how cannabis brands can post on social media and avoid a shadowban

Written by Flaherty Creative

cannabis instagram rules — Smoking at Desk. Photo Credit to **Chandri Anggara**

Each social platform has its own rules on what type of content is allowed and how users should go about distributing it. In the case of cannabis content, these rules are frequently changing. Along with reading this guide, you should keep yourself up to date on the evolving community guidelines and best practices of your chosen social platform.

To start, let’s get you up to speed on what you can and can’t do on social media as a cannabis brand.

Do not promote product sales

While each platform has its own rules, in general, content that promotes the sale of cannabis (or any other adult-targeted product for that matter) is against terms of service and may result in account termination.

Avoid cannabis terminology in your copy

When writing captions, avoid the use of cannabis-specific terms such as “THC,” “cannabis,” or “terpenes.” Like they have the ability to detect images, AI algorithms are trained to detect captions that intend to promote or sell cannabis products.

Even if you’re not promoting sales, using these terms will severely diminish your reach, as social platforms don’t like to promote cannabis-related content.

Again, however, if your goal isn’t to grow on social media and rather to build an authentic presence, we recommend using appropriate terminology regardless of the negative impact on reach.

don’t bother with hashtags

While hashtags are meant to improve reach for the rest of the social media community, using them as a cannabis brand is just painting a massive target on your back.

Social platforms like Instagram build an expanding library of banned hashtags relating to cannabis, which if you’re caught using, will render your posts invisible to non-followers, and may result in your account receiving a strike.

Just because you found a clever one that’s working right now (such as #lowtemp for dabbing), doesn’t mean that instagram won’t add it to their list and retroactively penalize you for previous posts you’ve made using it.

can I post images and videos of my products?

AI detection algorithms have become advanced enough to detect imagery of cannabis and its use. If detected, they will flag your content for regulated goods, and depending on the platform, will penalize you in various ways.

You can avoid it entirely by not showing direct imagery of cannabis, such as cannabis photos, or videos of people consuming.

If you want to be sneaky, you can avoid direct imagery in the beginning of your reels or videos and cut to them after a few seconds. This method works at the moment, but isn’t guaranteed to forever.

But we put so much effort into crafting high-quality products. we want to show them off.

If you plan on posting images and videos of your products, make sure you are not promoting their sale on social media. Doing so will get your account terminated.

Even if they don’t ban you, social platforms will still penalize you for posting this type of content. Since cannabis products are only supposed to be used by adults, social media platforms want to limit users’ exposure to them. Currently, social platforms will place cannabis content lower in users’ feeds or recommendations, regardless of the time they were posted or the user’s interaction history with your account. Sometimes, the content will not be recommended or even show up in your followers’ feeds whatsoever.

If your goal on social media is to connect with your customers rather than grow & reach new audiences, we think it’s fine to post imagery and videos of your products and consumption.

What can I post instead?

Content Plan. Photo Credit to Mart Production.

Try instead creating content that is educational, tells your brand's unique story, invites prospects into a community, shows off your staff and process, and illustrates why you're different than the hundreds of other cannabis brands around.

We can help you create a robust content strategy that converts prospects into loyal, paying customers who can’t wait to brag about you to their friends.

Book a Free Discovery Call

Platform-Specific Recommendations

Instagram / Facebook | Meta

Meta allows legal cannabis brands and dispensaries to have a social media presence on their platform. Instagram in particular is where the majority of the cannabis community congregates. This should be your main social platform.

You can configure your accounts to automatically cross-post all of your content on both Facebook and Instagram, so why not take advantage of both platforms?

While Meta allows cannabis content to be posted, anything assumed to promote sales will be removed or restricted to certain accounts.

Posts containing cannabis imagery or copy will be slightly penalized in the form of posts showing up lower in followers’ feeds than non-cannabis content.

You can try and avoid this penalty in one of 3 ways:

Do not post imagery of cannabis or consumption
Do not make cannabis the main focus of your content
Stick to the 1:3 Rule
1. 1 cannabis-related post to every 3 non-cannabis posts (ex: staff highlights, event recaps, etc).

You can read Instagram’s community guidelines on regulated goods here.

YouTube

YouTube allows legal cannabis brands and adult users in legal states to post cannabis-related content on their platform, as long as they’re not promoting sales.

This is where you should post long-form content, podcasts and horizontal videos.

Like Instagram, YouTube penalizes creators who post cannabis content in the form of decreased reach, and prohibits promoting direct sales.

Your content will not be shown to users under the age of 21, and will not show up in recommended videos, or your subscribers’ feeds.

You must not include any links related to your website or products in the video description or comments section, or risk account termination.

Some users avoid diminished reach by not directly showing cannabis flower and claiming that what they are consuming is tobacco or clove. We don’t recommend this strategy, but if reach is your goal, it works for now.

That is - until they invent smell-o-vision.

LINKEDIN

Linkedin is perhaps the friendliest of the social platforms to the cannabis industry. As long as users are following their local laws, LinkedIn doesn’t intervene.

Feel free to promote sales, link to your website and post copy, images and videos containing cannabis and related terminology.

LinkedIn is best for b2b sales and marketing. Create and nurture relationships with buyers and brand managers by showing the hard work and dedication that goes making your products.

X (FORMERLY TWITTER)

Like LinkedIn, X places no restrictions on cannabis-related content other than ensuring you are following local laws and regulations. Unlike Instagram however, X has yet to garner a large following in the cannabis community.

X uniquely allows cannabis brands and dispensaries to advertise on their platform, even going as far as offering options for paid advertisement placements on their site.

DISCORd

As long as you’re following local laws and regulations, Discord places no restrictions on the use of their platform to build cannabis-oriented communities, promote products, and engage in sales.

TIKTOK

Unlike any of the other social platforms, TikTok does not allow users to post any content related to cannabis whatsoever.

Some users get away with posting cannabis-related content by avoiding showing any imagery of cannabis and using clever euphemisms instead of proper terminology. For example, referring to cannabis products as “garden” products (such as “garden brownies”) or using emojis in place of cannabis terms.

While you risk getting banned quite frequently, we still recommend taking advantage of TikTok’s massive audience and unique algorithm.

Rather focus on crafting the best products the industry has to offer?

We’ll handle this headache for you.

Book a Free Discovery Call Today.

best practices for cannabis brands on social media | Avoid a shadowban