10 Reasons Why People Unfollow Your Instagram Account

You have spent a significant amount of time and effort to share something that you value, but you end up losing people in your follower count anyway. This is something significant to business accounts since Instagram is the platform that they use to market their product or service. For personal accounts, one might contemplate on themselves for reasons why such thing is happening to their account.

When people unfollow your Instagram account, it creates a certain impact on the owner. One can sulk in the drop in followers, or use it as an opportunity to learn more about themselves and the people who follow, or in this case, unfollowed, them. It is true that you cannot please everyone, and that’s okay. When, however, the number of your followers drop significantly, you should be alarmed.

We have listed some reasons why people unfollow your Instagram account. Whatever your intention for setting up your account in the first place, it is important to evaluate the type of content you have in your posts. It can help you not only understand why you have lost followers but will also help you maintain and even gain more followers in the future. You can learn from your mistakes, and from the pitfalls of other users.

#1 Lack of Engagement

Minimal to lack of engagement with your followers is a reason why people unfollow your Instagram account. Remember that Instagram is a social channel: it allows users to take part in content sharing, an online exchange, and community engagement. Take time to value the people who find your account interesting.

There are several ways for you to engage to avoid people unfollowing your Instagram account. You can respond to their comments on your post, even a simple acknowledgement whenever they complement will do. You can also like, comment on, and share posts of those you follow. Should you find interesting posts, you can tag them in those as well.

#2 Overly Emotional Posts

Your overly emotional posts are also reasons why people unfollow your Instagram account. We don’t always have days filled with sunshine and rainbows, we also have our cloudy and rainy days too. Although expressing yourself is absolutely your discretion in your account, your followers don’t like to be constantly reading how gloomy you are.

This reason why people unfollow your Instagram account is something you can work on. You can refrain from making your account an online diary, and keeping some thoughts to yourself. A change in perspective will help you in life, and in your account as well.

#3 Fishing for Compliments

Another driver for people to unfollow your Instagram account is when your posts are constantly fishing for compliments. It’s annoying when it’s socially “required” by you to like and comment on your posts. Your users end up feeling trapped into having to praise you, and they don’t want to be in that uncomfortable position.

#4 Too Many Posts at Once

When you post too many things at once, it gives people a reason to unfollow your Instagram account. You may have created your account to be associated with a certain field of interest, such as sales, travel, or food, make sure you pace your posts. Your followers may find a sudden surge of your posts overwhelming, and may be a valid cause to click the unfollow button.

One trick here is to use an automation software like Jarvee, to schedule your posts. If you want to explore more ways to schedule your Instagram posts, take a look at our article on how to save hours with Jarvee automation tools for Instagram.

Selfies are another common type of posts which flood this social media channel. With the various photo and editing features on Instagram and offered by third parties, you can get excited about sharing your different selfie angles. Be careful because although some people may find this amusing and endearing (like your admirers,) some people may perceive you as narcissistic and obnoxious.

#5 Inconsistent Posting

While having too much is a cause for people to unfollow your Instagram account, an inconsistent pacing of your posts may affect with your following as well. There may be instances when you are eager to post daily, and your followers end up getting used to and sometimes even looking forward to those. When your account suddenly becomes stagnant for a while, people will start to wonder this change in Instagram activity. You may also be posting too few posts with too much time in between, and if your followers notice your inactivity, then they may unfollow you.

#6 Contest Regrams

While contest regrams may increase your chance of winning your coveted prize, it also increases your chance of people unfollowing your Instagram account. You may be following accounts of style bloggers, and small to medium enterprises, and thus end up participating in their marketing strategy to advertise and build up their company. You can get overly enthusiastic in participating their contest since all you have to do is share a particular post and sometimes tag people and include the hashtags associated with it.

Seeing the same post over and over again in your follower’s home feed makes them annoyed, which is a reason people unfollow your Instagram account. Whenever they are tagged, your followers may feel that they are just being used for your personal gain. (You may want to consider splitting the prize with them, if you win, to pacify them.)

#7 Poor Photo and Video Quality

People unfollow your Instagram account when the quality of the photos and videos you post are of low quality. These may be due to the low pixel count of the camera used, which makes the post unclear. If this is inevitable, you may want to consider having several pictures in a collage to make it also more interesting. If you are able to have access to better media quality, you may want to check on gadgets producing products of high resolution.

Your photos and videos may have also been taken at an unflattering angle and lighting condition, which makes people unfollow your Instagram account. In food-related accounts, they may find your posts not that delectable. For accounts promoting certain products, details might not be seen well for the follower to decide on purchasing.

#8 Gross Photos and Videos

Gross Photos and videos push people to unfollow your Instagram account. Disgusting content certainly catches the attention of your followers, but makes them unfollow you as fast as they feel that those types of posts are what you post every now and then. Some would even unfollow you immediately after seeing that dead toenail, fresh wound, or filthy corner.

#9 Monitoring Follower Count

There are times when people unfollow your Instagram account because they are monitoring their follower count. They go through their list and unfollow, which may not be personal or about your posts. They might want to filter those who they see as beneficial to attaining the goals of having their own Instagram account. They may also be overwhelmed simply with the number of accounts they follow, that they opt to have certain criteria common to all they follow for easier monitoring and account management.

#10 Fake and Spam Accounts

The social channel also has a system of deleting fake and spam accounts, which result to certain accounts unfollowing your Instagram account. These accounts entice users to follow their accounts for their ulterior motives. These may also ask the followers to click on certain links which redirect the user to phishing sites, putting your identity and overall security at risk.

Wrapping Up

These are some of the reasons why people unfollow your Instagram account. Most of the ones enumerated are reasons which are within your control. Having a systematic way of managing your engagements, period of posting, and of course the content itself will make things easier for you in the long run. Basic technical knowledge of image quality is also highlighted because the social channel’s main forms of communicating and networking between users are through photos and videos.

It is important to think before posting to avoid people unfollowing your Instagram account. Ask yourself if what you are about to share will help you lead closer to the goal you have in creating your account. Whether it is a personal or professional endeavor, you brand yourself with each post you make. Collectively, it makes your followers know you better and help them decide to continue following you or not.

Instagram also has its own security measures, which is why people unfollow your account. They have established community guidelines upon one’s acceptance to the terms and conditions in being part of the social channel. It is beneficial most especially to you, the user, since you are being protected from violations and offense. Most of all, the security of your account is being valued because your account is linked to certain information which could be taken advantage of malicious people.

In sum, people unfollow your Instagram account for various reasons. Once you have identified one or more which may be the cause in your case, you are now empowered to productively act on it. There may be other reasons you can identify, which is good because you are able to acknowledge where you need to improve on.

Being more aware of yourself and your Instagram habits will help you to prevent people from unfollowing your Instagram account, and even keeping and gaining more followers. It will also help you as a person as a whole. As you may have noticed, the reasons are primarily within your control. When you improve the way you are, you are also able to relate with others better.