It sucks when you don't get followed back. A common social media goal is to grow your following, which takes a lot of time and ongoing efforts into cultivating a larger community.
You're doing your best and yet you're still not getting followed back. Why is that? Read on to find out why that might be happening and what steps you can take today.
Why It's Happening
We already know that new people or businesses you follow will receive a notification that you've started following them. Those accounts have a few courses of action they can take in response.
An unfortunate reality is that some will never check out what you do or follow you back.
In most cases, however, the people behind those accounts will often be curious about the new follower and will check out your profile to read your bio and check out some of your content. That's because they want to see what you're all about. If your content looks interesting and valuable to them, they'll likely follow you back.
That said, even the most interesting and valuable content can't get you followed back if new users are encountering some red flags. Those include:
- A follower count that's significantly higher than your following count, especially if you're a small business. That could make it look like you buy followers or simply follow people to get them to follow you and then immediately unfollow them once you get what you want. Both demonstrate that you're interested in vanity metrics, not in forming real relationships.
- Constantly repeating the same content. There's no harm in repurposing content or messaging, but when it's repeated verbatim and regularly, it's not adding value, it's sharing the same thing in the vain hope that it'll convert.
- Writing your bio in a spammy way. Just think of any Forex trader who's ever followed you on Instagram and what their bios look like, and you have your definition of a suspicious-looking bio.
If first-time visitors to your page see any of these red flags or feel your content isn't relevant to them, they won't follow you back. If you've struck gold by crafting messages that resonate with them, they'll be more inclined to follow you back.
As you can see, it's likely the number of accounts that follow you back will likely be much smaller than the number of new accounts you've followed.
What You Can Do About It
Hope is not lost — there are steps you can take to encourage more accounts to follow you back. Addressing the red flags we discussed earlier is the best place to start. Reconsider how you repurpose content and how often you do it, and modify your social media strategy to reflect that.
If you buy followers or use the follow-then-unfollow tactic, stop it immediately. It's seriously harming your business and hurting your brand's reputation. Turn your attention to building authentic relationships. This will take more time than the instant gratification from purchased followers, but the followers you gain through authentic interactions will be more likely to convert to customers.
Writing a bio or About Us on social media should be succinct, clear about what you do, and use emojis sparingly while avoiding ones that are red flags for spam.
Conclusion
Not getting followed back will always sting a little, and there is no one-size-fits-all formula that'll ensure you get followed back every time. Taking small steps like the ones outlined in this post will increase your chances of growing your community.
Making sure your social media strategy includes other growth tactics will also increase the chances of you getting followed back. Valuable content, consistent posting, and engaging with your community by replying to comments and asking for peoples' input will all add incentive to follow you back.
