One of the most important things a brand can do is understand its target audience. What do they worry about? Where do they hang out? How do they prefer to interact with brands?
When they dive into answering these questions, many businesses discover that social media is a goldmine for their marketing efforts. Not only are social networks a popular place for people to hang out on, but also consumers expect brands to have a presence on social media. (And when people follow a brand on Twitter, 72% of followers are more likely to make a future purchase from that brand.)
To capitalize on these trends, businesses focus on getting new followers in the door -- but that's not all you should be concerned about. Just because you’ve convinced someone to follow your company's account doesn’t mean they’ll stay.
In today’s competitive market, retention is crucial. So what causes people to stop following brands on twitter? BuzzStream and Fractl conducted a survey with more than 900 respondents to better understand why.
Why Do People Follow Brands on Social Media in the First Place?
With millions of businesses using social media for marketing, it is a competitive market out there for getting followers. With so many options of brands to follow, our respondents were actually very picky -- 50% of those surveyed followed only one to four brands on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
So why do they prefer to follow one brand over another? Our data points to a combination of preference for the brand and a level of exclusivity the company can offer to its followers on that social network. Key findings include:
So Why Do People Unfollow Brands? It Boils Down to 3 Main Reasons
1) Too Much Self-Promotional or Uninteresting Content
A little self-promotion is a good thing. After all, why would a brand be on social media if they weren’t there to promote their latest achievement?
However, too much “look at me” is the number one reason why people choose to unfollow a brand. Out of those surveyed, 45% said that they would unfollow a brand on social media because of too much self-promotion.
Self-promotional content provides little value to followers, and the frequency of uninteresting content was also listed as a specific turn off. When asked further:
- Over 20% of respondents said that they would unfollow a brand on both Facebook and Twitter if they believed the content was boring or repetitive.
- Over 15% said they would unfollow a brand on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter if it posted more than six times a day.
2) Overuse of Automated Messaging or Lack of Personal Engagement
We see this happen over and over again, and there are lists dedicated to some of the worstautomated messaging fails. Over 30% said that they would unfollow a brand if they received an automatic message. In fact, a lack of engagement wasn’t a strong reason to unfollow a brand. When we asked the question further, results revealed:
- Only 8% unfollow a brand on Twitter due to a lack of engagement, with even less unfollowing for similar reasons on Facebook.
- “Engagement with followers” fell behind “new content” and “on-brand content” in terms of what followers see as important social media activities from brands.
But engagement is expected, so what do your followers expect? It varies depending on which type of social media account you’re using. For example, 39% of respondents believe a brand is quite likely to engage with them on Facebook compared to 36% on Twitter. And roughly a quarter of our respondents expect a response within an hour of leaving a comment on a brand’s Facebook or Twitter page. Additional data revealed: