’s discuss some of them to feel better.
What to do when you lose Instagram followers
- Follow/unfollow Game
Follow/unfollow game is an overly popular tactic new creators use to gain followers. How exactly does it work? They follow 100-400 new profiles ALMOST EVERY DAY, and hope half of them will follow back. Then they unfollow them. So now, we can see that the follow/unfollow method is a gateway drug. Should you worry about those people? Nah. They obviously aren’t your target audience, and they care about vanity metrics way too much.
- You’ve changed your content pillars
If your Instagram profile is all about fitness and baking fit, sugar-free cakes, when you start posting lots of outfit and dog posts, you can be unfollowed. If your profile is all about taking care of siberian huskies, and you begin posting only about latino dancing, you will lose followers. Followers signed on with your profile for a reason, and to keep them with you, you have to give your community what it wants! If you change your content pillars, unfortunately, you need to be prepared to lose some followers.
- You’re posting too inconsistently
If you’ve noticed that you’re losing your Instagram followers more than you’re attracting the new ones, your posting schedule could definitely be one of the reasons why. I know it sounds cliche, but unfortunately, it’s true: consistency MATTERS.
People who haven’t heard from you in a while can forget your charm and unfollow you.
What to Do When You Notice a Follower Drop? What to do When You Lose Instagram Followers?
In the end, if someone unfollows your profile, it may be just because they’re not a part of your community, or your target audience at all. You will attract those who are, and that’s the ultimate goal!
Don’t focus on the ones who got away – focus on making the rest of your tribe stay, and attract new, engaged followers. How? If you’re struggling to grow your profile, I’m going to show you the best practices that will help you achieve your Instagram goals.
1. Develop a posting schedule and stick to it
Here’s rule number one: half the work is done by just… Showing up. Ideally every day – remember that almost everything you do can become Instagram stories material. Connect with your audience through posts, Reels, and stories, by simply being there for them, and giving them something to think about. What’s even better, when posting consistently, you are telling the algorithm that you’re taking care of your community and that you are showing up for your people. The platform is all about how they can increase the time users spend consuming the content, so if you are showing up for your audience, Instagram will make sure to show your posts to new potential followers!
2. If you are rebranding or changing your content pillars, prepare your followers.
This is a problem many creators are guilty of. We are changing our interests, and keep posting off-topic content out of the blue, and leave our followers quite disoriented. If you are changing your content pillars too often, hey, you are always leaving a part of your community back out there in the rain! They may have decided to follow you for your beautiful macro photos, but now you suddenly decide you want to be a fitness guru.
3. Use hashtags more strategically.
If you’re using some hashtags but you aren’t really sure about the ones you’re choosing, or can’t tell whether they’re even working – leave your worries behind, this is my fav topic of Instagram discussions, and you’ll find plenty of posts about hashtags right here on the blog. Hashtags are a must-have for any working content strategy, as they help you attract new followers. If you aren’t researching good hashtags, you aren’t necessarily going to be unfollowed, but you surely won’t gain as many new followers as you can.
Check out this hashtag guide where I’m talking all about maximizing the hashtags power.
To wrap-up! 💬
Can you see who unfollowed your profile? No, not specifically. But you can see a lot of data about your overall post performance, and whole profile performance inside of Instagram analytics. And THAT matters. Focus on getting found by your target audience, the right kind of people!
PS. Be sure to keep up with me and the rest of IQ Hashtags’ Marketing Team on Instagram, if you aren’t already!
We know you will love her passion for anecdotes, remarkable insights, and her new addiction - Reels! 📸
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