Social media provide brands with a way
to reach consumers not only through paid advertising, but also through organic posts that people want to see. Those posts can include notifications about special discounts or new products and
services. Other people want to be entertained with witty commentary, such as Wendy’s sassy voice on X, as Twitter is now called. However, brands have to be careful not alienate consumers
with annoying content that spurs them to either unfollow a brand’s social media account or to “shadowban” it by hiding posts from their newsfeeds. The most common reasons
that people said they unfollowed brands in the past 12 months were clickbait (76%), inauthentic content (68%), boring content (68%), repetitive content (68%) and posts that appear to be angling for
short-term engagement (63%), according to
a survey by Hootsuite. “What’s worse is
that beyond getting you merely hidden, these top five sins are actually far more likely to get you straight-up unfollowed—not a good look when our survey also found there is a clear connection
between followers and intent to purchase,” according to Hootsuite.