We all know that social media has historically not been friendly to cannabis and mushroom companies. Yet while many of us have experienced seemingly arbitrary deplatforming and routine censorship, a number of creators in the community have been extremely successful with their social media promotion and outreach in spite of these norms.
The key to a successful social media strategy as a cannabis or mushroom brand is finding creative ways to market and expand while limboing under censors and evading digital prohibition – and if one successfully does so, their brand can explode overnight.
As much of a headache as social media can be, leveraging it successfully can provide massive and immediate returns to your business and fuel growth in a way that traditional advertising can’t. There have been numerous examples of brands that have catapulted into the limelight with a single viral video made on a shoestring budget while brands 1,000 times their size see less returns on a million dollar ad play in legacy media.
This type of ‘get famous quick’ opportunity isn’t something people should bank on nor does it always convert to sales, but it A) Can absolutely happen and B) Should be the aspiration for daily content creation. If you approach your social media strategy with consistent creativity and smart execution, you will go viral at some point – and even if you don’t, you will still tangibly elevate the profile of your brand on the global stage.
The social media ecosystem is always evolving, but a creative and consistent strategy always wins out over ‘luck’ ; even if you do manage to score a viral video, how do you translate that into continued success for your brand on social platforms? The internet is full of forgotten ‘one hit wonders’ who went viral, cashed in, and faded away from public consciousness as quickly as they catapulted into it.
Here are a few of the cannabis and mushroom brands that are currently *killing it* on social media.
RAW (@rawkandroll on IG , rawkandrolling on X)
note: These are the RAW Founder Josh Kesselman’s personal social profiles)
Josh from RAW is the Mount Everest of cannabis social media creators as far as I’m concerned. His content is wildly creative, impossible to duplicate, and world class ‘edutainment’. It adds value to the timeline in a big way, teaching people creative joint rolling hacks and showcasing unique and ‘why didn’t I think of that’ stoner lifestyle hacks. I never scroll past a RAW video, and often become their defect organic growth engine by sharing their content simply because it’s original, genius, and hilarious. I never knew one could roll such creative joints the way that Josh effortlessly does on a near daily basis on social media.
MN Nice Ethnobotanicals
(@mn_nice_ethno on IG, mnniceethno on TikTok)
This mushroom and legal entheogen brand has exploded onto the scene over the last year, becoming the largest bulk importer of the fabled Amanita muscaria mushroom – yes, the legal magic mushroom – in the U.S. They’ve done this to a large degree by scaling their organic social content strategy and by tapping into a network of niche influencers with outsized influence.
By partnering with creators like Chrysantilus (200k on TikTok) and Soul of Jaret (100k + on IG *), in addition to having an in-house psychedelic content creator with serious chops (shoutout Gabe Hardie), they’ve managed to find an exceptional ‘product market fit’ in regards to their influencer strategy.
Blue Lotus, Amanita, and Kanna are all completely legal entheogenic compounds that fit very well into the psychedelic content creators wheelhouse; most of the popular psychedelics that people are interested in and creating + consuming content around are completely illicit still, yet these legal ethnobotanicals fall into the same broader category of experiences and can be openly bought and sold according to current legal frameworks in the U.S.
Doggface
(420doggface208 on TikTok)
Dogg Face went viral – like super viral – overnight. You know the video: A chilled out guy drinking ocean spray cranberry juice while cruising on his longboard and listening to Dreams by Fleetwood Mac.
The video has surpassed 100 million views across platforms and is textbook ‘you can’t predict virality’; who would’ve imagined that the cannabis loving factory worker in Idaho who made a 40 second unedited video of himself vibing after his car broke down would be launched into international celebrity overnight, ballooning from obscurity to 7.5 million TikTok followers and going on to work with Snoop Dogg and Wiz Kalifa before launching his own cannabis brand as a direct result of the viral video he scored?
What Dogg Face did particularly well is monetize his virality and diversify his star power into different income streams through collaborations and smart business decisions after he went viral. He didn’t try to make the same video 100 more times; he put a camera on his ‘life after the viral video’ and invited viewers to join him on the inexplicable journey into internet fame, spinning as successful brand out of the overnight sensationalism.
Beard Bros
As an outsider to the Beard Bros camp, hats off to the team for their continued ascent in the content creation world. Before I ever met the Bros and their team, I already felt like I knew them thanks to their frequent on camera appearances and social media clips popping up on my timeline.
This is the true value that a social media content strategy offers – it personalizes and extends the reach of your brand such that people feel like they’ve built trust and rapport with you even if they’ve never actually met you in person. When I linked up with the Bros in Chicago at Benzinga last year, they were busy doing what they do best – consistently engaging with the cannabis community and shooting back to back interviews with luminaries from the space for their impressive content portfolio.
Brez
(drinkbrez on IG)
This is a bonafide cannabis and mushroom company and you’ve definitely seen their product all over the place. Their organic social content + aggressive social ad strategy has helped propel them into the limelight as *the* cannabis and mushroom infused social tonic in a rapidly growing category.
One of their most popular videos on TikTok was a fireside chat with founder Aaron Nosbisch which featured no fancy jumpcuts, highly technical edits or production value in the traditional sense – yet it’s precisely because of the personal, direct and unassuming style of founder to consumer communication in this video that people feel so connected to the brand. It’s almost like we all personally know the team behind the product, making it feel like we’re buying a beverage from people we grew up with rather than from a faceless megacorp.
Mycroboost
(mycroboost on IG)
This leading mushroom coffee brand has leveraged social media to connect with event producers and smaller creators from coast to coast. Their organic social content has seen a 30x increase after they leaned into ‘meme advertising’, by which the account shares humorous, educational and relatable content that encourages their followers to circulate their brand to a broader audience via sharing their social content.
The jump from traditional advertising with glossy photos to slightly unhinged myco-meme peddlers has endeared the Mycroboost brand to a new generation of social media consumers – converting many of them into customers in the process. Their social media strategy continues to pay dividends and attract new customers and opportunities for the brand to expand.
Social media strategy and in house content creation is an essential component of your brands advertising strategy in this era. Creating exceptional content and systems that enable that content to work for you 24/7 is a form of lead magnet that grows your business while you sleep – even though most entrepreneurs and founders don’t.
One well-executed piece of content can sell products for years after you’ve produced it; I have numerous examples of this in my own portfolio of clients, and continue to work with brands to level up their social media game as an integral component of their company ethos and vision. Social Media may not always be kind to cannabis and mushroom brands, but when you learn how to successfully navigate the space, the rewards are often immediate and immense.
Dennis Walker is a satirist and multimedia producer with a long and robust relationship to psychedelics. He is the host of the Mycopreneur Podcast, a platform that spotlights and supports fungi entrepreneurs from around the world. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Forbes, and High Times among many other platforms.
