Instagram Rollercoaster Explained: Why Do Instagram Followers Go Up and Down?

Intro

Sometimes, it happens that the number of subscribers grows and then drops. Many think the audience decreases due to technical reasons that make the content or profile inaccessible to some users.

However, in reality, Instagram has no desire to take away your subscribers. It makes money from advertising, so it wants to keep a loyal following - so people will log into the app more often and see more ads. Increased audience and positive interaction experience with the social network is the key to keeping your account on it. Thus, subscriber churn needs to make more sense for Instagram's business model. But if it's not the social network itself causing it, then what is?

Why Instagram is Popular

Instagram has been leading in the social media category for many years. But only some people are warm to it - this platform has many opponents, and for good reason. Let's discover what's good and bad about Instagram and why some people find it repulsive.

• Many people strive to buy Instagram followers because more followers give them a sense of social importance and popularity.
• Instagram is a very handy social network for your blog, particularly for pictures. There is no worthy alternative to it in this.
• This social network is the most optimal for doing business. It has everything to make the entrepreneur feel comfortable. If you pay proper attention to your business profile, you can get a lot of customers from the promotion.
• The top bloggers and celebrities have their own profiles on Instagram. If some influential people do not have their own page, it is an exception. Thanks to this, fans can easily track their favorite stars' activity.
• It is easy to search for interesting content thanks to the Explore tab. The platform's algorithms suggest interesting content based on the latest activity. In the same way, you can search for people for mutual activity.
• The stories format is a unique feature of Instagram. Yes, it's now being introduced to other social networks, but it's only a pathetic parody of the inimitable original. Stories on Instagram are a unique thing that everyone uses, from the huge scale of stars when they need to announce a new music video to regular everyday people who go out for a walk and catch a beautiful sunset.

Instagram is still very popular, and it's hard to deny that. Developers are still working in sweat to make their brainchild more user-friendly. And although the number of users has long since broken all records of similar social networks, no one will stop there.

Features and Characteristics

All social networks differ in design, functions, and rules. Each of them is designed for a certain target audience. Instagram was initially interested only in young people with an iPhone in their hands. They regularly took photos and posted them on the network.

Among older people, there was an opinion that it was a very limited program for those who could not write more than 2 lines and could only click the camera button.

Gradually, everything has changed, and now many people have already appreciated the possibilities of Instagram:

• To share photos and videos, quickly post them from your phone to your page.
• Make descriptions of images and share thoughts and emotions.
• Shoot short 15-second videos and photos in real-time and post them to Stories.
• Process images and add stickers, emoticons, graphic effects, geolocation, and hashtags.
• Host live broadcasts for everyone.
• Subscribe and follow the news of interesting people.
• Communicate via comments and private messages in Direct.
• Conduct surveys.
• Promote your business and sell goods and services.
• Sharing information on Instagram is increasingly approaching live communication. You can make short videos and take pictures daily to let friends and acquaintances know where you live, what you think about, and where you go.

Why You Need Instagram

You can conclude why you need this social network from the features described above. Let's disclose the goals and objectives of an Instagram account in more detail.

1. Communication with friends

This is the very first and obvious need of a modern person. Many people leave their cities after school and institute to work, looking for their place in life. Social networks help to find their friends and keep communication at a distance. When we post photos and videos from our daily lives, our acquaintances see them, comment on them, and discuss them. This is much more interesting than standard messages like "Hi, how are you?"

You don't have to subscribe to strangers at all, and you can easily close your profile from strangers, leaving access to photos only to friends and close people. The rest of the world will only see your profile picture and brief information about you. An example of a closed profile is on the screenshot.

2. Getting useful information

Instagram allows you to subscribe to interesting pages and follow their news. For example, you can receive daily information on different topics:

• Health.
• Parenting and child development.
• Psychology.
• Self-realization and motivation.
• Travel and countries.
• Goods, services, and stocks of different companies.

3. Earnings from advertising

Your audience gradually grows when you share beautiful pictures and interesting, useful records. In addition, subscribers get the feeling that they know you personally. They trust your opinion, so advertising a product or service is perceived as friendly advice.

Such accounts are very valuable to advertisers; they are willing to pay for the fact that you recommend their product to their followers. The object of advertising can also be a subscription to a page in a social network.

4. Selling goods and services

Companies and private entrepreneurs create their pages in a social network to sell goods and services. This is especially convenient for beginner businessmen. For example, you have decided to sell your training course, knitted things, handmade cards, cakes to order, or something else. Instagram is a good platform for starting and developing a business. Curious about how to make extra money on Instagram?

There are many examples of how simple housewives conduct successful entrepreneurial activities in this social network. You need an eye-catching product, pretty pictures, regular communication with interested customers and advertising.

The Most Likely Reasons Why Followers Go Up and Down

Instagram is no Longer New and Exciting

Instagram has been around for almost 10 years, and now its growth rate in the US has reached a plateau - approximately 65% of people under 34 are already registered on it. Also, this social network is no longer as appealing as it was a few years ago - after prolonged use, we've realized that it can hurt mental health. As a result, we are less willing to sign up for new pages.

Image by Freepik

People Started Selecting Content for Their Feeds more Carefully

Another side effect of Instagram's long existence was that users had time to change and started unsubscribing from accounts that no longer fit their worldviews and interests. Given the first point, it becomes clear why profiles lose followers but don't gain new ones.

Instagram has Decided to Crack down on Bots

The first three reasons are fundamental. They are unlikely to have led to a sudden exodus of subscribers. Likely, it was more influenced by Instagram's fight with services to automate user communication. Since May 2019, most have stopped working due to the social network's blockades. In addition, Instagram removed many ghost accounts you could buy for your profile.

Instagram has Become a Highly Competitive Platform

The opportunity to make money on Instagram as a business or blogger appeals to many. As a result, the competition on this social network has grown immensely, with talented new authors looking to gain your audience. Unless you're creating unique content, chances are your subscribers are leaving for similar pages with better-quality content. Don't take it personally - this is always the case when many people compete for a limited resource (in this case, user attention).

What Can be Done about it?

Lower your Expectations Regarding Audience Growth

Accept that you can't influence the causes of subscriber churn: you can't make Instagram new again, make people follow new pages more actively, eliminate competition, or change the social network's bot policy. The best thing you can do here is to lower your audience growth expectations and get used to the idea that attracting users will always be different.

Take Advantage of all the Best Practices

Getting new Instagram followers is beyond our control, but some things can still be done. Make sure you follow all of the social network's guidelines.

• Figure out how many daily posts you should make to maximize your reach.
• Optimize your use of hashtags.
• Determine the maximum number of likes, comments, and private messages for one day.
• Devise or optimize a strategy to get as many photo tags in as many accounts as possible.
• Run the most budget-friendly ads on Instagram.
• Edit your page description to make it simple and easy to understand.
• Make your photo grid original.
• Increase your engagement.

Improve your Content to Stand out From your Competitors

The better the content, the less likely someone will unsubscribe and move on to a similar blog. There's no universal advice here, but systematically improving your account engagement is the easiest way. This process is too complex to describe in a short paragraph.

Move into an Empty Niche

Another strategy to deal with high competition is to choose a vacant niche or to pitch a popular topic unconventionally. The fewer people who can easily repeat your actions, the less likely your audience will start to leave you. You can gauge niche occupancy by the number of hashtags.

Ultimately, the best approach is to link content to your personality. People can always substitute one product for another, but something else will replace a specific person. Such a pitch will protect you from other pages vying for your audience's attention.

How to Retain Subscribers

There are several ways to retain subscribers. Initially, you need to post a large number of publications every day. It is necessary to adhere to the theme of the page. Posts should be with an intriguing title and a relevant topic. Under each post, it is necessary to put hashtags. By following hashtags, users subscribe to others and get a mutual subscription.

It is necessary to organize discussions, debates, discussion posts, and subscribers' comments. Respond to incoming direct messages. To make the profile interesting to subscribers, you should cover different topics for publications to retain them. You can go live. Live communication with subscribers makes the blogger's profile more famous.

New members can join the live stream. Who will become subscribers in the future? Feedback from subscribers is important. If a blogger is criticized, there is no need to enter a polemic. Negative communication can discourage other subscribers from unsubscribing from the profile. The Followers app will help you get to know your subscribers better. Want to learn more? Check out this post.

Conclusion

To understand why subscribers are falling, you need to analyze and understand the target audience. To analyze, you can use the standard free service Instagram Insights. The analysis distributes potential Instagram subscribers by age, gender, geography, and activity by day and hour. Subscribers need to be enticed daily with quality, interesting content. It will help to increase the reach and engagement of the target audience. Content should be constant and correspond to the theme of the page.