Every "brand" is, by definition, just a collection of ideas and expectations in the eyes of the consumer.
Companies try hard to craft how people think about their brands through the products and services they offer, the marketing they use, and the actions they take as a company. Unfortunately, customers are also creating their own version of the brand based on their expectations and interpretations. When these two clash, the result is often disappointment and lost customers.
Every company should answer this question, or at least the variant - "Why SHOULD people follow us?", before they even create their social accounts.. Later on, using detailed content interaction analysis and talking to the community, companies should make sure that they are in sync with reality.
We know from user surveys like this one from Buzzstream, that users tend to follow social accounts for the following top 3 reasons:
Very few people become fans because they share interesting content (8%) or want to give feedback (4%).
Even after following a page, fans have expectations about how the relationship will work:
There isn't a general "right" answer to the questions above - it is entirely defined by what the brand followers expect from that brand. They may have an entirely different set of expectations from the 10 other brands they follow.
For example, one user might follow Audi because he loves his car, but never want to see a single post from them. He isn't going to engage with content he does see and if he does see content, he wants it to be about his car. He will call his dealer for support. On the other hand, he might also follow Mashable and expect to see hourly content about current events where he will give his opinion and not expect support.
This means that all the posts that say - "too much promotional content will push away your fan" - can be completely wrong for your brand.
When a brand's content doesn't match expectations, users start to unfollow, as this graph from SproutSocial's Q3 survey shows:
Notice that brands can post both too much or too little. That they can be too focused on themselves or not enough.
A potential problem with this data is the same one that plagues political polls - asking people why they WOULD do something doesn't get the same answers as why they DID do something. Regardless, it still offers proof of the importance of meeting expectations.
Additionally, whatever reason they had for following the brand in the first place doesn't mean that they still feel that way now. That can be a real problem if your brand is trying to offer interesting content to people who just want deals or who actually don't want to see anything anymore.
Finally, perception trumps reality. In the graph below, SproutSocial tried to match up how people felt about a brand's responsiveness to what they could actually measure (#1 is the most responsive, #15 is the least responsive):
You can see the huge disconnect - people feel like Utilities are incrediblly unresponsive when they are in fact the most responsive. They also feel like Media/Entertainment is very responsive, when they are not at all.
So, what can you do today to help retain your current and future followers?
Creating a regular process of evaluation and change will make a huge difference in how effective your brand is in retaining followers, driving engagement, and building long lasting customer relationships.
Does your brand meet your followers' expectations?