Be engaging, but
don’t bait the hook!
Engagement baiting is a term coined by Facebook to describe a Facebook Post that goads people into interacting, through likes, shares, comments, and other actions, in order to artificially boost engagement and get greater reach on News Feed.
Facebook says people are tired of being goaded into interacting and announced December 18, 2017 that it will be penalizing posts that use engagement baiting and encouraging more meaningful and authentic conversations. If you value the free exposure Facebook gives you, do not create posts that might be considered engagement bait because Facebook states that posts and pages that use this tactic will be demoted.
Facebook Pages that repeatedly share engagement bait posts will see more significant drops in reach and engagement, so Facebook Page Admins should continue to focus on posting relevant and meaningful stories that do not use engagement bait tactics.
- React baiting — Asking people to react to the post (includes like, love, haha, wow, sad, and angry).
- Comment baiting — Asking people to comment with specific answers (words, numbers, phrases, or emojis).
- Share baiting — Asking people to share the post with their friends.
- Tag baiting — Asking people to tag their friends.
- Vote baiting — Asking people to vote using reactions, comments, sharing, or other means of representing a vote.
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