We’re going to attempt to answer the question can you advertise hemp on Facebook? What about Instagram? Are there any other ways to market hemp without advertising on social media? We have answers actionable insights for you, please read on.
Can You Advertise Hemp on Facebook & Instagram?
If you’re curious as to if you can advertise hemp on Facebook and Instagram, the answer is yes, you probably can, but you’ll be faced with a ton of frustration and the possibility of having your account banned.
No worries though! There are other ways to market and advertise hemp on Facebook, including Instagram, with basic social media marketing and no paid media.
Typically speaking, fashion bloggers, recipes, selfies, and cannabis/CBD companies: these four things are what may first come to mind when you are thinking of using Instagram to promote your hemp CBD business.
At one point, three of these simple categories may have ruled the content on the site, but not anymore. Instagram has transformed the world of business, especially with the legalization of cannabis in many US states and the legalization of hemp with the 2018 Farm Bill.
Over 2 million advertisers use Instagram to market and sell products or services. It’s certainly a challenge for your hemp business to get a piece of this action, for now.
If your CBD business is struggling to get ads approved by Facebook, for placements in the Instagram news feed and stories, stop trying, don’t run the risk of having your account banned.
How To Market Hemp Products on Instagram Without Paid Media
If you want to succeed online, it is essential that you dedicate time and commitment to get your hemp business on Instagram, build a consistent profile and eventually reap the benefits – organically.
With its infinite updates and constant interface modifications, Instagram can be a tricky site to keep up with.
Trying to figure out if Instagram is a good fit for your hemp CBD business is a potentially intimidating task depending on your familiarity with the platform.
Regardless of what type of hemp products you sell and the target market you cater to, there are three main areas of Instagram that are important to consider when approaching this platform:
- Instagram Demographics
- Instagram Usage
- Instagram For Businesses
Below we detail what these three categories entail, and also how you can best utilize them to master this platform and grow your CBD hemp business.
1. Instagram Demographics
Did you know that Instagram has over 1 billion active monthly users, and of that, 500 million are active daily? That is a massive potential audience for your content!
In order to see the best results, it is essential that you make note of the more specific demographics of this audience so that you can better cater and customize your posts to generate the most effective and positive response.
One major fact to note is that roughly 71% of Instagram users are under the age of 35. Additionally, the largest age-group on this site is 18-29-year-olds.
Once being aware of this, you should ideally be integrating content that would best suit the interests of people in this age group. One simple way is to reference current pop-culture events.
In doing this, you create content that they can relate to, and thus make them feel connected to your business. This can create engagement and help to grow your brand’s online presence.
Also, going back to the point of daily users, it is very important to create daily content. This, again, will grow your online presence.
With each post, you can reach new and more users via hashtags and other links. Daily content is a major stepping stone to creating a noteworthy digital presence.
Another important demographic to note is that 80% of users are from outside of the United States.
This is an important stat to know so that you do not focus on the interests and cultural references that only apply to Americans.
Integrating world news and events will help those not native to the United States feel included and relevant to you and your company.
2. Instagram Usage
Understanding exactly how people use Instagram will help you to create, produce and disseminate effective content that will engage your audience.
This umbrella term is meant to encapsulate how to best utilize Instagram and the various features that it offers.
Roughly 500 million Instagram users create and post daily Instagram stories. Instagram stories are a new form of posting content.
The post lasts only 24 hours and appears on a separate feed from the usual timeline. They can include still photos, short clips, gif-like videos (referred to as “boomerangs”) and a variety of links to locations, other accounts, or external sites.
Stories are an ingenious method of captivating the audience. Consumers merely “tap” their phones and can go through dozens of different stories in an extremely short amount of time.
Making daily posts to your profile’s story can help increase your visibility and attraction.
Next, you should make use of the location feature for your post.
When posting content, adding a location tag can increase your interaction by up to 79%.
This is because the image will now be tagged and seen along with all of the other posts in that location.
This is great for any business, but especially hemp CBD companies like yours who are trying to foster a community presence.
Instagram allows you to seamlessly connect with other accounts when posting content.
By simply typing out another account’s handle (@ + their username) that is connected to your post, they too will be notified and be following all of the activity.
This also gives an opportunity for them to repost your content either on their page or story.
Posts that include another handle create 56% more engagement on average than ones who do not.
Hashtags are another handy resource to utilize on Instagram. A hashtag will connect your post to a broader topic and different timeline with the goal of reaching a larger audience.
Each Instagram post can contain up to 30 hashtags. By using at least one in your post, you could increase engagement by over 12%.
3. Instagram for Businesses
Instagram has recently offered the option to switch an ordinary account to a business profile. This allows the user to see insights and analytical information about the post’s performance.
For you, this means that you can get this information and use it to make your content more effective.
This can be done through the use of hashtags, location, or even the time that the content is posted at.
Instagram is a very important platform for business, as engagement on here is 10x higher than that on other social media sites.
In total, there are over 25 million business profiles on the platform, and that number continuously climbs. 80% of users follow at least one business account or profile.
This proves that the audience is willingly interacting with businesses on Instagram, it is just a matter of grabbing their attention to foster your own engagement and sell your products or services.
Roughly 80% of Instagram users will consult with a company’s profile before they decide to purchase a product.
Because of this, it is super important that you are producing consistent, informative and effective content.
That way, they will be swayed to pursue your company over others when looking to make a purchase.
We Can Help You Market & Possibly Advertise Hemp on Facebook
Building your online presence takes a lot of time and research.
Successful business profiles are ones who cater to their specific demographics, know how to use each feature effectively and take advantage of the analytical information to improve their strategy.
Instagram is no longer a typical, surface level social media site focused solely on aesthetics.
It is the second most used site globally (next to Facebook), with a strong millennial population and a massive advertising and marketing presence.
Through using the statistics talked about above and conducting your own business-specific research, you too can create a successful Instagram account to effectively promote and share your company.
If you’re ready to get started with your CBD social media marketing strategy, please contact us for a free 30-minute phone consult or to request a quote.
We’re Ready To Help You Grow!