Important Things to Remember When Marketing Your Cannabis Brand
If you’re trying to do any marketing in the cannabis industry, you’ve probably encountered issues with Facebook and Instagram. The company’s stance towards marijuana has been making headlines for a few years. (Facebook owns Instagram, so the two platforms have similar content policies.) They’ve been removing cannabis accounts, saying they violate their terms of service. They’ve “shadowbanned” other accounts. (If your account is “shadowbanned,” you may not be aware of it. It’s a sneaky way of making it hard for other users to see your content.)
From a marketing standpoint, this is problematic, because social media is important. But social media is just one area of concern. Advertising guidelines surrounding cannabis vary from state to state. And they keep changing.
Cannabis brands actually shouldn’t be investing every bit of time and energy into social media. In this post, we’ll explain why you need a more diversified strategy.
Instagram and Facebook are full of real people. Friends, family, fans, and a large number of competitors, trolls, and haters. You can have the most beautiful content in the world, but if it’s cannabis, you’re one report away from losing that post — and losing your entire profile, along with all your followers.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use Instagram or Facebook. But you should probably think about leveraging other avenues to create relationships, too. Consider attending local events such as concerts, networking mixers, and happy hours. If you can connect with people in person, then follow up online, the value of your network can increase at a much faster rate.
When it comes to marketing cannabis brands specifically, consider other social media sites with massive user counts, like Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. It might not seem like your demographic would be on these sites, but they are. If you do the research, you can start engaging with people on these sites.
There’s real value in communicating with people directly. Ask questions via DM, and really learn about the people who support you and your competitors. The more time you spend liking, commenting, reposting, and giving people friendly shout-outs, the quicker your accounts will grow. This is true, of course, on Instagram. But it holds true on these other platforms, too.
One of the best marketing tools you can use is Buffer. This tool helps you schedule content on various social media profiles. For maximum efficiency, you want to be publishing 2-3 pieces of informative content per day, and engaging with 25-50 people.
Social media marketing is challenging, and it’s even more challenging in the cannabis industry. But if you actually take the time to connect with people, your brand will grow organically. Good luck!