Please Like And Share: Facebook Says It’s Cracking Down On ‘Engagement Baiting’

Facebook says marketers generate requests for likes and shares, which drives its customers crazy.

By Alain StephensDecember 21, 2017 11:43 am,

If you’ve ever been on Facebook you’ve seen those messages that ask – some might say beg – to like and share. It could be a news story, a call to action or some other modern variant of what used to be called a chain letter. Now Facebook says they may do something to stop it – but as with so many things the omnipresent social network does, is this a slippery slope?

Digital savant Omar Gallaga of the Austin American-Statesman’s 512 Tech says Facebook is targeting what the company calls “engagement baiting” where requests for likes are run by automated marketing engines.

“They’re really going after the spammiest of the spammy posts,” Gallaga says.

What you’ll hear in this segment:

– How Facebook plans to choose which posts to target

– What could go wrong

– Which information Facebook favors now, and how that could change

 

Written by Shelly Brisbin.