Having a profitable Facebook, Instagram or Twitter account depends on your ability to not only capture but also keep your followers interested.

After all, you don't want to waste the time, effort (and probably money) you put into bringing new followers to your account.

Here are the main reasons why people unfollow you:

1. You focus too much on selling

The main reason why people unfollow you is because your content is only about shouting to the world how good you are and what it is that you sell, and that is just plain boring.

Tip: Make sure you provide value in all your posts, even when you are showcasing your work or products, there is always interesting data to share.

For example, if you are sharing an interior or graphic design, you can share tips in the caption about how you made it unique or any innovative elements that it has (Color combinations, styles and trends used)

If you are sharing photos of food that you sell you can give tips on what to pair it with, nutritional facts about it or even mention occasions for which your dish is appropriate (romantic dinners, rainy sunday, etc))

That immediately transforms the post on information that could inspire or help others and give them a reason to stay with you for more.

2. Too many posts

Several studies have demonstrated that many people unfollow brands that post too many times (6 or more posts a day). These are considered spammy.

Tip: Post in a strategic and balanced way. If you are not able to post for a couple days. Dont overwhelm your audience with all the pending posts in the same day. Dose your content.

3. Automated direct messages

A study by Buzzstream showed that more than 30% of people will stop following you if they receive automatic messages from your account. Don't do it!

Tip: Let your followers write direct messages to you. Invite them to do so in some posts. It is OK to have automated replies if they reach out to you first.

Important! When they write you a DM give them five-star attention. Direct messages are where the sales happen!

4. Irrelevant Hashtags

In the same study, 20% of users indicated that they stop following accounts for using irrelevant hashtags because they perceive them as spam.

Tip: Use only relevant hashtags for your content. Even if there are only a few. Quality over quantity. Avoid using #follow4follow #like4like or any other generic junk hashtags

5. Low interaction

If people are making comments, asking you questions or sending you DMs and you don't reply them or it takes you a long time to answer, many of them will stop following you.

Tip: Answer as many DMs and comments as you can, or at least like those you don't think deserve a response. That way your followers feel that you are connecting with them.

All the reasons mentioned are things that are under your control, it is a matter of focusing on training and learning to mitigate each one of them.

That is what we are here for, to share all those things that we have learned working for our clients and that we would have appreciated if someone told us when we were starting up.