Have you noticed a sudden decrease in the number of Likes on your Facebook page, although you maintain the same activity pattern? Surely, it is natural to have a certain number of unlikes per day, but a sudden drop in large numbers is a warning signal. If you have done everything just the same as usual, maybe this is the true problem.
Your pattern of activity on your Facebook page is what turns people off. This is a hard truth to swallow, but you need to accept it and correct the way you are engaging with your Facebook fans if you want to rebuild your followers’ base and keep them entertained and engaged.
These are the top five reasons why people generally unlike Facebook pages. Read them carefully and avoid committing them:
1. You Post Too Frequently
A person opens their Facebook Timeline to see the latest photos their friends posted from their holidays. However, before they reach that photo album, they have to scroll through 5 or 6 posts made by a brand whose page they liked. With little time to spare and annoyed, the person unlikes the brand’s Facebook page.
This is a very familiar scenario for many people. They want to reach posts by their family and friends, and get bombarded with messages from various companies. Posting too often is a real problem – it will definitely become too much for your followers, and they will unlike your page. The average posting schedule is 3, maximum 5, posts per week.
2. Too Many Promotional Posts
Out of 5 posts, 3 are about your products or about your business. You post an interview with the general manager, then a link to your company history, and another to your products page. People feel like they are being fed sales materials instead of engaging and interesting content.
Being on Facebook is all about being social – sharing useful, entertaining and interesting photos, links and videos. It is not a billboard where you promote your business aggressively, with no regard to what people like and want to see and read.
3. Irrelevant Posts
While it is a good idea to associate your brand with a popular event, such as a sports event, a concert, or a crafts fair, you have to find something which connects the respective event with your business, products and services. There are countless examples online of major brands associating with various events in a clever and meaningful way to learn from.
However, do not start sharing posts about popular events that are not related to your business just because they are popular. Your followers will be confused or may even guess your tactics to attract popularity and engagement no matter what.
4. Controversial Posts
There are three major no-nos in conversations with people you have just met, or are not intimate with: sex, politics and religion. These three topics are the most controversial ones and approaching them in any way in your posts is going to lose you a lot of followers.
Let us be clear: there is nothing wrong about wishing your followers a Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah, but starting a debate on which religion is better will create a huge, pointless controversy and will upset people belonging to all religious groups. Same goes for politics and sex (no, sex does not sell on Facebook).
5. Denigrating Your Competitors
If your Facebook page becomes a sounding board for everything your competitors are doing wrong, were caught doing wrong or you believe they are doing wrong, people will perceive you as vengeful, spiteful, desperate and unethical. After all, how can you say that you believe in fair competition, may the best man win and the free market, when you spend your time pointing out how everyone else is doing things wrong, and only you do them right?
If this is not enough, some of the things you post may not be true, or may be proven wrong at a later date, and you may be sued for libel and defamation. That will certainly damage your reputation far beyond Facebook popularity.
As you can see, there is nothing too sophisticated in keeping your Facebook followers loyal: do not flood their timeline, stay relevant and within civil boundaries in your posts, and offer them a good mix of entertaining, useful and promotional content.