Clearly, a key company and individual goal is to have people “like” their social media efforts enough that they become loyal to those efforts. When too many followers abandon social media sites, there is a big problem for marketers.
So, why do people “unfollow” brands? If we can understand the reasons, we can improve our social media approach.
As Andrea Lehr writes for HubSpot:
“One of the most important things a brand can do is understand its target audience. What do they worry about? Where do they hang out? How do they prefer to interact with brands?”
“When they dive into answering these questions, many businesses discover that social media are a goldmine for their marketing efforts. Not only are social networks a popular place for people to hang out on, but also consumers expect brands to have a presence on social media. (And when people follow a brand on Twitter, 72% of followers are more likely to make a future purchase from that brand.)”
“To capitalize on these trends, businesses focus on getting new followers in the door — but that’s not all you should be concerned about. Just because you’ve convinced someone to follow your company’s account doesn’t mean they’ll stay. In today’s competitive market, retention is crucial. So what causes people to stop following brands on twitter? BuzzStream and Fractl conducted a survey with more than 900 respondents to better understand why.”
The survey revealed three main reasons for people unfollowing brands: (1) Too much of content is self-promotional or uninteresting. (2) There is too much emphasis on automated messaging; and too little emphasis on personal engagement. (3) Hashtags and platform-specific symbols are used improperly.
Click the image to read more from HubSpot.
