Compliance for Cannabis Social Media
Posting on social media can be a bitch, we know.
However, for your businesses, it's necessary. So be smart.
Let's take a look at the most current compliance rules that (fingers crossed) if followed properly keeps you out of the dog house. No body likes getting up to 10k followers just for your account to be frozen or taken down. Not only is that YEARS worth of work for many individuals, it's a rebuilding of a brand all over again. F*ck that!
As tempting as it is to give these BIG tech companies the middle finger, sometimes you have to play their silly games to stay present online.
The rules on every major network can change in an instant, so these Terms of Service (TOS) and Community Standards (CS) are current as of 7.27.20.
“Advertising for drug-related products falls under the prohibited Content (section four) of the guidelines that you can see here: https://www.facebook.com/policies/ads/”
“Ads may not directly or indirectly link to landing pages where people can purchase drug-related products. Your Ads must not promote the sale or use of illegal, prescription, or recreational drugs.”
They do not allow any cannabis content to be paid advertising. If an ad directs to a website with product available (even if it’s to pick up in the shop), it will be declined.
CBD Guidelines (Non-medical Drugs - Other than alcohol and tobacco):
“Content that...
Attempts to buy, sell, trade, donate, gift, or solicit non-medical drugs
Admits to buying or trading non-medical drugs by the poster of the content by themselves or through others
Admits to personal use without acknowledgment of or reference to recovery, treatment, or other assistance to combat usage
Promotes, encourages, coordinates or provides instructions for use or make of non-medical drugs.”
“To encourage safety and compliance with common legal restrictions, we prohibit attempts by individuals, manufacturers, and retailers to purchase, sell, or trade non-medical drugs, pharmaceutical drugs, and marijuana. We also prohibit the purchase, sale, gifting, exchange, and transfer of firearms, including firearm parts or ammunition, between private individuals on Facebook. Some of these items are not regulated everywhere; however, because of the borderless nature of our community, we try to enforce our policies as consistently as possible. Firearm stores and online retailers may promote items available for sale off of our services as long as those retailers comply with all applicable laws and regulations. We allow discussions about sales of firearms and firearm parts in stores or by online retailers and advocating for changes to firearm regulation.”
“Content that depicts the sale or attempt to purchase marijuana and pharmaceutical drugs. This includes content that mentions or depicts marijuana or pharmaceutical drugs, makes an attempt to sell or trade, by which we mean any of the following:
Explicitly mentioning the product is for sale or trade or delivery
Asking the audience to buy
Listing the price
Encouraging contact about the product either by explicitly asking to be contacted or including any type of contact information
Attempting to solicit the product, defined as:
Stating interest in buying the product, or Asking if anyone has the product for sale/trade
This applies to both individual pieces of content and Pages and Groups primarily dedicated to the sale of marijuana or pharmaceutical drugs.”
For dispensaries:
“... providing contact information like phone numbers, street addresses, or by using the “contact us” tab in Instagram Business Accounts. Dispensaries can promote the use and federal legalization of marijuana provided that they do not also promote its sale or provide contact information to their store.”
“Share only photos and videos that you’ve taken or have the right to share. As always, you own the content you post on Instagram. Remember to post authentic content, and don’t post anything you’ve copied or collected from the Internet that you don’t have the right to post.”
(This does NOT mean attribution is ok! If you do not own that photo, regardless of tagging someone, you are not allowed to post it. Period. Re-post apps also violate these standards.)
“Foster meaningful and genuine interactions.
“Help us stay spam-free by not artificially collecting likes, followers, or shares, posting repetitive comments or content, or repeatedly contacting people for commercial purposes without their consent.”
Offering sexual services, buying or selling firearms and illegal or prescription drugs (even if it’s legal in your region) is also not allowed.”
Content Removal and Disabling or Terminating Your Account
We can remove any content or information you share on the Service if we believe that it violates these Terms of Use, our policies (including our Instagram Community Guidelines), or we are permitted or required to do so by law. We can refuse to provide or stop providing all or part of the Service to you (including terminating or disabling your account) immediately to protect our community or services, or if you create risk or legal exposure for us, violate these Terms of Use or our policies (including our Instagram Community Guidelines), if you repeatedly infringe other people's intellectual property rights, or where we are permitted or required to do so by law. If you believe your account has been terminated in error, or you want to disable or permanently delete your account, consult our Help Center.
If your Instagram account gets disabled for content, you can file appeals instead of starting a new account. You will be prompted with an appeal when your account gets disabled.
“We remove content used to sell or buy regulated goods, like drugs, alcohol, tobacco, firearms and other hazardous materials.To keep you and our community safe, we don’t allow the private selling or buying of regulated goods like drugs, alcohol, tobacco, guns, or the sale of products from endangered species. If this sort of activity is reported to us, we’ll remove the content and may suspend the account owner.”
ONLY post what you own: Don’t infringe anyone's intellectual property, privacy or other rights.
You're creative, make content that your followers are actually interested in...like how to make a marshmallow spider/decoration...
“We respect the intellectual property rights of others. We require that information posted by Members be accurate and not in violation of the intellectual property rights or other rights of third parties.”
There are no specific rules on advertising for the cannabis industry. That doesn't mean you should push the boundaries here. Follow that same guidelines as the other platforms and you should be fine.
What we've learned
Post pictures that are yours. Your brand doesn't need to be picture perfect, same goes for social media.
Keep content educational. People build trust with you through demonstrations of your experience. If you want to be seen as an expert, showcase what makes you a bad ass.
Don't sell! These platforms love the idea of you dumping $$$ on advertising and other unnecessary expenses. Instead, focus on engagement with your followers and word will spread.
Don't buy followers. It's stupid.
Social media is a great place to showcase PEOPLE. Go behind-the-scenes, brag about your employees or customers, build content that makes you HAPPY!
Engage with other brands. Building partnerships is very fulfilling when starting or growing a business.
When you comment, make it genuine. So many of us are used to "canned" responses or bots communicating like they're really people. To fight this ongoing war with robots, please do yourself a favor and don't become one!
Thank you for reading and share with your co-workers.
Remember, if you need a private business coaching session with Gabby give us a call at 970-363-6445.
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