If you’ve successfully gathered a respectable amount of followers on your page, you probably want to do whatever you can to keep them. In an ideal world, you would avoid any social media mistakes, hang on to all those followers and keep getting more of them.

What sometimes happens, though, is that business owners lose sight of the purpose of social media. They forget about socializing and focus too much on selling. 

As we’ve discussed before, social media is supposed to be social. It’s not a place to come in with the hard sell and be overly promotional.

Rather, your social media pages are a place to build relationships with followers who become loyal brand advocates. Somewhere along the way, you may get leads and sales — but your social media is not going to be the sole source of them. 

In fact, it’s just one piece of the marketing pie. Treating it as the whole enchilada is going to leave you and your followers frustrated. 

Now before we get too deep into food metaphors, read on for a humorous look at how to lose your followers in 10 days (aka the top social media mistakes you’ll want to avoid).

Day 1: Sell Like Your Life Depends on It

When you get a new follower, what should you do if you want to lose them? Do you:

a) Affirm their decision to follow you by posting authentic, non-promotional local content (like in the post below); or

b) Post a sales promotion, a stock photo or some other salesy thing?

If you want to lose them, the correct answer is b!

If you want to keep them, by all means, post a photo or a video of your cute pet, your customer with a huge smile after visiting your shop, your driver leaving for a no-contact delivery, or your employee explaining how to use a certain product. 

Those are the kinds of engaging things that really keep people coming back for more. And that’s not what you want, right? Post that sales-focused graphic with giant red “SALE!” letters, and kiss your followers goodbye!

https://www.facebook.com/541879122868760/photos/a.597667927289879/1376619786061352/?type=3

Day 2: Be Clueless

To lose your followers, should you:

a) Address what’s happening in the world — currently, that’s a pandemic — by letting customers know about safety precautions, special discounts or financial incentives, hours of operation and key information in real time; or

b) Keep posting the same things you normally would, staying largely tone-deaf to the current events around you?

The correct answer is b!

Tuning in to what customers need right now lets them know you’re listening and care about creating content they want to see. It reassures them they can count on you during a crisis and you put people before profits. It also keeps your page fresh. 

When you keep things “business as usual,” you appear as though you either don’t care or you’re just living under a rock. Perfect place to be — no chance of seeing any followers there!

Better yet, you can just post nothing at all. We saw a lot of brands just completely stop posting when the COVID-19 crisis hit. Are they in business? Are they not paying attention to their customers? Will anyone remember them if they bounce back from the crisis? Your guess is as good as ours!

Learn more: 5 Social Media Mistakes (Plus the Number One Mistake to Avoid)

Day 3: Don’t Boost Anything

To lose your followers, you should:

a) Regularly boost your content with a targeted audience, helping to expand your reach and build your following; or

b) Boost nothing. Ever. Not a single cent spent to advertise your business on a platform that is very clearly pay-to-play.

The answer is b. Duh.

Boosting gets you in front of all kinds of new people who never would have heard of you if you didn’t spend a few dollars to advertise to them. 

New things are scary! Instead, you can simply boost nothing and then nobody will ever see your content! 

Stay out of the limelight, and you’ll never have to deal with all those new followers — who eventually fall in love with your business and start posting about you on their own personal pages, helping improve your reach even more. Sounds exhausting! 

Day 4: Don’t Respond to Reviews, Comments and DMs

To lose your followers, you should:

a) Stay vigilant about responding to every comment, direct message and review that appears on your page, in your inbox and on review platforms like Google My Business, Facebook and Yelp; or

b) Ignore them! You’ve got better things to do.

People use social media as both a place to socialize and a customer service platform. When they comment with a question or leave a review and you respond to them quickly, it again lets customers know you’re listening. 

If you ignore them, it’s much less work! You can just let people do their thing and not pay any attention whatsoever. Not only will you lose those followers, but you can be sure you’ll lose them as customers (if they ever were customers in the first place)! 

https://www.facebook.com/danielle.arriaga.5/posts/10217020355800917

Day 5: Post Only Corporate Content

To lose your followers, you should:

a) Post content that’s specific to your community, helping to increase foot traffic to your location; or

b) Just post the content provided by your franchisor, or in the case of independent businesses, post any kind of general content.

It’s b, of course! 

Posting hyper-local content makes the content relevant to people who might actually shop in your business. It prevents the common social media mistake of posting meaningless fluff. Seems like a lot of work to manage all those customers coming into your store and buying stuff!

If you just post corporate-type or generic content, it keeps those customers from finding you and really having a reason to go to your store. Phew, again no extra work required to deal with all those new customers!

Day 6: Don’t Update Your Business Listing

To lose your followers, you should: 

a) Make sure your business information is correct across the web so people always know your hours of operation, location and phone number; or 

b) Wing it! People will figure it out, right?

Can you guess the answer? That’s right, b!

Using a business listing service like Rallio’s ensures your business information is always up to date, anywhere it’s listed online. So when people search for your business or your type of business, they’ll find the correct details and easily locate your business. Ugh, more customers!

On the other hand, you’ll have a lot less to do if you just leave incorrect information up on the web! Did your hours change due to the pandemic? Did you move or temporarily close, or change your phone number? Not to worry — when you don’t update it, no one will know!

Day 7: Rest Easy

To lose your followers, you should: 

a) Stay on top of your social media 24/7; or

b) Set it and forget it! 

And on the seventh day, you rested. The answer is b, of course.

Social media marketing is a full-time job, requiring constant attention to every comment, message and review, plus rich content that’s engaging to your audience. We’re tired just thinking about it!

If you post infrequently, ignore your followers and make sure your customer service is non-existent, you’ll have waaaay more time to rest, because your followers will leave! Hurray! Extra sleep is so good for you!

Day 8: Target the Wrong Audience

To lose your followers, you should:

a) Choose a targeted audience based on the right demographics, age range and interests; or

b) Don’t target at all. In fact, don’t boost. Leave it to fate!

We’ll take our chances. B it is!

Social media platforms offer a variety of tools to help select the right audience for your boosted content. You can get highly specific to make sure you’re reaching the right people who will engage with your brand.

Failing to boost or targeting the wrong audience ensures your content means absolutely nothing to the people who see it (if anyone sees it at all). We’re inherently risk takers as entrepreneurs, right? So let’s just haphazardly boost or, heck, save our money!

Day 9: Don’t Use Videos 

To lose your followers, you should: 

a) Sprinkle in videos with your other content because videos are engaging and help you communicate your message in a different way; or

b) Just post images all the time. 

Easy peasy. B!

From live videos to recordings that you post on social media, videos are one of the best ways to connect with your audience and show them your authentic self. Especially right now during the pandemic, live videos are an especially useful tool in your social media marketing toolbox as people crave real-life connection.

Doing the work to post videos — wow, sounds like another big project. Pass! All images, all day!

Learn more: 5 Types of Video to Add to Your Social Media Marketing

https://www.facebook.com/tutordoctoroftheemeraldcoast/posts/2953912648033431

Day 10: Do It All Yourself

To lose your followers, you should:

a) Hire people who can manage your social media marketing for you so you can focus on running your business; or

b) Keep doing it all yourself.

We’ve got this. It’s b!

Working with an agency like Rallio ensures not only that nothing gets missed on your social media, but also that you are impactful. It leaves the work to experts who live and breathe social media and have the right tools to help you keep growing your business. It activates your employees and influencers as brand advocates.

Doing it yourself saves you so much time and ensures your social media and online presence are non-existent! 

By now, you’ve probably figured out that the real answer to your social media needs is definitely not any “b” answer above. Rallio is ready to help when you’re ready to read between the lines above, avoid common social media mistakes, ramp up your social media, and finally discover the true value of having a team rallying behind your brand.

To learn more, fill out our contact form.