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Market and trends grow for cannabis news and social media businesses

Diversity in news dissemination has emerged along with the evolution of media born through technology.

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Social media is among the brilliant innovations the tech world has seen. Various platforms rock the social media space and the world has been converted to a small village. A person can be having a cup of coffee in Nairobi, Kenya while talking to a friend in California. Video chats have been a game changer.

A lot of businesses have benefitted as a result of social media’s huge audience.

Subscription to social media platforms is mouth-watering for advertisers. Every business goes where the numbers are. As Pew Research reports, on a daily basis about 37 percent of American adults use Instagram while 69 percent use Facebook, 22 percent use Twitter. It explains why social media has seen advertisers flocking to tap into the subscription figures. Gone are the days when magazines and print media would sell giant advertising spaces to business players.

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the social media giants preferred for their advertising spaces. The three have a subscription service for sponsored posts, which favors the business market.  

The limitation of using social media for business, have not been into focus until the legalization of marijuana came to reality.

What’s trending?

When it comes to business and advertising, social media is key. It offers an avenue for a consumer-oriented market. The social media is all about what is trending in the market as everyone looks to keep up with the trend.

There is a limitation as to what we can share on social media spaces. Regulations by developers and social media companies have seen a lot of content related to marijuana locked out.

Since the legalization of recreational marijuana in some states, many have taken it to social media making the new recreational lifestyle a trend. The legality of marijuana use has been a sensitive topic given the different perceptions people still hold. At the federal level, marijuana remains a controlled substance which limits its acceptance and use to the legal states only.

Social media does not have strict regulation on the age limit of its audience, and if it is there, users are not segregated. Facebook has the most diverse user base. Instagram beats assumptions with more older users in the 50-64 age bracket, while 47 percent of U.S. adults have used Instagram, according to Pew Research.

Since recreational marijuana has been legalized, a lot of people have taken to social media, making the marijuana consumption lifestyle trendy. (Photo by VaporVanity.com via Flickr. CC BY 2.0.)

The diversity of the social media space in terms of reach and age factor is what limits the marijuana businesses from harnessing its full potential as a market space. Social media allows for natural posts about recreational drugs but when it comes to promoted ads there are restricting policies.

That is the disappointment for cannabis businesses looking to advertise on social media.

Cannabis legalization is still controversial but the scope of limitation does not ban all players in the industry. Before one could get to advertise they need to apply safety measures, including contacting the platform’s management. This is to ascertain that the preferred media allows your type of content to be posted.

Facebook and Twitter both have ad policies prohibiting the promotion of illegal or recreational drugs. In Twitter’s case, dispensaries and paraphernalia cannot be posted. Instagram which is co-owned with Facebook, has loose ends in terms of cannabis content. As long as an account managed by a cannabis company posts quality content with an aim to entertain or educate, Instagram does not ban that. Its policies are more alike with Facebook’s.

If you consider marijuana business ads vis-a-vis the social media space policies, it fits the description outlined. Therefore, disqualifying any promotional content from flooding the space. Only Instagram breathes hope for cannabis businesses if policies loosen in the future.

PotNetwork sees a green goldmine

PotNetwork Holdings, Inc. (POTN) is a key player in the cannabis industry. It has made groundbreaking ventures with its innovative subsidiaries. For instance, Diamond CBD is in the wellness market, with hemp-derived CBD products. It markets its medicinal products through Expos, social events and cannabis exhibitions.

Its subsidiary PetMed has diversified into CBD for pets, an indeed lucrative market. Harbinger Research notes that the wealthy would be so generous to spend on pain relievers for their aging pets. It has won an award for being the best canine CBD products.

With a good eye for business gaps in the cannabis industry, PotNetwork media a subsidiary of POTN started running an online magazine, PotNetwork News, which has a huge following with over 300,000 views a month and an additional 150,000 unique visitors. The tabloid reached one million page views in 2019, this proves how strong the news network is.

By stamping authority in informing the cannabis world PotNetwork media has emerged top of the game against rivals like MG Magazine, Marijuana Business Daily and Marijuana Venture.

(Featured image by Christiaan Colen via Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0.)

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Kuria Irungu is a freelance journalist with an interest in research and writing from a free thought perspective. He reads and writes on different topics but has a particular interest in Diplomacy, Business, Entrepreneurship, Forex, and Financial Investments. He believes in the power of the pen. 'Writers never die they are survived by their writings.'