Although most businesses recognise the fact that social media, particularly Facebook, has become a critical component of digital marketing, many fail to build up the following that they need to truly make an impact in the highly competitive online marketplace.
Less experienced marketers, including those who are still stuck in the old ways, fail to recognise how social media marketing works very differently when compared to more traditional methods.
[Tweet “These 8 reasons could be why people are unsubscribing from your Facebook page…”]The result of this unsuitable approach is that many people unsubscribe from their brand pages on Facebook.
If you find that your social media followers are declining in number, one or more of the following could be what’s holding you back:
1 – Not Enough Updates
Many Facebook users are in the habit of cleaning up their profiles on occasion, and this process may involve removing friends and unfollowing pages that they no longer have anything to do with.
If you don’t maintain a consistent presence on your brand page, you’ll disappear into obscurity to such an extent that your reach will decline, people will stop talking about you and others will simply unsubscribe.
2 – Too Many Updates
Posting too many updates typically has an even worse impact than not posting frequently enough.
Even if your content is not promotional in nature, your followers will quickly grow tired if their own Facebook walls are constantly bombarded with updates from a single brand page.
Although the optimal posting frequency varies depending on many factors, most marketers agree that twice per day, seven days per week is usually ideal for Facebook.
Using Facebook Insights you can find out when you fans are most active around Facebook, and post around those times.
3 – Excessive Promotion
Social media is unlike most traditional forms of advertising in that it isn’t meant to be solely promotional in nature.
People are bombarded by advertisements everywhere they look, both online and in the real world, so they definitely don’t want to go out of their way to be inundated with yet more promotional content.
Keep purely promotional content for the paid advertising platforms, instead using your Facebook page as a way to provide value and establish a meaningful relationship with your audience.
4 – No Longer Relevant
Sometimes people will unsubscribe, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Perhaps your brand and its content is no longer relevant to them, in which case they see no reason to continue following your updates.
While there might not always be much you can do about this problem, you should still strive to keep your content relevant to the mission of your brand and the preferences of your target audience.
5 – Outdated Profile Information
Outdated profile information, such as incorrect street addresses, opening times or phone numbers, is sure to annoy your subscribers as well as turn away potential ones.
It can also harm your standing in the search engines, particularly in the case of local businesses, which rely heavily on local citations with accurate and consistent contact information.
Make sure that all of your profile information is kept current at all times.
6 – Little Engagement
Social media marketing is all about building up an engaged audience, but if you are failing to get the likes and the comments that reflect an engaged presence on your brand page, few others will show much interest, and existing subscribers will start to leave.
If you’re not regularly posting engaging content of the type that inspires and encourages conversation, then you will need to completely change your content strategy.
Facebook’s display algorithm uses engagement metrics to judge what to display in users newsfeeds. So the more engagement you have on a post, the more visible your post will be.
Find out more: Facebook’s “EdgeRank” algorithm
7 – Self-Absorbed Content
Your Facebook brand page should form the basis of a community, but if your content is purely about you and your brand, it doesn’t provide your audience with much space to think for themselves and engage with your content.
In fact, professional marketers often recommend following the 80/20 rule, whereby no more than 20% of the content you post should be about your brand.
The rest should be curated content from other sources, user-generated content and other content that your audience is likely to find interesting.
Don’t forget, that you’re on Facebook to start a conversation; not to talk only about yourself.
8 – Lack of Response
Going back to the all-important community element of social media marketing, a lack of response reflects a lack of interest and engagement on your behalf, and this is something that is sure to turn people off.
One of the most common reasons for people to follow a brand page in the first place is to learn more about the brand’s products or services or even seek out some customer support.
If you’re not responding to the wishes of your audience, people will start turning away in droves.
Conclusion
Succeeding in social media marketing might not be easy, and it always takes time to create an engaged audience consisting of loyal followers.
However, by establishing suitable and attainable goals and maintaining a consistent posting and engagement strategy, you’ll be able to create a community consisting of proud ambassadors to your brand.
For more tips and hints to Facebook success, check out our beginner’s guide to Facebook marketing.
Related: 10 Facebook marketing tools
Your Say!
Have you unliked a Facebook page? Why? Did they not post enough, or was the content irrelevant? What made you switch off? Leave us a comment.