Fight Facebook Page Takedowns

Facebook pages for some cannabis companies have started disappearing, as the social media platform has shut down business pages for dispensaries. The vanishing act includes pages for legal dispensaries in states across the country.

The total number of pages involved is unclear, but pages for legal shops in Arizona, Colorado, New Jersey, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have been shut down, according to Inquisitr. The shutdown does not include any information or message, except that the page violates Facebook’s “Community Standards.”

The loss of customer communication and content can be a huge setback for a legal dispensary, which is why it’s important to have a crisis plan in place, says Sara Gullickson, cannabis consultant with Final Rules, based in Arizona.

“The first thing you need to do is send a memo around to staff, so when patients ask what’s going on, they have an answer,” she says. “Something that’s PC, saying ‘No, we didn’t go out of business. We’re still here for our patients. We’re working on the problem.’” The first step makes sure the right information gets to the customer even with the Facebook page shut down, and the second step is to ensure employees understand best practices for allowed content in social media posts.

Though both recreational and medical pages were shut down in various states, and no statement from Facebook has said what triggered the response, there are common trends.

“A lot of the pages that were posting flower were taken down, if they were posting pictures of actual product,” says Gullickson. “A lot of pages that didn’t have the 18+ gate on, too."

She recommends "not posting any sales or promotions, because they’re looking at that as drug trafficking.” For one of her clients, they removed all photos of the product or paraphernalia, as well as any information on sales or deals. They also placed the page behind an “18+” age gate in the business page’s setting to try to keep any minors out. Another trend is the word “dispensary” in the title of the page, she says. They removed that, and also added in the license number of the facility to show that the dispensary is a state-legal business.

A narrower focus on content guidelines that doesn’t allow photos of the product or deals doesn’t have to mean bland content, she says. “With this posting strategy, it’s a little tougher to come up with something post. But you can post your hours, or other tidbits,” she says. “We have a lot of education at our centers, so we post a lot of education about the plant.”

One major loss in a Facebook shutdown is the customer reviews, which are entirely deleted when the page is taken down. “We had hundreds of reviews that disappeared,” says Gullickson, “so we’ve implemented incentives to have patients leave more reviews, because those are really important to us. We had to implement a way to get patients to interact with us again and remind them that we’re here.”

Though policies and communication plans put together in advance are the best safeguard to a Facebook shutdown, it’s best to have multiple modes of communication for customers and patients. Have a strong website, says Gullickson, but also work with other networks like Leafly or Massroots.

“My main message is to ... have a crisis management plan for when small things happen that could turn into big things,” says Gullickson, “and really having a marketing or education mix that doesn’t rely on one source. It’s really about having a well-rounded approach to your new patient acquisition plan that isn’t affected if one thing goes down.”

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