Probably because people now dislike your face! Lol, just kidding.
There are two reasons why your IG audience may not be growing. Firstly, it could be that you’re losing followers. Secondly, it could be because you aren’t attracting new followers.
If the former, then that’s bad. If the latter, that’s worse. But if the both, then that’s the worst!
Whatever the category you find yourself in, below are some of the reasons why your account may be struggling to keep hold of old followers or attract new ones.
Common reasons you may be struggling to keep hold of Instagram followers
1. You lack consistency
Many Instagrammers are guilty of varying the quality of their posts.
By quality, we mean posting high-resolution content at some points and then following it up with wishy-washy content later.
Once you start delivering a certain kind of content, your audience becomes accustomed to it and expects that you’ll always continue like that. In the hopes of that, they tell their friends and followers about you so that they too can follow you and be a part of your awesome content.
The moment you start compromising, some of these followers will unfollow you, and others will stop the free PR they’ve been giving you.
2. You’re not showing frequently in viewers’ feeds
Did you know that not all your followers see your posts on Instagram? Instagram uses some factors to determine what each user can see in their feed. These factors include:
- Interest: How much Instagram predicts you’ll care about a post
- Timeliness: How recent the posts are
- Relationship: The accounts you regularly interact with.
Of all these factors, “interest” is the most important. But how does Instagram know which post you’ll be most interested in? You wonder.
By evaluating the engagement of all the posts made by the accounts you follow. The posts with the highest engagement (likes, comments, shares, followers, etc.) are perceived to be “liked very much” by other users. And if others are interested in it, then chances are you too will be.
This is why you sometimes see people going to buy Instagram likes, comments, and followers. With a high number of likes, for example, you can convince the Instagram algorithm that people really like your content, and then the algorithm can reward you with a presence in the feeds of everyone following you.
Remember, if you do not frequently appear in people’s feeds, it’s only a matter of time before they assume you are inactive and unfollow you.
3. You’re not engaging your audience
Are you fond of not replying to comments, not responding to DMs, and not engaging with other people’s posts? If so, then it’s not surprising to hear that people have been unfollowing you.
Instagram is a “social” network – i.e., a place where two or more persons socialise. Not a place for one-sided interactions.
If you want to keep hold of followers, you need to keep them engaged at all times by interacting with them.
Common reasons you may be struggling to attract new Instagram followers
4. You don’t use hashtags effectively
Hashtags are meant to help those not following you discover your content. When you don’t use hashtags effectively or don’t use them at all, you risk limiting your “awesome content” only to existing followers.
Want to start attracting more followers today? Up your hashtagging game! A good place to start is using some hashtagging tools like Display Purpose, Focalmark, and AutoHash to develop relevant hashtags for your posts.
5. You have a low number of followers
Let’s face it; nobody likes to interact with a “nobody.” If all you have on your profile are a couple of friends and family running your number to under 1k followers, you may struggle to attract new followers.
For you to woo people into hitting the “follow” button on your profile, they need to see that there are lots of followers on your page. Honestly speaking, nobody likes to follow a page with a meager number of followers.
That’s why we recommend buying IG followers today – even if it’s just twice the number of followers you currently have.
6. You don’t interact with other accounts
Who else notices how influencers often feature in one another’s videos? The idea is to tap into the audience of others.
Being alone in your IG world can do your account more harm than good. So, go out there and strike collaborations with other accounts in your niche or similar niches.
All you need is a shoutout, a mention, or an appearance in other peoples’ pages to get noticed by an entirely new audience.
7. You aren’t maximising Instagram’s features
Instagram has provided you with feed posts, Stories, Reels, Live videos, IGTV, captions, stickers, and several other attention-grabbing tools.
If you are struggling to attract followers, chances are you’re under-using all that Instagram has provided you.
Adopting all the features will help expand your reach, giving you more opportunities to tap into all the areas you’re yet to tap into.
Take Stories, for instance; they help you expand your application of captions and hashtags, both of which are tools needed for brand exposure.