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"Winning the 'Best AU Distillate Vape' award at the HIGH People's Choice Cannabis Cup is an incredible honor for our team at Workers Cannabis. We are humbled and elated to have our dedication to crafting exceptional vaping experiences acknowledged by industry experts and consumers alike," said Karl Riedel, Chief Marketing Officer of 305 Brands, the sales and marketing team behind Workers Cannabis. "We take a great deal of pride in curating unique vape flavors to appeal to all consumers, with a focus on delivering a quality vaping experience through industry-leading vape technology, based on our extensive history and background in the vaping industry."

VMR Products – a Miami-based vaporizer company – says Facebook doesn’t like the company to show its products in use.

“They have shut down our ads for showcasing the actual device,” said Karl Riedel, vice president of marketing for VMR, which started in the nicotine industry but has made a foray into the cannabis sector.

While VMR has had effective engagement via posting directly on its business page, it finds the restrictions much more rigid when creating an ad through Facebook.

Many cannabis businesses are simply hoping for some guidance from social media companies.

“It’s pretty much a wide-open category right now,” Riedel said. “There are no guidelines about what you can and cannot do in the world of social media marketing for the cannabis business.”

 Michigan's hottest cannabis products won out in this year's People's Choice competition. 

Workers Cannabis "Unicorn Piss" won FIRST PLACE for AU Distillate Vapes in the HIGH TIMES Cannabis Cup: Michigan People's Choice 2023.

Lion Order "King Clementine" also won THIRD PLACE for Medical Sativa Flower, and Lion Order "Lion Balm" won SECOND PLACE for AU Topicals + Tinctures + Capsules + Sublinguals (through Heavyweight Heads).

Understanding what might get you banned and how pivoting to video can boost your social media game

Know What’s Allowed

It’s not crystal clear what you can get away with when it comes to social media marketing and advertising. Facebook, Instagram and others have not released a specific list of banned content. But plenty of trial and error has led to a general understanding of how to fly under the radar.

It helps to know, for example, that these social media services don’t want to be seen as helping promote the sale and distribution of a federally illegal substance.

Karl Riedel, vice president of marketing for VMR Products – a Miami company that supplies vaporizers and electronic cigarettes – has learned the hard way that Facebook doesn’t like images of cannabis smoking mechanisms. “They have shut down our ads for showcasing the actual device,” he said.

Pivot to Video

At VMR, Riedel has seen good results by creating professional videos on YouTube and then sharing them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. ...

“Videos are highly powerful. YouTube is linked to Google,” Riedel said. “So a lot of those reviews get highly ranked (in Google’s search results.)”

Finally, recognize that social media platforms can change their rules at any time.

“I recommend people leverage social media as much as they can these days,” Riedel said. “While they can. We don’t know if restrictions are coming down the pipeline.”

• Demand is growing in Michigan’s cannabis market, with sales setting records 
• But prices are plummeting with too much product floods the market
• Cannabis businesses are turning to traditional marketing methods to boost brand loyalty — and, they hope, profitability

“You're seeing a lot more retail marketing strategies being deployed,” Karl Riedel, chief marketing officer for 305 Brands, a wholesaler, told Bridge Michigan. “(There’s) your traditional things like buy one, get one free and stuff like that, but I think you're going to see a lot more.”

Karl Riedel, Vice President of Marketing at VMR Products, tells Inverse that there is “no device as versatile as the 5th Degree” and he promises “unrivaled performance” from a technological standpoint, putting Prohibited at the “cutting or bleeding edge of vapor space.” For instance, the 5th Degree boasts the fastest heat-up time for any vaporizer on the market, so users can start puffing more quickly. That alone might sell a lot of smokers on what Riedel calls a “premium vape experience.”

“Users can get the experience they’re after,” Riedel said, “because a lot of science and engineering went into optimizing the performance.”