Why Am I Losing Followers on TikTok?

Like other social networks, it takes time, endless creativity, and consistency to build your presence on TikTok. Seeing a drop in your followers can be, thus, a perplexing and frustrating experience for anyone. If you’ve gone through a similar situation even once, you can relate. 

But why am I losing followers on TikTok? How to stop losing followers on TikTok?

Continue reading as I take you through the various factors that may contribute to a decline in your follower count on this short-video social networking platform. So, let’s get started. 

9 Most Common Reasons for Losing TikTok Followers

Several factors contribute to this hardship of losing TikTok followers, and here are the top 9 among them: 

• You Might Have Been Shadowbanned

• Your Content Isn’t Optimized Correctly

• You’ve Changed Your Niche

• Sudden TikTok Glitch

• You Aren’t Interacting With Your Audience

• You Post Content Randomly

• You’re Neglecting TikTok Trends

• You Aren’t Collaborating With TikTok Influencers

• TikTok Has Removed Your Followers’ Accounts

Let’s discuss each of these in detail below. 

You Might Have Been Shadowbanned

This may not be the case with all of you guys, but it can’t be neglected either.  

Let me tell you why. 

TikTok, like other platforms, has a strict policy against users who violate its community guidelines. Apart from removing your content, issuing a warning, and temporarily/permanently suspending your profile, it’s also common for TikTok to impose a ‘shadowban’ on your account. 

In other words, your content would not feature on FYP, resulting in a significant drop in views, likes, and comments. And yes, followers, too! 

There’s no direct way to know whether your TikTok profile has been shadowbanned. But I found the following tricks quite helpful: 

• Go to the For You page and check if your content is coming up or not 

• Try uploading a video, and if it says “under review,” TikTok has shadowbanned your account.

• Lastly, check your analytics, especially the engagement. If it’s very low, you’re a victim of the infamous TikTok shadowban.

Coming to how to remove this shadowban, unfortunately, you can’t get this removed from your end. It depends on the platform and its algorithms.

Your Content Isn’t Optimized Correctly

Not optimizing your content is another common reason behind losing your beloved followers. 

Today, TikTok is not just a social media platform. Rather, it has transformed itself into a search engine. The ‘Gen Z’ uses it to know the best outfit ideas, interview tips, DIY recipes, and every other thing they would otherwise use Google for. 

That’s why TikTok SEO should be your top priority to make your videos rank at the top, and attract new followers.

But how do I optimize my TikTok content? 

Here are some tips you can start with: 

• Know your audience’s needs and their search intent

• Use relevant keywords and #hashtags in your content

• Don’t miss TikTok trends

• Rework on your old content

• Keep an eye on your competitors 

• Develop a foolproof strategy and stick to it

• You’ve Changed Your Niche

Have you recently changed your niche?

If yes, your current followers will likely hit the ‘Following’ button to unfollow you. This is normal, and you don’t have to worry much about it. 

Consider this example. 

Suppose your earlier niche was comedy-centric, in which you used to serve comedy videos to your followers. But now, you’ve switched to a political account. As a result, your earlier followers may not find your account worth their time and, thus, may unfollow you. 

In such a scenario, what you can do is stay consistent in this new niche and wait for the new targeted audience to start following you.

Sudden TikTok Glitch

Yes, a sudden TikTok glitch can also give you a mini-heart attack by showing your followers count as ‘0.’

This can happen due to various reasons, say, TikTok’s server has gone down, a software bug, or network issues. In some cases, your device-related problem can also be a culprit. 

In this case, again, you don’t need to worry, as your complete follower list will get automatically restored as soon as the servers become functional. 

If you’re experiencing frequent technical glitches on your TikTok app, try the following things:

• Restart your TikTok application to fix minor glitches

• Update your app to the latest version, and enable auto-updates, if available 

• Make sure your internet connection is working fine

• Restart your device, if restarting the app doesn’t work 

• Report the issue to the TikTok Help Center

You Aren’t Interacting With Your Audience

Your followers expect your attention and interaction to feel like they are a part of your community. A lack of this interaction is enough to part ways with you!

It’s very simple to make your followers feel connected, and here are different ways to do so:

• Respond to every comment on your videos, be it positive or negative

• Host Q&A sessions regularly and answer questions from your followers

• Collaborate with your followers by creating duets with their content

• Use polls to know the opinions of your followers and make them feel like your family. Make them seen and heard

Similarly, there are several other simple ways to make your followers feel heard. 

You Post Content Randomly

Do you post on TikTok as and when you feel suitable? If yes, please stop doing this! 

Like every social media platform, there’s a particular time or a specific day of the week when your content can achieve the highest engagement. According to Hootsuite, the best time to post on TikTok for maximum engagement is Thursday, 7 PM (PST.)

But this doesn’t mean you can post on one single day (Thursday) and relax for the remainder of the week! You can also post multiple times in a day or week if that works for you. This is something that most big brands do: post 16 times per month on average, translating to 4 times per week. 

You’re Neglecting TikTok Trends

TikTok is remarkably popular for its trends, and not staying up-to-date with them can lead to your followers unfollowing you. 

Unlike what most creators think of TikTok trends, they are not just a source of creating ‘viral’ content but also the key to feature on the coveted For You page. 

But since the popularity of these trends moves at lightning speed, it’s common for last week’s hottest trends to be dead and buried by today. Thus, you need to be at your best while creating the best 15-second clip around them. And at the same time, it’s crucial to avoid haphazardly jumping into any random trend. 

Follow these tips to make the best use of a TikTok trend: 

• Refer to TikTok’s Discover page for the latest trends

• Don’t hop into a trend if it’s outside of your niche

• Stay away from old trends

You Aren’t Collaborating With TikTok Influencers

Who said only big brands that can spend millions of dollars can collaborate with TikTok influencers? Even independent content creators like you can maximize your reach by partnering with influencers. Not doing so, as you may have guessed by now, can result in a significant drop in your following. 

But why? 

There are two main reasons which I found. First, collaboration with famous TikTok personalities adds a kick to your content, which your followers appreciate, and second, they get to see both of their favorite creators perform together. 

Below are different ways to collab with other video creators: 

• Start a series

• Invite them to your livestream

• Host a giveaway together

• Have them guest post on your account

• Film a podcast episode

TikTok Has Removed Your Followers’ Accounts

TikTok has a strict policy against users it finds violating the community guidelines, engaging in spam or malicious activities, creating fake accounts by impersonating someone else, or using copyrighted content without permission. 

If your followers appear to be indulging in any of these, TikTok will likely remove their account from its platform. As a result, you’ll see a drop in your follower list. 

This is what I do and recommend to you guys, too, to protect your TikTok account from being followed by unwanted people: 

• Be careful about who you accept as followers

• Remove suspicious accounts with a strange username

• Report users who abuse or harass you or your other followers

Best Tips to Avoid Follower Loss on TikTok

Following are some tried & tested tips to contain your follower loss on TikTok:  

• Don’t violate any TikTok community guidelines to give it a chance to shadowban your account 

• Create a content calendar and stick to it

• Don’t switch to new niches more often

• Treat your TikTok followers like a family and try to build a connection with them

• Promote your profile and content across your other social media handles for more reach

• Collaborate with famous TikTokers to get exposure to their audience 

• Don’t miss out on TikTok trends and challenges

Last but not least, incorporate relevant #hashtags to let the algorithm feature your content on the For You page. 

Conclusion 

As you must have understood by now, a lot of factors can lead to a drop in your TikTok followers. While technical glitches and shadowbans can’t be sidelined, changes in your content, inconsistent posting, and evolving audience preferences are the other major culprits. 

To mitigate these losses, you must adapt to your audience’s interests, prepare a consistent posting schedule, engage with your followers, and stay up-to-date with the platform’s features and algorithms. 

Take this advice: always focus on quality content creation rather than bothering about your follower counts that’ll keep on fluctuating now and then. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: Why Am I Losing Followers on TikTok?

A: You can lose your hard-earned TikTok followers due to various reasons. Maybe you aren’t creating ‘trendy’ content that your audience wants to see, posting regularly, or collaborating with popular TikTokers. 

It’s also possible the platform has shadowbanned your profile for violating its policies, restricting your content’s reach on the For You page.   

Q: Why Do TikTok Views Suddenly Stop?

A: Your TikTok views can suddenly drop due to a technical glitch or the constantly changing TikTok algorithm. 

Q: Why Can’t I See My Followers on TikTok?

A: If you can’t see your followers on TikTok, it’s mostly due to server-related issues. Go to downdetector.com and check if the TikTok server is down or malfunctioning.  

Q: My TikTok Views Dropped; What Should I Do?

A: There are many things you can do in case your TikTok views have dropped. I recommend changing your content strategy, interacting with your audience to understand their expectations, analyzing your analytics, and, most importantly, using high-quality and relevant hashtags. 

Q: How Can I Regain Lost Followers on TikTok?

A: You’ll find a hell of a lot of tips on how to regain lost followers on TikTok, but what I highly believe will work for you is posting high-quality, engaging content relevant to your target audience. That’s all you must focus on!