You wanna lose followers?

Of course not. No one does. In fact, pretty much all of us are involved in trying to get as many followers as possible!

But you may unwittingly be doing things that are turning your audience off… without knowing it.

So here are some things you may be doing that will make you lose followers:

1. Posting too frequently: Best practices for most Facebook pages is about 1 post per 24 hour period. It’s fine to post more, but I wouldn’t go beyond 3-4 posts per day, and make sure they are spaced out over the course of the day, not in a clump. You can get away with more posts if you have larger amounts of fans, as a rule of thumb. With Twitter, 3-5 posts spaced out over the course of day is good, and with Instagram, follow similar rules to Facebook.
2. Posting repetitive content: The problem with FB’s algorithm is that many people feel that, if their stuff is not being seen the first time, they can repost it. This isn’t exactly true. There’s nothing wrong with reposting content on a different day at a different time, but make sure you change up your wording or choose a different image to display so that it looks different. With Twitter, I often recycle tweets, but I make sure to post them on different days, at different times of the day, to reach different audiences.
3. Boring content: You can’t talk about yourself all the time. It’s boring. Mix it up. Pull in other people’s content, create inspirational quotes, or post jokes to keep things upbeat. Pull in something personal occasionally, put faces to your business. Run contests. Basically, try to create variety and interest in what you’re posting. And don’t forget to add value. It’s the most important thing of all. People will always come back for valuable content, but make sure that it’s on brand. Try some of the ideas here.

Today’s world of social media is tough–attention is the #1 ROI, and it’s hard to get. When someone follows you on social media, or subscribes to your blog or your newsletter, that’s a commitment you need to take seriously. Make it worth their while to continue following you.