Reddit declares itself to be the “homepage of the Internet” because it focuses on social news aggregation. While communities that have established themselves in Reddit often use the site as a kind of Internet forum, Reddit’s main functionality is that users present content and then others increase or decrease it. The most popular topics rise to the top of the rating.
Reddit is generally divided into thousands of individual communities, organized by theme or interest. For example, d/policy focuses on global political news and d/ dogberg focuses exclusively on dogs. Where Twitter users follow individual accounts to customize the content that appears on their feed, the editor subscribes to the community of their choice.
If you have an account, your own feed is designed for the communities and topics you are interested in. From there, users support, vote, discuss, argue and answer each other’s questions.
Editors have the ability to exist on the platform in virtually any way: from using the site as a news feed to subscribing to active participants who represent topics. This should be exciting for marketers who like the idea of communicating with potential customers and sharing original, valuable content.
After all, editors organize themselves according to interests as well as location, with sub-resident communities such as r / Pittsburgh becoming news and local discussion centres. Reddit at first glance looks as if you can immerse yourself directly in marketing to your potential customers.
Redactors strictly protect the communities they have created and hate people or brands who try to use subreddits for personal gain. Marketers who make mistakes approach Reddit as a Craigslist publication and do not think much about the values and priorities of the audience they attract.
People in Reddit’s communities come together for certain reasons – hobbies, social reasons or just fun – and you have to sincerely respect that if you want to succeed on this social platform.
If you plan to sell on Reddit, you should accept the following recommendations:
- Be the first. Few people trust a new user account without posts, except those created to promote products or services. Be a sincere participant before you start marketing, immerse yourself in the way things work, from comments to internal jokes.
- Give more than you take. Most Reddit communities ask you to contribute 80% of the time and only 20% of the time. Depending on your content and target community, this ratio may increase or decrease.
- Place the original content and participate in it for real. You won’t succeed in marketing on Reddit if you redesign your daily Facebook posting and put it on the sidelines. However, if you can become a valuable contributor to the community, you can open up a new stream of fans for your brand.
- Don’t even think about using the botofarm. Fake accounts, which are sharply and massively raising their posts, make redactors very angry, it can radically change the attitude towards your product, so be careful.
While these norms are universal (mostly) for the entire Reddit platform, you also need to understand that your target communities may have their own views and cultures.
If you are a member first and have a genuine interest in the community you want, it won’t be a problem. You’ll understand the traditions and manners of the subreddit relatively easily, find out what content is of most interest, and learn how to title and format the content for maximum effect. On top of that, you’ll learn about the subreddit’s tacit rules.
To illustrate this, r / CatsStandingUp only allows images of standing cats. More than 300,000 subscribers in this community send content with a “Cat. And publish answers with the text “Cat”. That’s all. If you enter this community and do something else, you will almost immediately get a negative vote.
We emphasize all these strange things, because redactors quickly ignore or remove obvious outsiders. They pay great attention to the quality of their content and the sanctity of their communities. They know that if they don’t work hard to moderate and maintain community standards, their favorite corner of the Internet can be crowded with people who only want to sell things.
Paid ads
Advertising on Reddit is probably among one of the safest ways to market your products on Reddit. In contrast to all other social media platforms and networks where you have to spend countless hours trying to reach your audience, you can find it on Reddit inside the relevant subsections. You should keep in mind that Reddit ads is CPM-based.There are quite a few examples of successful online store advertising in Reddit.
Market research and feedback
Depending on the type of subscriber, you can ask subscribers to give you feedback on your website. Be cautious and transparent in doing so in non-business subdivisions, especially when you are a new user.
In case of doubt, request feedback from business related subgroups, such as the p/entrepreneur.
Providing additional customer service via Reddit
While you should definitely have a reliable and accessible customer service on your official website, you can also help customers who follow you on Reddit. Be there to answer their questions, answer their comments and suggest solutions to their problems.
Find out how Ariel Dyda, e-commerce manager at Uniqlo’s global fashion retailer, used Reddit to answer user questions and provide support. The result? 64% of sales, which were a direct result of their social media activities, were made by Reddit.
How to create a successful Reddit presence for your brand
TrackReddit (with free and paid features) can send you alerts when your selected keywords or phrases are used in Reddit. This allows you to quickly connect when users mention your brand, as well as to engage in conversations on specific topics or types of products that are important to you.
Create your own channel
Go dig into all the subreddits that may be relevant to your brand. The default home page is a good place to start. Then, to find smaller, more niche communities, take a look at the recommended communities on the subreddit sidebar and search Google for “Reddit + [industry keywords]” (changing topics or keywords that are important to you). But don’t forget the most powerful instrument of business is strong text: best essay writing service on Reddit
Listen, keep your head down.
Visit Reddit daily, view your feed and view discussions. Start voting and adding comments where you can contribute. Get an idea of what materials are of interest to your target communities and the total average time to send top messages.
Increase participation
Before sending original content, apply regular commentaries. No, this is not like an exercise program where you get 10 comments a day. You should contribute by spending time on discussions, answering questions and sharing jokes.
Be consistent
Keep your activity on Reddit. None of the social networks is an ATM with instant return on investment, and Reddit is no different. Play a long game and continue to contribute actively to the community.
Once you’ve seen the roadmap above, brands usually ask the following questions about frequency and volume. Unfortunately, there is no perfect answer here. Some subreddits are bigger and more active than others. Some subreddits expect more or less original content from users than others.
Remember: using Reddit as a marketing platform is advanced organic marketing, so you need to use your marketing experience to determine the best attack plan for your chosen audience.
Examples of successful Reddit marketing
You want to sell things, and we just told you that redactors aren’t sales fans. Here’s the problem: users of the platform are happy to accept brands that respect their communities and are actively involved in improving these communities. They love the original content. They like to laugh. They like to learn new things. And they love brands that are in no hurry to impose themselves.
When marketing is done right, customers and prospects win. Good marketing aims to serve the audience. Marketing should not only please customers, but also bring value to their lives.
KFC has been running a three-stage Valentine’s Day campaign consisting of a drawing, letter and photo shopping contest. In the three themes, KFC collected about 900 comments and several dozen applications.
The winner in each category received a KFC award, gift cards and a bearskin rug from Colonel Sanders (white rug with the Colonel’s face, legs and arms). It was an amazingly strange campaign targeting some of Reddit’s most creative communities.
Most importantly, KFC learned that a few Internet trolls are the norm. The marketing team was joking with users, even if it meant joking around, and the community was creating a lot of original content around the KFC brand.
They took the time to respond to the comments and start the conversation by trying to add to the community (offering prizes that users would appreciate, but maybe not brag as much as they would like to). When a big brand like KFC attracts an audience on such a personal level, it can make it interesting with the help of redactors and create a treasure trove of easily remembered content.
In this case, KFC has used the promoted posts to move to the forefront of engagement, but Reddit’s marketing tactics also work seamlessly. KFC’s sister brand, Taco Bell, has its own subreddit, full of organic content presented by fans.
But you don’t need to be a major consumer brand to get attention on organic Reddit.
Conclusion
While other social networks are based on the premise of centralizing subscription around your account (your likes on Facebook, followers on Twitter, connections on LinkedIn), the Reddit community structure means it will take a completely different place in your broader strategy and other type of brand involvement.
Speaking to marketers about how they can use Reddit, we tend to describe it as an extension of their public relations activities. It is an opportunity to communicate directly with the target audience, to become part of the communities that matter to your brand, and to build real relationships with these communities.
From this perspective, Reddit is a tool for outreach. It will not replace the audience building that you do on traditional subscriber platforms, but it should open a new door for you to share original content related to your brand.
Author
Frank Hamilton is a blogger and translator from Manchester. He is a professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digital marketing and self-education. He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German and English.
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