Carving out your own space on TikTok is crucial if you’re an influencer or small business owner. Over 5 million businesses expand their reach on the platform and over a billion users are on the platform.
But even when you do everything right, you may start losing followers on TikTok.
Why?
We’re going to explore some of the reasons why you may be losing followers and give some insights into the steps that you can take to rectify the issue.
Why Am I Losing Followers on TikTok?
You’ll need to dig into your account and try to understand when you started losing followers and why. We’re going to do our best to help you understand the most common reasons people are starting to unfollow you, starting with one point that is hard to swallow: your content.
1. Your Content Isn’t Resonating with Your Followers
Rachforaday explains that your videos should have a ratio of 1% new followers for each view. What does this mean?
- A video gets 1,000 views
- You get 10 new followers
And this figure seems reasonable, right? The problem is that too few creators create videos that are emotionally charged. You want the person to think:
- This person really understands me
- I have to follow this person
If you focus on videos that are emotionally charged and authentic, you’ll start building up a following that sticks around. However, you need to focus on the quality of every video because if the quality tanks, your followers will unfollow you.
Conduct a content audit and see if:
- You’ve changed your videos, and then people started unfollowing you.
- You spaced your content out too far.
- You’ve stopped posting content that was in your niche. For example, you used to post beauty tips, but now you focus only on religious content.
Followers need a reason to follow you, and that reason is the content that you create.
2. TikTok Changed Its Algorithm
If your content is still amazing, the reason for people unfollowing you may be a TikTok algorithm change. TikTok has it in its best interest to keep the community safe and thriving.
You may lose followers because:
- Bot algorithms change and many of your followers were bots (you didn’t know) and now they’re banned.
- Legitimate followers were banned for violating community guidelines (more on that below).
- TikTok is recommending followers that your content doesn’t resonate with, so they’re quick to unfollow you.
One Reddit user even lost thousands of followers because a whole slew of bots were banned. The upside? Engagement soared.
Creators have to learn about the algorithm and play by the rules that we know. Unfortunately, there is no way to “fix” the algorithm on your own.
3. You’re Shadow Banned
Shadow banning is 100% real. We have an entire article on how to get rid of your shadow ban, but it’s a major problem. Your content won’t be shown on the For You Page (FYP), so your reach starts to fall, and you’ll end up losing more followers than you gain.
You can follow our guide at the beginning of this section to remove the ban.
4. Your Content Violates TikTok’s Community Guidelines
What kind of content have you been posting lately? If you’ve been posting controversial things, your content may actually be in violation of TikTok’s community guidelines.
Make sure that your content doesn’t contain:
- Violence
- Nudity
- Shocking or graphic content
- Misinformation
- Hate speech or bullying
- Illegal activities or items (drugs, firearms, etc.)
Focus on creating great content your audience will love and adhere to TikTok’s guidelines.
5. You Had a Lot of Bots Following Your Account
Are you losing a lot of followers at once? TikTok may be removing them because they’re bots. You can’t control who follows your account, and most TikTokers have bot followers even if they don’t realize it.
If your lost followers are bots, then don’t panic. In fact, be happy about it. Those followers weren’t benefiting your account, and now you have a clean list of real followers who will engage with your account.
6. You’re Not Being Active
Are you creating new content and posting it regularly? If not, inactivity may be the reason why you’re losing followers.
Growing your TikTok account is a marathon – not a race. If you slow your pace, you’ll fall behind and lose your followers’ interest.
How do you know if you’re inactive? Look at the last time you posted content.
TikTok recommends posting 1-4 times per day. If you haven’t posted in a few weeks, your followers may think you’re inactive, especially if you used to post more often.
Stop Losing Followers on TikTok
If you’re losing followers on TikTok, it’s probably because of one of the reasons above. The good news is that you can bring your account back to life just by posting more frequently and creating content that resonates with your audience. Be patient and persistent, and you’ll see your follower count grow once again.
