Acquiring a large social following is great but it’s meaningless if you keep losing those followers. Understanding what is making your followers leave is as important as acquiring them.

The folks at BuzzStream and Fractl conducted a survey to better understand why people unfollow brands on social media.

Here’s a summary…

Why People Unfollow Brands on Social Media

When was the last time you unfollowed a brand on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn?

• Twitter: 12% of respondents said they unfollowed a brand in the last few days
• Facebook: 25% said they unfollowed a brand in the last month.
• LinkedIn: 49% said they never unfollow brands on LinkedIn

What would provoke you to unfollow a brand’s official social media accounts?

• 21% said they will unfollow a brand if the content is repetitive and boring.
• 19% said they will unfollow a brand on Facebook if it posts too frequently (more than 6 times per day).
• 8% said they will unfollow a brand on Twitter due to lack of engagement (slow or no response to comments).

Why do you unsubscribe from emails?

• 24% said they unsubscribe from emails because the content is repetitive and boring
• 28% said they unsubscribe from emails because their inbox is getting crowded and they want less clutter
• 33% indicated that people unsubscribed from emails due to overly frequent emails

Prioritizing social media activities that matter…

1. New content in posts
2. Content is relevant to brand
3. Engagement with followers
4. Consistency of posts

Which is your preferred content type posted by the brands that you follow?

• 22% of the responses said that images is the most preferred content type posted by brands
• 15% indicated that the most preferred content type is videos.
• 15% specified that the most preferred content type is customer reviews.
• 14% want to see company news.
• Less than 7% want to see e-books and white papers.

How likely do you think it is that a brand will engage with you if you follow its page on Facebook or Twitter?

• 39% think that a brand is either very or quite likely to engage with them if they follow its Facebook page, whereas 27% think that there will be no change in engagement.
• 36% think that a brand is either very or quite likely to engage with them if they follow its Twitter feed, whereas 33% think that there will be no change in engagement.

When you unfollow a brand on Facebook or Twitter, what do you do?

• Facebook: 20% said that they hide the brand’s posts from their news feed.
• Twitter: 12% said that they issue a tweet mentioning the change.

Which content type(s) should brand avoid posting (because it will lead you to unfollow their page on social media)?

• 18% of the responses indicated that they need more than the given reasons to unfollow a page.
• 12% of the responses said that brands should avoid posting white papers.
• 11% said that brands should avoid pasting e-books.
• 8% said that brand should avoid posting company news.

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