I’ve heard that as long as the ad is not promoting the sale of cannabis, it should be fine. But our ads are repeatedly denied. I’ve seen ads in my timeline from other ancillary cannabis companies, so I know it can be done. I just don’t know the secret. Any tips?
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When it comes to Instagram, try to stick to educational posts. @amy can tell you all about what is allowed on Instagram with their touchy terms of service. @noel and @graham advertise a lot on Instagram, they might be able to offer some advice to your original request.
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They just updated their Community Standards. What type of company are you? Dispensary? I can give you more pointers and info once I know what you do. 
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i think they watch for keywords so stay away from words that are associated and if you keep it informational and not ‘buy my weed’ you’ve got better odds
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We’ve tried that. We’ve tried making no mention of cannabis whatsoever, and still been denied.
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One of my moderators that helps run one of my Facebook groups (we have maybe 6 or 7 thousand members between two of the Facebook groups) was just flagged and put in Facebook jail for what he said was “liking a comment on Cannabis Life Radio,” which is a Florida based radio station.
Not totally sure what’s going on.
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“Instagram does not allow people or organizations to use the platform to advertise or sell marijuana, regardless of the seller’s state or country. This is primarily because most federal laws, including those of the United States, treat marijuana as either an illegal substance or highly regulated good. Our policy prohibits any marijuana seller, including dispensaries, from promoting their business by providing contact information like phone numbers, street addresses, or by using the “contact us” tab in Instagram Business Accounts. We do however allow marijuana advocacy content as long as it is not promoting the sale of the drug. 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.”
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You sure do know what’s going on. They. Are. Jerks.
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I tried to do an ad to promote THIS NETWORK on Facebook, and they denied me because it promotes the growth of drugs, man.
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LeafOps, our ancillary non-touching point of sale software for dispensaries, is not able to “promote” on FB either.
We have to grow organically. Friends liking and sharing rather than sponsoring a post.
Haha no pun intended…
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There’s your loophole. Don’t put contact info up and say “nothing for sale on Instagram”
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For a dispensary, they allow a website, but that is it for contact info.
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Paid media for Facebook has been the most stringent - and Instagram is obviously not much better. You can get away with organically posting certain content even if it features cannabis in the post or image, but once you put paid behind it they deny the request. Even third-party articles from reputable sources like the NYT or LA Times will get denied if the article mentions cannabis.
I agree with @LeafOps suggestion to encourage existing followers to share posts for additional reach. It’s still limiting vs. paid ads, but it helps. One tip that helps this is to make sure to have followers set their share preferences to “public” for that post so it reaches more people. Most people have the share preferences set to “friends” for privacy reasons and limits the reach of who can see the post.
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Google Ads has disallowed every ad I’ve attempted to run for just mentioning “illicit drugs” 
The ads are simply saying the equipment we make can help to combat PM and other pathogens in cannabis grows. I have my marketing gurus trying to figure out a work-around, but my guess is FB and Google and IG will continue to deny the paid content until federal law changes in the US.
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It’s astounding that censorship is so alive and real in our evolving and LEGITIMATE industry. This is just another overt attempt to further stigmatize and destabilize our industry. Growers Network is here to welcome you with open arms!
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The problem with “sharing” is that is violates the Community Standards of Instagram. I, for one, would also unfollow people if I saw the same thing posted to multiple accounts.
It’s not about posting, it’s about branding, and accounts should be branded with their own content. 
As far as Facebook goes, we don’t need to spend a lot of time there. Since we can’t boost shit, it’s better to spend your time where most of your web traffic comes from. It’s not Facebook.
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I agree that Facebook is a hot mess for advertising in general and especially in the cannabis industry. If not from Social Media, where do you see most web traffic coming from for cannabis-related web content? And if it’s Google, do you just have to go full organic content since they disallow paid ad content for cannabis?
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Jeff,
My hatred of Facebook also stems from the fact that for a year, they prevented cannabis brands to show up in search. I think the industry, as a whole, needs to ban that damn network.
I have a dispensary client, and 90% of our web traffic comes from Instagram. 100% organic. I haven’t worked with Google. I’m too afraid. Hahahah!
Do NOT forget about LinkedIn! That is where the industry is accepted. I get a lot of inquiries every week there.
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Wanna talk censorship? I was banned for 30 days a couple months ago for hate speech. Because of my kitten.
He looks Siamese, but he isn’t. I said he was the “white trash” version of a Siamese. FOUR appeals, and ALL denied.
For a cat.
Fuck facebook. Seriously.
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I have 13 Fb accounts!!! 13!!! Facebook is the ultimate butthurt crybaby when it comes to anything and everything…however if you want to start riots and incite violence against hunters its totally allowed. Facebook can burn down and cease to exist and i would not lose a wink of sleep over it. IG seems to be a little more friendly.
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