It is pretty inevitable to gain and lose followers. Their attention, interests, and needs change over time, so there’s a risk your content was attractive to someone in the past, but now it simply isn’t anymore. That’s how it works (or: c’est la vie, as the French people say) – gaining some new followers here, losing some old followers there.
The situation looks completely different when suddenly, one day, you wake up and notice that your following count has been dropping massively. You start worrying and sweating. You are right to be bothered! A massive drop in followers is not usual. So what could be happening to your account or your audience?
“I lost 100 Instagram followers in just one day.”
While that might cause panic, I’m here to tell you: sometimes, you have to take a few steps back to take two steps forward. The second good news is that you are not alone. If you’re checking out this article, I will assume you’ve had a similar problem and you’ve seen a similar decline in your Instagram stats lately. Let me know in the comments what it was exactly! Meanwhile, let’s investigate what this loss can mean and what to do instead of worrying.
Should You Really Worry When You’re Suddenly Losing Followers on Instagram?
Let me tell you: looking at it from a different angle, losing followers isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if they weren’t your target audience. How many followers you have is honestly more of a vanity metric. Tbh, especially when you consider that about half of your followers may be uninterested in what you have to say, they’re not engaging with your content, and they rarely watch your Instagram stories.
The bottom line and the key takeaway is: we all need to focus more on conversions than arbitrary numbers on your follower count. Nevertheless, every case is different, and that’s why it’s crucial to analyze what might be happening to you, and why those people are unfollowing you! So let’s discuss the most common reasons and problems you may be facing.
Many of Your Followers Could Be Bots and Fake Accounts
Instagram is fighting really hard against bots, and all the fake accounts. The platform prioritizes the trustworthiness of the community instead of the showy number of profiles created.
The Gram may have shut down shady, spam accounts, and if they were following you, then they’re gone forever. Instagram may have deleted many spam accounts, as they have in 2014. Don’t worry about them – it’s much better for your engagement rate if they’re gone!
Many People Follow You, Hoping That You Will Follow Them Back
And then they simply unfollow you. Unfortunately, many people still use Instagram automation tools to get more and more followers on their side. If you don’t follow these people back, a bot will unfollow your account in a couple of days.
You Unexpectedly Changed Your Niche or Your Content Pillars
Then people who followed you, who have been interested in your content pillars, would discover that posts from your profile are not what they want to see in their feeds anymore.
Real-life example, to explain the case better? Most of my base followers followed my profile for Instagram marketing content. Are they going to want to see a bunch of tips about baking the perfect carrot cake or taking care of a greyhound? I don’t really think so.
It makes sense that the profile would suffer a little for straying from the content pillars. On the other hand, if everybody was rewarded for posting all off-topic posts, there would be no need to stick to your pillars and your niche!
More posts or reels, on any topic under the sun would equal higher reach, so everybody would be doing it.
If you’ve changed your content pillars or you’ve diversified your niches, that may equal some people unfollowing you. Many of your followers wanted to hear from you about one or two content pillars — much likely, the topics you touch on in your description (in your bio). If you’re consistently posting off-topic, there’s a risk they will get fed up and then unfollow you.
What to do about it: Refocus your posts.
It’s beneficial to follow the 80/20 rule: stick with posting about your main area of interest 80 percent of the time, and use the remaining 20 percent to post about your other interests. This will help you retain your followers, while letting your creative personality shine through your profile!
You Haven’t Posted Anything in Weeks
It can be that you don’t post on a regular basis on the Gram. Maybe you haven’t posted anything in weeks, or even months? Your followers will often do some Instagram spring cleaning, and get rid of the inactive profiles —and they would include you!
You Were Following a Content Trend, Which Is No Longer Popular
The ugly truth: social media trends come and go, sometimes without any warning. Whether you realize it or not, it might be that your posts or your reels matched a particular Instagram trend which is no longer being looked for as much, and your followers have lost interest in your content.
What to do about it: Dive into your stats to have a better look at your posts, their engagement, and unfollow tendencies.
What Can You Do About the Decrease in Instagram Followers?
Is there a way? Of course, there is. Follow these3 tips to stop your followers deserting you (and yup, entertain them along the way):
- Experiment with different content formats. I experimented with reels because I began seeing them all the time on the Gram.I thought I would see what all the Reels fuss was about! To be honest,I found some really nice and surprising results! For this reason alone, and because Instagram seems to be pushing video right now, give reels a try!
- Stay consistent. So keep up a good, consistent schedule with lots of creative posts, so your followers know you don’t forget about them, and they can count on you!
- Analyze your Instagram insights. That’s actually a golden habit. For a more accurate picture of your account (the metrics that really matter), look to your IQ Hashtags’ Profile Analysis section as well.
To Wrap-up!
I hope I have shed some light on the loss of your followers. Unless your profile loses more than it gains week after week, try not to obsess too much about it. Instead, focus on how to increase your Instagram followers, and on delivering better content. That way you’ll have more control over gaining new followers!
