Twitter folks are fickle. The users may unfollow you if you violate their preconceived notions of what type of content you should (or shouldn’t) post on the platform.

When people unfollow, to some extent you might not care. It’s their loss, right? To a certain extent, yes. There is nothing wrong with losing a few followers. Having an engaged audience is more valuable than merely having large numbers of followers. However, you also do not want to alienate users without cause. There is a very good chance you may be losing followers because of all the wrong reasons. With this quick guide, you’ll learn the big mistakes you might make that cost you traffic, and what you can do to retain your followers. Let’s get started.

1. Going off-topic

Describe what you tweet in your profile bio. Maintain a focus. Followers are most likely to read your bio first. The purpose is to understand who you are and how you intend to fill their feed. Based on your profile bio, they will make one of two decisions: 

1) I’m interested in following this person, or 

2) I do not want to follow this person.

What makes them follow you? People are interested in what you can provide in the form of entertainment, information, value, association, and so on. When they visited your profile, your bio captured their attention and they decided to follow you.

So, what happens when you go off-topic? They immediately see no reason in remaining a follower since the main reason they followed you in the first place was to receive tweets about a specific topic. Now that you’re tweeting about things that are totally unrelated, they  have no reason to stick around anymore.

Here are some tips on avoiding unnecessary falloff:

a) Be clear about what you want to achieve on Twitter.

b) List the most important topics that you plan on tweeting in your profile bio. These are the common keywords that are characteristic of your industry.

c) Make sure to align your tweets with those important topics. Always stay on topic.

 2. Providing zero value

Twitter users want value exchange on the platform. The value system is simple. The procedure is as follows:

• Their goal is to give value to the people who follow them.
• Another goal is to gain value from those they follow.
• When they realize you aren’t delivering value, they will unfollow you.

How do you provide value to your followers?

• Tweeting links to useful resources.
• Sharing informative studies on Twitter.
• Providing quick tips.
• Informing your followers about the latest industry news.

How do you not provide value?

• Tweeting about yourself
• Tweeting about your product.
• Tweeting about your feelings, moods, or preferences.

3. Offering little or no information

Information and value are interconnected. On Twitter, information and value are synonymous. Tweets that provide the right kind of information to their audience are the best ones. Information is in high demand. For some people, Twitter is a huge source of information for topics they are interested in.

Twitter feeds can contain a variety of information, so long as the information is valuable.

• Links to valuable Infographics.
• Retweet an industry leader’s quotes.
• Blog posts about anything useful and relevant.
• Insightful Industry observations

Keep your followers engaged by providing information. You’ll lose them if you stop giving them information. That’s all there is to it.

4. Overly personal tweets

Twitter is a place where you can be yourself. It is important to express your emotions and be human. After all, it’s just a social network. However, for serious users who are in it for the value (I keep circling back to that) rather than for curiosity, they don’t want all your personal information.

Take a look at your Twitter goals. It is not possible to build relationships and provide value by exchanging a lot of unnecessary information. There’s such a thing as sharing too much. Don’t forget that.

5. Churning out offensive words

People have lost jobs, spouses, fortunes, etc., because of misguided tweets. You need to be careful.

Don’t post tweets that are:

• Demeaning
• Harsh
• Accusatory
• Curse words
• Extreme views on race
• Extreme views on religion
• Extreme political viewpoints
• Mocking
• Negative
• Complaining
• Arrogant
• Judgmental

People in certain industries or niches can post offensive language without repercussion or censure. However, there are others among us who work in different industries, and they have less tolerance for racist topics and salty language. Being rational and thoughtful is important, even on Twitter.

6. Being inactive

Most Twitter users curate their following list in order to gather value and information. Why should you be followed if you don’t tweet?

The quickest way to lose followers is to be inactive. However, there is a flip side to that. Goofing off on Twitter will also cause you to lose your followers.

Consider using scheduling tools like Buffer, which allows you to schedule tweets. Don’t clog up a feed with unnecessary information from one single source.

In conclusion 

Among your Twitter followers are potential leads, business partners, customers, and valuable relationships. You can’t afford to lose them.

By avoiding these mistakes, you not only stand to keep your followers, but experience steady increase in their numbers too.

Would you like to share any other mistakes you’ve made on Twitter that have cost you, followers? Let us know in the comments. We’ll love to hear them.