Are you wondering why people unfollow you on Instagram?
Maybe it’s your friend who you haven’t met in a long time, someone you’ve recently connected with, or just a random person you followed a while back.
Either way, there is always a reason why people unfollow you on Instagram.
It can be quite discouraging or frustrating when someone unfollows you, especially if you don’t know why.
Hence, this article contains a list of the top 10 reasons why people unfollow you on Instagram.
At the end of this article, you should be able to know why people unfollow you and what to do to prevent it.
Let’s get right into it.
- You don’t engage in their posts
- You didn’t follow them back
- Posting too much
- Unattractive feed
- They might be doing follow/unfollow
- You haven’t posted in a while
- They are no longer interested in your content
- Fake and spam accounts
- You posted something that they disapprove of
- They’ve reached the following limit
1. You don’t engage in their posts
One of the most common reasons why someone would unfollow you on Instagram is because you’re not engaging in their posts.
This means that you’re not liking or commenting on any of their posts at all.
If you’re not liking posts on your feed, people might unfollow you for being a ghost follower.
The most important metric on Instagram is your engagement rate.
People care a lot about their engagement rate. So, if you don’t engage in someone’s posts at all, they are very likely to unfollow you.
Someone who does not engage is also referred to as a ghost follower.
A ghost follower is like a selfish social media user who posts content hoping for others to engage in it, but they never actually engage back.
Imagine that you have a friend posting content on a daily basis. You’ve been constantly liking and commenting on his or her posts.
However, they never actually bother to like any of your posts back.
This is why ghost followers are the most hated users on Instagram. They are not only selfish, but they also decrease your engagement rate.
As a rule of thumb, liking everyone’s posts on your feed (or at least trying to) is the norm on Instagram.
So, the next time someone unfollows you on Instagram, it could be that you’re not engaging in their posts.
But, if you’ve been constantly engaging in their posts; then engagement is not the reason for them unfollowing you — it’s something else.
Read on to find out why.
2. You didn’t follow them back
The second reason why people unfollow you on Instagram could be because you didn’t follow them back.
Especially if you know the user that followed you in person; not following them back is an obvious reason why they unfollowed you.
Similarly, this applies to someone that you do not know personally.
Not following someone back is deemed as being rude on Instagram, especially if you know the user in person.
So the next time someone unfollows you because you’re not following them back, don’t be surprised.
3. Posting too much
Some people post way too much which clutters your feed.
Imagine seeing three or more consecutive posts from the same person on your feed.
Posting once every day is more than sufficient. Don’t post too much or it’ll become annoying.
This not only floods your feed, but it also obscures the posts of other people that you follow.
For example, if you have a close friend who posts something on the same day, you have to scroll far down your feed to be able to see it.
Hence, you might miss the post and you’re unable to like it.
If the description above is you, please stop posting too much. One post per day is more than sufficient.
If you want to post multiple photos, you should utilize the carousel feature.
Most people are annoyed by users who post too much on Instagram and might end up muting or unfollowing you if you do.
4. Unattractive feed
Another reason why people might unfollow you on Instagram is that you have an unattractive or unorganized feed.
Additionally, you might have a majority of low quality photos or videos.
If this isn’t you, then skip to the following reasons.
Let’s take a personal account as an example.
If you’ve been constantly posting content about photography, and one day you decided to switch it up and post a meme; your followers will be confused and they may end up unfollowing you.
On that account, if you’ve been constantly posting content in a specific niche, do not post other content unrelated to that niche!
This is because people usually follow you for the content revolving around a single niche.
For example, if you post about fitness (e.g. workouts, transformations), people follow you for fitness content and not otherwise.
Posting unrelated content confuses your followers and you don’t want that.
Secondly, if you have an unattractive feed (e.g. random and inconsistent photos), people are less likely to stay followed.
This is because it shows that you do not care about the quality of content that you post.
People are attracted to Instagram-worthy photos, not low quality ones that you spent little to no effort in taking.
5. They might be doing follow/unfollow
The follow/unfollow strategy is one of the most common strategies people use to grow their Instagram followers.
It works in three steps.
1. Start following people (that are preferably in the same niche as yours) in a list.
2. Wait (for about 24 hours) and hope for a follow back.
3. Unfollow the users a few days after they’ve followed you and hope that they won’t notice.
Do note that the follow/unfollow strategy is not the same as the follow for follow strategy.
The follow/unfollow strategy is meant to be one-sided whereas you would unfollow the people who followed you.
On the other hand, the follow for follow strategy means that whenever you follow someone, you must stay followed unless they unfollow or didn’t follow you back.
This is why the follow for follow strategy is far better than follow/unfollow.
6. You haven’t posted in a while
Haven’t posted in a while?
If you haven’t posted in a while (e.g. several months) people might think that you’re no longer active on Instagram and unfollow you.
It’s important to post at least once every month to prove that you’re still active on Instagram.
Otherwise, you must constantly like other people’s posts on your feed on post things on your story.
This shows that you’re not a ghost follower.
7. They are no longer interested in your content
If people are no longer interested in your content, they might unfollow you.
Let’s say that you’re running an Instagram account in the meme niche, and you only post memes.
One of your followers might not be interested in memes anymore and might unfollow you.
Usually, this only happens if you’re running a theme account instead of a personal one.
This is because a personal account has a broader niche as compared to a theme account.
Hence, people are more likely to unfollow a theme account if they are no longer interested in your niche.
8. Fake and spam accounts
Fake and spam accounts are very prominent on Instagram.
These accounts are usually created in bulk for sale in various websites and services.
In November 2018, Instagram wrote a blog post stating the removal of inauthentic activity on Instagram (e.g. fake followers, likes, and comments).
So, if your account contains fake followers, some of them will be removed by Instagram.
Because of this, you might lose some followers.
Even if you didn’t buy any followers, some accounts that follow you might be inauthentic.
Hence, your followers might decrease because Instagram deleted these accounts.
9. You posted something that they disapprove of
One of the more common reasons why people unfollow you might be because you posted something that they disapprove of or share differing visions on.
Try not to share any sensitive topics on Instagram.
Religion, politics, and money are the three most sensitive topics on Instagram.
If you share conflicting beliefs on these topics, some people might be triggered and end up blocking or unfollowing you.
Hence, you should try not to share your views or beliefs in these topics; especially if they are hate.
10. They’ve reached the following limit
The last reason why people might unfollow you on Instagram is because they’ve reached their following limit.
The following limit on Instagram is 7,500.
You cannot exceed the following limit.
Consequently, if someone reached their following limit, they have to unfollow some users in order to follow more people again.
If you happen to be the ‘lucky one’, someone who exceeded their following limit might unfollow you by chance. So, don’t take it to heart.
How to reduce unfollowers
Here’s a compiled on how to reduce unfollowers.
Follow these tips to mitigate people from unfollowing you.
| Instead of… | Do this |
| Not engaging in any posts | Try to like every post on your feed |
| Not following back | Follow back people you know |
| Posting too much | Post a maximum of once per day |
| Posting low-quality content | Post Instagram-worthy content |
| Not posting in a while | Give constant engagement and post at least once a month |
| Posting sensitive content | Don’t share insensitive content (e.g. religion, politics, money) |
Conclusion
And there you have it, the top 10 reasons why people unfollow you on Instagram.
Unfollowers can be rude or discouraging at times.
Hence, referring to these reasons will make you understand why people unfollow so you won’t be surprised if they do.
P.S. If you liked this article, feel free to join our follow for follow community for Instagram: https://www.followchain.org — it’s free!
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Author: Lim How Wei. Lim How Wei is the founder of Followchain, a community that simplifies growth and networking for Instagram users. Feel free to follow him on Instagram.
