Followers. They can be the highlight of our day and the tears of our nights. I love my followers, I really do, but I don’t let the number of followers I have rule my life or my business.

Confused? Expecting me to tell you the opposite? Conventional advice tell us having a ton of followers mean we’re successful. We’ve also been taught to start worrying if someone unfollows us, after all we must be doing something terribly wrong if someone is no longer interested in seeing our content.

If someone decides they want to unfollow me then I say go ahead! I think it’s (sometimes) okay if someone unfollows you on social media. Let me explain this theory; when someone unfollows you it could be for a few different reasons and none of them are personal.

Why it’s okay if people unfollow you on social media

You’re focusing on your message

Often when newbies start on social media, or a person who hasn’t really decided on their focus for their page, they post any and every thing. Posting everything and posting irregularly is fine if you have a personal account but if you’re using social media as a business tool it’s a no no.

When you’ve narrowed your focus this can cause a few people to unfollow you.

Maybe your new focus isn’t for them! When you were posting all willy nilly maybe you were posting something fun or random memes but now that you are dedicated to posting information that relates to your business, it has zero interest to a few followers.

That’s a g good thing! I’d rather have followers who want to read and see what I’m posting who are interested in my niche.

They’re playing the ‘follow + unfollow game’

Sometimes your followers have only followed you in the hopes of you following them back. I regularly go through my followers and see what they’re posting because you never know when something might be of interest. However, I do not feel compelled to follow someone just because they followed me.

There’s no rule that says Thou Must Follow Every Person that Follows You. The follow and unfollow method is something I do not play and if I lose someone because I didn’t do what they anticipated and follow them back then I’m grateful.

You can focus on your target audience

You’re sending out your social media posts to thousands of followers and it’s falling on deaf screens. That doesn’t translate to people coming to you for information, people using your services or money in your pocket. It’s a waste of time and energy.

I’d rather have my valuable information reach the people I’m trying to attract and work with. So if someone says buh bye to me, I don’t sweat it. I remind myself that I’m really reaching the people I’m targeting.

Guys I’m feeling this topic so much that I’m dropping a BONUS reason why it’s okay if someone unfollows you on social media:

Sometimes….they simply want to move on

Some people will follow you because your content connected to who they were and where they were in their life at a specific time. I’ve been guilty of following people because they had a pretty picture or maybe I was enjoying memes (sigh). Whatever the reason, I go through my feed from time to time and unfollow people that aren’t relevant to me any longer. It’s time to move on.

You’ve done it too! If you can move on from an account then people have the same right to move on from yours.

Am I suggesting you shouldn’t worry at all when people unfollow you? Hardly! If you notice a lot of followers are dropping like flies then you should question that. But most of the time losing a few people every now and then isn’t the end of your social game.

Do you agree that it’s okay if people unfollow you on social media or do you get super bummed?