How To Deal with A Social Media Follower Plateau

You've been working hard on your social media platforms; you have a great marketing plan, you're investing in SEO, and you have a few ads running. However, you just can't seem to gain more followers! You've hit a follower plateau, so what do you do now? 

Hello, Summerville! Hello, readers! Welcome to the Creative Consulting Blog! Today we are going to be talking about the number of followers your business account has and what happens when you've hit that follower plateau. You've worked hard to have as many followers as you do today, why does it seem like the followers have just stopped? Don't worry! While Facebook and Instagram like to constantly change their algorithms on how and why people see your accounts, there is no need to worry just yet. You just need to follow a few steps and look into a few things to get those numbers up and rolling again.

While followers aren't everything, especially if your target audience demographic doesn't use social medial all that much. However, there are certainly plus sides for gaining and maintaining a healthy growth of followers. It's an easy way to market and share news and information with more people very quickly, you can engage and create more relationships with your customers, and more eyes on your products and services means more sales. Also, there are those special features that come with receiving certain followers like reaching the 10k follower mark on Instagram. Hitting that 10k mark allows you to (on your business page) add the swipe up feature to your stories that will take users directly to a desired website, you can go LIVE on TikTok once you reach 1000 followers, and you can start making money on your YouTube once you have at least 1000 subscribers. Many social media platforms have these types of follower incentives when you hit certain milestones. What happens when you've hit a bump in your followers across the board and you can't quite get out of that plateau? 

• One of the first places to start is to look at where your current content campaign is. Have you been using the same one for a while now? Remember that social media is constantly changing and trends are very important to pay attention to. Maybe it's time to revamp your content and your overall approach to social media. Are there new tools or trends you haven't tried yet? Have you ventured into using video in your content routine? What about stories, LIVE, Reels, IGTV, and even TikTok? Are you using all the social media platforms available to you that make sense to your brand? It might not be a matter of what you're putting out there, but how it's reaching your target audience. When giving your content a refresh, you're not necessarily rebranding, but giving it a spring cleaning. You still need to be consistent with your brand, but it's just time to try something new! 

 

• Has your target audience changed or evolved and you didn't even realize it? While we've all be home and on our smart devices so much this past year, new products and services had the very real opportunity to introduce themselves to new audiences across all social media platforms. Every target audience, depending on their age, will respond differently to your goods and services. You might be sharing the same information you have been looking at for years, you just need to find a new way to share it with your new followers! This is one of the many reasons why it is so important to keep track of who is following you. This is free information and an insight into how you need to start marketing if you've hit a plateau. 

 

• Pay attention to what time you're posting! If you're posting when your target audience is generally not online, it's very easy for your posts to get lost in the shuffle and they might not even be seen. This information can be found within your platforms, online, and you can even do some experimenting yourself and see when your audience responds the most. Make sure that your posting times make sense. If you're a breakfast-only restaurant, for example, posting the night before can remind your patrons to make plans the next day to come visit you. If you post at breakfast time, you've missed out on your audience as your patrons have already made plans and are already eating breakfast.  

 

• Remember how the state of the world is affecting your followers. According to SproutSocial.com, consumer behavior has drastically changed during traumatic events like 9/11 and the recession that happened in 2008. The pandemic has caused a very similar reaction. Think about how this has affected your audience, and how your content can reach out and touch them during these hard times. They don't want to hear about your sales and specials all the time, sometimes they just want human connection, and that can be a lifesaver for a brand. The pandemic has hit you, your employees, and your company too. Share that with your followers, and help them feel a little less alone! 

 

• Don't forget that you aren't just looking for a vast number of random followers, you want to have the right followers. Bots are out there in force, creating fake pages and following people to make their pages look impressive. These followers don't do anything for your company, they aren't buying anything from you. Focus on gaining the right followers and continue cultivating them as time goes on. 

 

• Remember that social media is a social world. You can't just spit out your social media content and just expect your followers to do all the engagement, you need to follow through with that as well and engage them back. You need to show the humans side of your social profiles! Liking, commenting, and sharing needs to come from your page as well. Be apart of your company's world and industry on social media, and be apart of your local community too. Being engaging will lead to others engaging back. Your engagement sets an example for your followers about how you would like to be engaged in return.  

 

• Are you showing the human side of your company on social media? Are you showing the behind-the-scenes of your business? People love secrets and they love to know what's going on! Let them be nosey with permission! 

 

• Paying attention to what has worked consistently, what is the bread and butter of your social content? You might be getting tired of it, but your followers aren't! Find a way to invest yourself in it so you are just as excited as your audience is again! If you're feeling stale, it will come off in your posts! 

 

• While social media is a fantastic free advertising platform, there is something to be said for paid advertisements, especially if you've never used them before. You might not want to use them all the time, but they can help you relaunch your social media and get it in front of the right audience much faster than just letting it sit out there hoping someone will see it. 

 

• Remember to stay positive and not to give up when you've hit these plateaus. They're growing pains. Remember to celebrate what got you to where you are, and celebrate the fact that you have the chance to keep learning. These plateaus don't mean you've failed, it's just time to learn a little more and try again. What can you learn from this experience? Also, a month-to-month comparison doesn't tell your full success story. Remember that trends come and go, what won't leave is is a strong and functional team that works well together. Fad posts and stories are funny for a moment, but they won't define your business if you keep working, improving, and growing. Don't let your frustration get in the way of this!  

Also remember reader, that everyone reaches a plateau or creative dry spell at some point or another. You are not alone and you cannot beat yourself up when you do hit that point. Moments of creative dry spells don't mean you aren't good at what you do. It means you just need to take a moment and learn a little more. It might mean you need to take a walk, enjoy a break, go and find things that inspire you, or it might mean you need a nap! The point is that you and your company are going to be okay, you just need to invest the time in the growing pains. Continue to grow and nurture your social media and you will see those numbers growing again soon! Until next time, stay safe and caffeinated Summerville!

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