Facebook Will Demote Posts That Beg for Likes

What Facebook announced yesterday

Facebook said yesterday that it will show fewer posts that goad people into interacting: posts telling them to like, share, comment, tag a friend or vote with a reaction. It calls them engagement bait.

Demotion of individual posts starts this week. Over the coming weeks, Facebook will add stricter demotions for pages that use the tactic systematically and repeatedly.

Its reasoning is that people say they dislike these posts, and that the clicks they collect are not real interest.

Pages that have relied on "like if you agree" and "tag someone who" posts already had modest reach. It is about to get smaller.

The five kinds Facebook named

• Vote baiting: pick an option by reacting or commenting a set way.
• React baiting: press like, love or another reaction if something applies to you.
• Share baiting: share the post, often with a prize as the reward.
• Tag baiting: tag a friend who fits a description.
• Comment baiting: type a word, a number or an emoji to take part.

The fourth is a favourite of food and drink pages. Tag someone who owes you lunch is light-hearted, and it is exactly the instruction Facebook now says it will push down.

Contests are the awkward case

Many pages run giveaways that ask people to like, comment or share to enter. Facebook's own promotion rules already forbade asking people to share on their timelines or tag friends to enter.

The new demotion puts pressure on the rest. A giveaway built on like and comment to enter asks for exactly the interactions Facebook now treats as suspect.

A safer giveaway takes entries somewhere else: in the shop, through a form on the website, or by email. The post announces it and asks for nothing.

Canadian contest rules apply wherever entries are taken, which is why giveaways here usually offer a free way to enter and a skill-testing question.

What is not affected

Facebook said posts asking for help, advice or recommendations are not the target. A post about a lost dog, or one asking which local charity customers would like you to support, fits that description.

So is an ordinary question. Asking what the January special should be invites answers because people have opinions. The difference is between asking something and telling people which button to press.

Facebook detects bait automatically, so wording matters. Keep the question and drop the instruction.

Why the whole page matters

The page-level demotion is the more serious part for a small business. A page that keeps posting bait risks lower reach on all its posts, not only the baiting ones.

That includes the posts customers actually need: holiday hours, a closure for snow, the day the patio reopens.

This is the week many businesses post holiday hours, and the next few weeks bring snow closures. A page still posting bait when the page-level change arrives puts those notices at risk.

A worked example

A poutine shop a few blocks from a university campus posts on its Facebook page most days: a photograph of the special, the hours, and a line to get people tapping.

Its regular lines were tag the friend who always steals your fries, like for gravy and love for extra curds, and once a month, share this post to win a large poutine.

The posts drew plenty of tags and reactions, mostly from the same group of regulars, and few comments that said anything. Every one of them now matches a pattern Facebook has named.

The owner rewrote the shop's post templates this morning. The daily post now says what the special is and why it is on, such as the smoked meat topping returning after a supplier problem.

The monthly giveaway moved to the counter: a jar for names, no purchase needed, drawn on the last Friday. The post announces the draw and asks for nothing.

Questions stayed where the shop wanted the answer. Last week's asked which topping should come back in January, and the winner is going on the menu board.

Posts that earn replies honestly

Ask questions you actually want answered, then show that the answers changed something.

Post what people would talk about anyway: a new dish, a staff member's first week, a regular's tenth year, the kitchen at six in the morning.

Photographs of real things do more than graphics with words on them. Today's special, steaming on the counter, gives people something to react to without being told.

Reply to the comments you get, by name. A page that answers is more worth commenting on than one that never does.

And accept smaller numbers. A post seen by fewer people who care is worth more than a burst of tags from people who never come in.

Look back over the autumn

Scroll through the page's posts since September and count the ones that tell people what to press. On most pages bait is a habit, not a plan.

Note which posts drew comments with sentences in them, not just tags. Those show what followers actually want to talk about.

Then check who posts. If several people take turns, each may have a favourite line, so agree the new rule with all of them.

Rewrite any template you reuse, such as the daily special or the weekend reminder, so the habit cannot creep back in.

The counter-case

A page that never asks for likes has nothing to change, and an occasional "tell us what you think" under a genuine question is unlikely to be what Facebook means.

Automated systems make mistakes, and some ordinary posts may be pushed down. If a post that asked for nothing vanishes, remember that page reach was low before this week.

But for any page built on tags and reactions, the advice is plain: take the instruction out, keep the question, and post things worth answering.

Before the page-level change

1. Read back through the autumn's posts.
2. Count the posts that tell people what to press.
3. Rewrite your reusable templates without instructions.
4. Move giveaways off likes, shares and tags.
5. Post holiday hours plainly, with no ask.
6. Ask one real question and use the answers.
7. Agree the rule with everyone who posts.

Step three matters most, because bait on a small business page usually lives in a template. Change the template and the habit goes with it.

Instagram, which Facebook owns, offers a quieter way to keep useful posts in view, covered in Instagram stories that stay on your profile.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.