What’s the only thing more depressing than a TikTok account with no followers? Easy – when your once-popular TikTok account begins losing followers. The question is – why am I losing followers on TikTok when I’m doing everything right? The short answer is fairly straightforward – you’re clearly doing something wrong.
TikTok accounts don’t just suddenly begin hemorrhaging followers for no reason. When TikTok users decide to unfollow an account, it’s an indication of dissatisfaction. Losing the occasional follower isn’t the end of the world.
Something that applies to every social media platform, where there’s an inevitable follow turnover to factor in. But when you begin losing followers in significant numbers, prompt action is called for. Even if you’re 100% confident in the quality of your short videos, you need to accept that something simply isn’t working.
Reasons for Losing TikTok Followers
As for the good news – most problems with fleeting followers can be nipped in the bud and reversed. More often than not, a falling follower count can be attributed to one of six common causes. If you’ve ruled out anything obvious – like having published something offensive and fallen out of favor with your followers – here’s where you could be going wrong:
1. Not Partnering with Influencers
First up, you don’t necessarily have to partner with influencers to run a successful TikTok campaign. However, influencer partnerships hold the key to building a truly extensive and engaged audience. It’s worth remembering that a single positive word from the right influencer can completely transform your image and appeal on TikTok.
Along with helping you get more organic followers, partnering with influencers can be good for stemming the flow of lost followers. Not to mention changing the minds of those who’ve abandoned you and bringing them back on board.
2. Not Leveraging the Trends
Make no mistake about it – TikTok is built on trends. But this doesn’t mean that jumping on the bandwagon with every trend that comes along is a good idea. Unless it’s a trend with some kind of relevance to what you do and who you are, it could see you falling out of favor with your target audience.
Leveraging tends to come highly recommended and is definitely something you should be doing. But it’s also something to approach with caution, rather than instinctively following every emerging trend. Where necessary, think about how you can put your own signature twist on the latest trends in order to keep your followers engaged and interested.
3. Not Creating Viral Content
Is there anything you can do to ensure your TikTok video goes viral? Sadly not, as it’s entirely in the hands of the TikTok algorithm and the platform’s users. Going viral on TikTok starts with getting your videos showcased by TikTok. After which, it’s a case of ensuring those who see them share them with their own fans and followers.
Setting this ‘snowball effect’ in motion isn’t easy, but it is possible. Keep your videos as short and punchy as possible, stick with your own original content and try to offer something that’s not already available elsewhere.
Important – remember that most TikTok audiences are all about instant gratification, so make a point of your videos as clear as possible as quickly as possible.
4. Not Following the Algorithm
Ultimately, it’s the TikTok algorithm that determines which videos hit the big time and which fade into the background. If you can convince TikTok to feature your content on the For You Page, you’re golden. You, therefore, need to do everything you can to appeal to this algorithm at all times.
TikTok monitors multiple metrics when deciding who gets featured are and who doesn’t. Examples of these include evidence of engagement and interaction, audience size, view count, output regularity, location, and more. Not to mention the appropriate use of hashtags.
5. Not Using Analytics
Frankly, the first thing you should be doing if facing a falling follower count is examining TikTok analytics. A feature that’s only available for Pro account holders but can be worth its weight in gold. This is where you’ll find detailed information on which of your videos are performing best, who’s watching them, and the extent to which you’re engaging your target audience.
All of this information can then be used to create a blueprint for higher-quality output. You can eliminate anything that’s not working while leveraging your strong points. Importantly, you’ll find out when, where and why people are choosing to unfollow you – and you’ll then be able to do something about it.
6. It’s a TikTok Glitch
Last up, a follower count that suddenly plummets to zero is almost always a glitch on TikTok’s part. It’s something that first struck back in 2020, though once again appears to be doing its thing today.
Panic inevitably sets in when seeing you’ve lost every single follower, but it’s rarely a cause for concern. That said, there are rare instances where TikTok takes action against spammers or those who breach the platform’s terms and conditions.
Though in such cases, you’re more likely to have your account suspended or closed rather than your followers removed. Either way, it’s worth reaching out to TikTok if your follower count is reset to zero, as chances are it’s an error on their side.
Start Earning Followers
By far, the best way to avoid a decreasing follower count is to continuously work on adding more followers to your account. Efforts to increase TikTok followers should be ongoing – not a one-time-only project.
Once again, it’s inevitable that some people will unfollow your account from time to time. Hence, it’s essential to compensate for these lost followers with a steady stream of new followers. In addition, the number of followers you have can be a hugely influential factor on new potential followers.
The more followers you have, the easier it becomes to convince newcomers to sign up and get on board with what you do. Plus, it’s worth remembering how TikTok rarely shows preference to publishers who are losing followers at a steady pace.
By contrast, a follow-count heading gradually in the right direction can make it much easier to appeal to the platform’s algorithm. Precisely why taking action against a falling follower count at the earliest possible stage is essential. The longer you wait, the more damage you’ll need to repair to get things back on track.
Conclusion
Facing the prospect of a plummeting follower count is never particularly pleasant. Though in most instances, finding the solution should be fairly straightforward. More often than not, it could simply be that you have allowed the quality or consistency of your content to slip.
It could also be that something you’ve done has earned the disapproval of the TikTok algorithm. All the information you need to set things on the right track can be found in TikTok’s in-built analytics feature. Though if you work hard enough on growing your audience, the followers you gain should be more than enough compensation for any you lose over time.
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