As part of Facebook’s on-going effort to curb spam and spark meaningful conversations, the platform has revised a policy that discourages certain posting tactics.
Posts that engagement bait (an activity Facebook defines as one that seeks to take advantage of the “News Feed algorithm by boosting engagement in order to get greater reach”) began receiving limited distribution in December of 2017. Since then, the company has outlined additional examples of prohibited behavior, the full list of which is below.
Reaction Baiting: Explicitly asking followers to like, love, or react to a page post. (Ex: LIKE this if you’re an Aries!)
Vote Baiting: Using Facebook reactions to conduct a poll. (Ex: Vote for your favorite pet!)
Share Baiting: Telling users to a share a post for any reason. (Ex: Share with 5 friends for your chance to win!)
Tag Baiting: Explicitly directing people to tag their Facebook friends in post comments. (Ex: Tag a friend who would do this!)
Comment Baiting: Encouraging users to reply to a post with specific wording. (Ex: If you’re excited for the weekend, comment “TGIF”!)
Comments that Engagement Bait: Applying any of the practices listed above in a post comment, as opposed to within the post caption itself.
Videos that Audibly Engagement Bait: Asking users to partake in any of the above practices verbally with a video posted to Facebook.