There are three primary ways that brands can use social media platforms for marketing: organic posts, shared posts, and paid posts. With paid posts still off limits to most businesses operating in and with the cannabis industry, cannabis brands can only use organic and shared social media posts for direct and indirect marketing.

Yes, that means cannabis brands are at a significant disadvantage, but if you know the right secrets, you can get excellent social media results without paid posts.

Don’t Do the Social Media Activities that Consumers Dislike from Brands

According to The Social Media Consumer Report from Hootsuite, more than one in two customers (52%) are “exhausted by self-promotional brand content” according to the report, so think twice before you publish post after post of marketing content that is all about how great your brand and company are.

The researchers discovered the top five worst things brands can do on social media that have caused customers to unfollow or hide a brand in the past year are:

• Clickbait: 76%
• Inauthentic content: 68%
• Boring content: 68%
• Repetitive content: 68%
• Angling for metrics: 63%

Digging a bit deeper into the data, the researchers learned there are some activities that brands do on social media platforms that are more likely to prompt consumers to hide content from the brand, and some activities that are much more likely to cause consumers to unfollow brands. Of course, you want to avoid both of these outcomes, but without a doubt, you never want to do things that lead potential customers to unfollow your brand.

For example, the research shows more than one out of every two customers (54%) will unfollow a brand on social media if the brand publishes content that is intentionally misleading just to get clicks on links (i.e., clickbait) while more than one out of every five customers (22%) will simply hide the content.

On the other hand, more than one in four customers (26%) will hide brand content that overuses emojis compared to fewer than one out of five customers (18%) will unfollow a brand that uses too many emojis in posts.

Bottom-line, some social media activities from brands annoy consumers a lot more than others, and businesses operating in and with the cannabis industry that are dependent on organic and shared posts need to know what those disliked activities are in order to avoid losing eyeballs and followers.

Here is the breakdown of the top 10 things brands do on social media platforms that cause customers to unfollow or hide the brands so you can avoid them (in order of most likely to cause unfollows):

• Post clickbait (i.e., intentionally misleading followers): 54% will unfollow the brand and 22% will hide the brand
• Post inauthentic content: 44% will unfollow; 24% will hide
• Post boring content that doesn’t appeal to the customer: 40% will unfollow; 27% will hide
• Provoke reactions to increase clicks and comments: 39% will unfollow; 24% will hide
• Post repetitive content: 35% will unfollow; 33% will hide
• Excessively self-promote: 34% will unfollow; 29% will hide
• Try too hard to entertain or gain attention: 32% will unfollow; 29% will hide
• Make generic or automated comments: 32% will unfollow; 27% will hide
• Not interact with or respond to the community: 32% will unfollow; 23% will hide
• Overuse memes or social trends: 30% will unfollow; 28% will hide

Before you hit the publish or share button, think about the five “don’ts” above, and make sure you’re giving people what they want rather than what you want to give them.

Do the Social Media Activities that Consumers Like from Brands

Four out of five consumers (80%) who participated in Hootsuite’s study said following a brand on social media has at least a limited impact on their purchase decisions, and more than one out of two customers (58%) said following a brand had a moderate or high impact on their purchase decisions.

To keep followers, you need to do the things your customers like, and according to the research, telling or teaching them something new is the best way. The data shows the percentage of consumers who agree they enjoy content from brands when the content:

• Tells or teaches them something new: 56%
• Makes them laugh: 5%
• Inspires them: 47%
• Makes them feel something: 36%
• Visually engages them: 36%
• Surprises them: 30%

However, you still need to make sure your content is authentic and relevant to your brand. Don’t forget the don’t’s just to adhere to the do’s. In other words, take the time to understand your customers and adjust your content to meet their wants and needs.

For example, Hootsuite found that the most appealing things brands do that can convince customers to follow them on social media differ between Baby Boomers and Gen Z.

Baby Boomers and Gen Z both believe that “communicating in a relatable and authentic way” is the most appealing thing that motivates them to follow a brand, but Baby Boomers rank “posting content that inspires me” as the second most appealing activity followed by “responding to direct questions and comments in a timely way” as the third most appealing activity.

Gen Z ranked “having good vibes or a visual aesthetic I’m into” second and “making an effort to say or do things creatively or in an entertaining way” third. Clearly, brands need to adjust their strategies significantly to appeal to both of these audience segments, but they need to do the work to understand what their audience segments are first.

How Cannabis Brands Can Succeed with Social Media

To succeed using social media, cannabis brands need to view it as an investment not to sell but to build awareness, recognition, relationships, and trust. Brands that ignore what consumers want and instead use social media solely to promote and sell will find their content getting hidden and their accounts getting unfollowed.