Social media is a precarious place of late. It seems that every other week, we are hearing about people getting banned or their accounts suspended, or the dreaded threat of a “porno-calypse.” To be honest, there are some good reasons why you should be concerned. Things are changing and not necessarily changing to be adult-friendly.

The major difficulty about this change of landscape is how it is affecting the industry’s ability to make money on social media. Don’t get me wrong, you can still make a ton of money utilizing social platforms, you just have to know how to do it. But, it is still getting more challenging and what used to seem like “follower, plus click, equals sale” is no longer that clear cut. Now it is more like “hashtag and engagement lead to impressions and repeated exposure, which leads to follower, which leads to ‘repeated exposure plus more engagement,’ which leads to click … wash, rinse, repeat a bunch of times to where the same person has clicked a handful of times, and then you get the sale.” Of course, at this point, it can become hard to know what really brought you the sale.

Keep in mind that sometimes, you can be the best egg out there, not violate anything and still find yourself on the ‘banned-wagon.’

The new traffic landscape of social media is more about building authority and “trust agency” with your followers, and lurkers. Often, by the time they buy, they don’t need to click a link because they already know your URL by heart, but it was the ongoing and regular exposure of your social media that made that URL stick in their heads so when they were ready to finally commit to you, it was at the tip of their fingertips. Have consumers become commitment-phobic? Yes. The good thing though, is that while the time for acquisition is longer, once they put that rebilling credit card ring on your finger, they are there for the long haul it seems.

Let’s take a look at the five major social networks and evaluate what you should and should not do for each one, to keep your account safe. Keep in mind, that sometimes you can be the best egg out there and not violate anything, and still find yourself on the “banned-wagon.” But most of the time, if you toe the line, your account will stay safe.

Twitter

People are always asking if Twitter is dead. The answer to that is simple. No. Twitter is alive and well and continues to do very well. Twitter used to be the absolute click leader, but now Reddit and Instagram occasionally give it a run for its money. Staying safe on Twitter is easy. Unlike most of the other social networks, they are very clear cut with what is OK and what is not OK.

Not OK:

Nudity or sexual acts in your avatar photo

Nudity or sexual acts in your header

Not marking your account as sensitive, if your account is adult in nature

Using text or hashtags, or images that indicate non-consent, such as “gangbang,” “forced sex,” “intoxicated,” “upskirt” or “#upskirt”

Hidden camera content involving nudity or sex acts

Images with faces superimposed onto someone else’s body, including altering photos or videos to look like it is someone else performing

Spamming — this is a whole other area of Twitter that a lot of people in adult get in trouble for. It can be hard to define spam, but Twitter will typically consider spammy behavior to be:

Tagging yourself in every post

Tagging a lot of other people in every post, especially if they do not want to be tagged

Retweeting your own tweets

Posting identical content (including text) on multiple accounts

Heavy amounts of blind retweeting, this is retweeing without saying something about what you are retweeting

Only using third-party software to tweet and never logging into Twitter

Massive liking and unliking campaigns to gain followers — this is typical bot behavior and can get you shut down

Not keeping a good following to follower ratio — your followers should always be higher than your following count (if you are following 2,000 people and only have 10 followers, Twitter will likely identify you as a bot or spam account)

Most of the spamming issues are related to bots, so if you are not acting like a bot you should be fine. Typically, if you follow the guidelines, you should be fine. Twitter is OK with adult content, as long as it stays within these parameters.

Reddit

Reddit is a great place to get traffic, but it is harder to say what is OK on Reddit and what is not, because Reddit is mostly defined by the sub-reddits. Each subreddit has the ability to set their own rules. Adult content is fine on Reddit, as long as you are posting in the right spots.

Some good Reddit guidelines:

Read the rules of the subreddit you want to post on

Most subreddits don’t like you posting your own content, unless you are a model — they are very anti-self promotion — and if you are a webmaster, you need to have fans share your content and not do it yourself (keep in mind, some subreddits are OK with this)

Don’t auto post from an RSS feed, as this will get you marked as a spammer

Make sure the URL you want to share is OK on Reddit — there are adult URLs that are banned from specific subreddits, or from Reddit as a whole

Do not post anything that looks like it was posted without the user’s permission — non-consent is a big no-no on Reddit, so no upskirts, creepshots, lookalike porn, or faux (or real) rape

Snapchat

Snapchat has become many models’ go-to favorite. It is great, because it allows for the highest level of authenticity. All the photos are of the user, and typically with filters. Consumers like it, because it tends not to be recycled content. If you play it safe, you can use Snapchat as a great traffic drive.

Stay safe on Snapchat guidelines:

Do not post any adult content on a public story — this includes nudity or any sex act — because technically you are not supposed to share any adult content at all, but as long as it is private between two people, Snapchat typically turns a blind eye

Do not post anything that is non-consensual, so no upskirts, creeper shots or forced sex acts

Do not sell your Snapchat name — yes, many people are doing it, but technically you are not supposed to and Snapchat can shut down your account if they know you are

Instagram

Instagram is the big favorite social network right now, especially for models. This is the network where people can build huge accounts, which makes it even more devastating when they get shut down. As we all know, Instagram is owned by Facebook, and just like Facebook, they have strict rules about adult content. In short, they don’t want it.

What is not allowed on Instagram:

Links to adult websites

Nudity

Sex acts

Overly sexual photos that imply sex acts

Overly sexual text

Banned hashtags, of which there are thousands, some banned permanently and some temporarily — using one can get you flagged and potentially banned, so it is a good idea to check any you are using to make sure it is not on the banned list (you can tell if it is banned, because it will not come up in search or it will have a message saying that it is being restricted due to people posting inappropriate content and using the hashtag)

Tagging everyone in your posts — this is considered spammy behavior, so make sure the people you are tagging are OK with you tagging them

Putting links in your comments, either on your Instagram posts or someone else’s, is considered spammy and can get you in trouble

Massive liking and unliking campaigns to gain followers, as this is typical bot behavior and can get you shut down

Private accounts are not safe from any of these rules. A lot of people think that they will keep their account safe if it is private. This is not true and many accounts have been shut down because of not following their guidelines. Instagram also holds you responsible for all content you have put on their network, even if they change their guidelines. This means that if they change a rule, and you have posts from 2 years ago that violate that rule, your account is officially at risk of being shut down. Is it fair? No it is not. Do they care? No they do not.

Facebook

Facebook is a big one and most people have been steering away from it because they are very unfriendly to adult.

Outside of all the guidelines for Instagram, here are few items Facebook specifically does not like:

Using a stage name

Using a profile to promote your business instead of a fan page

Posting adult content in private groups … yes, Facebook is monitoring those as well

Posting adult content in messages … yes, they are reading and monitoring your messages

Facebook has the same policy that Instagram does about changing their standards. If they change their rules, and your content from six months ago violates that change, you will be still be held responsible. It is not fair, but it is how it goes.

When it comes to the social network, you can push the limits but if you do, just understand that your account may grow faster, but it may be at risk as well. If you want to hold onto your social accounts for the long term, it is better to follow their rules to the letter and direct people to follow you on your other networks that are more permissive.

Lauren MacEwen is the CEO and chief strategist at 7 Veils Media, a social marketing solutions provider for the adult industry. 7 Veils specializes in regulated industries and in keeping accounts safe and successful on social media. For help with social marketing or to learn more about how 7 Veils can help with getting more ROI from social media, visit 7Veils.com or contact Alex@7Veils.com.