Introduction Reddit is a little-known social network and, therefore, wasted by brands, despite being one of the most used by users. This platform is a very interesting mix of news, links and social media tools; but, above all, a meeting place for very strong communities.  It is an unexplored world that can be very attractive for your business, but you must be careful and study its particular characteristics to find the correct strategy. Today we are going to discover what it has to offer you and how to add it to your social media plan . What is Reddit? Let’s start at the beginning. At first glance, the environment can be confusing: Reddit defines itself as “The front page of the internet,” and it is half a web form and half a news site.  All the information you can find on this platform comes from user posts, either through forms or by uploading links, photos or videos. In turn, Reddit is made up of hundreds of communities organized around specific themes or interests.  People, in this case, do not follow others to be aware of what they post, but rather subscribe to groups to find out what their members have to say. In this way, they can use the platform as they wish, either as readers of a news portal or as active collaborators proposing new topics on a daily basis. For you to keep in mind, according to Ignite statistics , the majority of users live in the United States and are men between 35 and 44 years old, closely followed by the 24-34 year old segment.  Reddit is key for those brands that want to interact with their audience and share original and quality content. We will go into detail in its operation. “All the information you can find on this platform comes from user posts” How does Reddit work? The popularity of the site is directly related to its essence: it is an open and free space in which anyone can share anything. The key to how Reddit works is the content produced by those who use it, as we mentioned before. On this platform, there are no restrictions on characters, so you can use this to your advantage. When it comes to sharing links, you don’t need to publish the shortened version that you would use for Twitter: users are wary of short links. Regarding the material, try to appeal to curiosity : you must try to make your post attractive to gain positive votes. Each post receives positive “upvote” or negative “downvote” votes. Thus, the best content —that is, the one with the most votes— is positioned at the top; while the one that does not receive votes – which is sometimes spam, irrelevant or violates the rules – is sent to the bottom. This Reddit feature makes your home page like a sampler of all the hottest topics on the internet. When you create an account, you personalize what you see with the information of the communities to which you belong. You can create an account without checking your email, but it is best to do so. As you interact, you start to build your K weapon. Karma reflects your position in the community through the comments and posts you make. It will not help you get more upvotes, but it is an indicator of the status of your account in front of the rest of the “redditors”. And yes: people notice this indicator. Before joining, think carefully about your username. Once registered, it is impossible to change. Your profile also includes the posts you make, the links you share and the comments you leave; it’s almost like an archive of everything you do on the platform. The activity is unique and exclusive to one account; If you decide to change it, you will not be able to move what you have already built. Users or “redditors” are organized by location and interests through so-called Subreddits. Subreddits Subreddits are communities that are built around specific topics or slogans ; for example, the / r / IAmA “Ask me Anything”, which we will talk about later. The platform is made up of a large number of Subreddits, which cover any topic you can imagine. To find them, you can do a search there or go to www.reddit.com/r/yourtopichere Choosing the correct one is essential so that your posts do not receive downvotes and are not forgotten at the bottom of the site. Why is it so difficult to use Reddit to do Marketing? As we mentioned before, Reddit is based on the idea of ​​sharing knowledge and interests; Maybe that’s why using it as part of a marketing strategy can be quite complicated. The social network focuses more on creating community than on highlighting people or specific content. This is due to its particular operation. If you make an account to promote products or only post with the aim of selling, your activity will not be well received. Most likely, users will mark it as spam and send it to the bottom with negative votes, which will bury your account: no one will be able to see what you post. The voting system makes the feed of each user more attractive to him, so the generic content of a brand can be relegated or even marked as spam. Reddit is about sharing. There are topics that cause a lot of impact and, if your brand can work with them, you may find your place on the platform. For example, some Subreddits that cause a sensation are personal improvement stories, educational sites or with curiosities about history or health, art and photography, politics, religion, technology, video games, food and fitness, among others. If your business does not fall into these categories, you can search if there is a Subreddit that may have something in common with it or create a new one. But the most important thing is that you produce original and quality material. “Subreddits are communities that are built around specific topics or slogans” To do marketing in this social network, you cannot manipulate the system with half-made content: the community will take care of making it disappear. It’s also very difficult to find business profiles on Reddit. It is the place where “anyone can be anyone”. When searching for a brand, the first thing that appears is the most active Subreddits, which are created by any user. In general, these spaces are used to debate, ask questions and ask for opinions about a specific brand or product. Although they are not directly related to your brand, these Subreddits can help you capture leads . A potential customer can look for recommendations and be convinced by the opinion of a user. This type of content is much more legitimate and reliable than something promoted directly by the brand. Even so, it is quite a challenge to capitalize on this material and turn it into a marketing strategy . We will continue talking about this topic later. Niches on Reddit Reddit, itself, is a niche platform. Organizing in Subreddits allows the community to organize itself in often extremely specific niches. If your brand targets this type of audience, perhaps this social network is the right one to maximize its reach. You must bear in mind that the rate of interactions you achieve will be lower than in those with more users, but the quality of the leads will be better. If you’re looking for reach and traffic instead, here are some of the most popular Subreddits: / r / todayilearned. These posts begin with the acronym TIL, and introduce data or news with which a large number of people can identify. If you have any cool stuff that could go with this tag, go ahead! / r / askreddit. Here questions are asked to the entire community of users of the platform. The questions are extremely varied, as are the answers. It can also generate an exchange of ideas or opinions. / r / IAMA. It is a very popular Subreddit in which unusual situations or professions are shared. Does your brand have any peculiar characteristics? This is the place to share it. The Challenges of Marketing on Reddit We have already superficially analyzed the greatest difficulty of marketing on this platform; however, we believe that it is a space with great potential. A brand with unique content, which is curious or visually appealing, has a great chance of succeeding on Reddit. Relevant material is key in any social network, but in this it is even more important. Reddit users are actively browsing the site for something that grabs their attention. If you can respond to that need, you will get traffic. Arriving on this platform unprepared is a mistake that you cannot make. Before deciding to create an account, you must get to know the community you are going to meet, to understand their values ​​and priorities. Reddit is, first and foremost, a community; and a community very jealous of the environment it has built. You can quickly identify users or brands who want to take advantage without contributing anything, and drive them to the bottom. There are even Subreddits that explicitly prohibit advertising – the platform can be very hostile to brands. This means that your business must go the extra mile if it wants to get into it. To be successful, you must respect the codes and relationships that exist between members. This means that the focus should be on the community: not on selling. The premise is “values ​​before sales”. Self-promotion is useless here: link spam, auto-votes or requests for votes are not good practice. On the other hand, Reddit has its own ad platform, with big brands as partners. It’s not that Reddit doesn’t talk about brands or products; on the contrary, it is one of the most discussed topics. The content is authentic and unfiltered, and users are free to give their opinion without reservation . Yes, you guessed it: no marks in the middle. The best advice is to familiarize yourself with the platform before starting to use it.  How to have a presence on Reddit If after all this information you think you can find your audience on Reddit, here we bring you step by step what you should do to position your brand there. creat your account The first thing is to register and create an account. As we said before, it is very important to think carefully about the username : you will not be able to change it later. Make sure it has a brand keyword, but also the name of a real person. Remember that brands are not well received. Before you start talking about products, become a member of the community. Make posts and comments: turn your brand user into an authentic participant. Get fully immersed and learn how each element works. The vast majority of communities require that you participate 80%, leaving the remaining 20% ​​for the possibility of self-promotion. Organize your content based on these characteristics to be able to publish without being considered spam or sent to the bottom of the page. “Before deciding to create an account, you must get to know the community you are going to meet, to understand their values ​​and priorities” Build your Feed Research which Subreddits may be relevant to your business. The best place to start is the home page you have when you open your account. From there, take a look at the recommended or fastest growing communities by clicking the bar on the right. That will take you to a ranking of the fastest growing communities in general and you will also see them divided by category. To find your niche, you can do a search on Google with the terms “Reddit + keyword of your business.” This way you can refine your research more and more to find the community that best suits your buyer persona . Active Listen: Collect Insights Go to Reddit every day and watch the discussions. Vote and comment in the communities where you can make significant contributions. Dedicate yourself to knowing your audience: look at the type of content with which it interacts and specify when the most voted posts are uploaded. Take time to research what the trends are, what specific characteristics your audience has, and what topics are being discussed. You can also use tools like Sprout Social to keep up with everything that happens on Reddit. But above all, dedicate yourself to listening. Pay attention to what they say about your products and take notes to know what things you can improve. Participates Once you have identified the communities in which you can participate, start doing it. Contribute, contribute, comment and post; Get involved in conversations, answer questions, and share jokes. Your account must be that of an active user in order to actually be included in the group. Be original: create Quality Content When it comes to producing content, create quality material and get involved in an authentic way. You will not have results if you reuse what you uploaded in another social network. Content for Reddit has to be specific and valuable to those users; not for everyone. If your publication does not have the success you hope, do not be discouraged; sometimes it happens. Aim for some positive feedback and comments. As you become more familiar with the format, what you share will be more and more successful. Be honest when posting. Fake accounts, hidden sponsors, or employers requiring upvotes are very easy for Reddit users to spot, and they don’t go down very well. Use the AMAs We already mentioned them at the beginning: the AMAs “Ask Me Anything” are a tool that can greatly help you to interact with your audience on this platform. They are a way of connecting organically with users, receiving questions and making the personality of the brand shine.  In general, these types of strategies are used in product launches or promotions. But be careful. For the AMA to be effective, you don’t have to freak out with information about the product. You should encourage the exchange of messages and make users talk about what you are offering. Recommendation and Support via Reddit Reddit will also help you provide support and recommendations to your audience. Many brands have Subreddits dedicated to solving problems and answering questions. This adds a direct communication channel with your clients that, being public, can be used by more people in the future. What content format works on Reddit? On Reddit you can find almost any type of digital content. If you can link to it, you can get an audience for it there. However, there are some formats that get higher engagement rates. We bring them to you below. Remember: original content will always get the best results. GIFs GIFs are hugely successful on Reddit , whether it’s sports, movies, animals, or scenes with inside jokes from the same social network. If your brand promotes something that has to do with actions or movement, this is a format that can serve you. Video In general, linking platforms like YouTube and Vimeo brings little engagement. They tend to take time to load and it is not the preferred material of all communities.
This varies according to each Subreddit, but for your publication to be successful, it is best to take the best part of the video and turn it into a GIF, and leave the original link in the comments. Images Images are great allies on this platform. They can be viewed seamlessly on any device and don’t require as much attention for initial contact. Anyway, they must be interesting and attractive to your users. Text A large percentage of Subreddits are made up of text-only posts. It may sound unintuitive in an age where social media is dominated by image, but here the text works. Users are looking for deep and quality content, and the best way to deliver it is through words. This is one of the preferred formats of people who use Reddit. Blogs On the other hand, users largely reject links to blog posts: they consider them spam. If you are going to share in this way, you have to be very careful when selecting the community in which you are going to do it and the quality of the material. If you can post it directly to a text post, the result will be much better. AMAs As well as being a way to interact with your audience and a Subreddit itself, AMAs can also be included as a format in other communities. News There are communities within Reddit that focus on real-time updates, such as those that have to do with movie releases, video games, or politics. In these types of Subreddits, sharing a story can make your post a success. Ads Reddit allows multiple types of ads: from promoting across the platform to campaigns targeting the Subreddits of your choice. It also has a particular scheme of frequently asked questions in the form of an advertisement, where you can answer the most common queries from your audience. Marketing Strategies on Reddit With all the information we have detailed so far, it is clear that Reddit is a good option to develop a marketing strategy. Even if you think that it is not the platform for your business, you can use it to research your audience and inform yourself about the trends that are in vogue in your area. Through this social network, you will be able to connect with your audience and discover the problems and needs that you are able to satisfy with your products. But if we talk about marketing strategies, one of the ways to highlight your content is through the promotion of your publications. Promoting your content will keep it at the top of the Subreddits, as well as targeting specific groups of users. This type of publication has an indicator that indicates them as promotions. In this way, even if they are well positioned, users know that they are paid. In the case of not wanting to invest in this type of advertising, brands choose to apply two types of strategies. The most used is to start a publication with the AMA format . A team member, influencer, or company executive creates a post announcing who they are and encouraging questions. This tactic works best when your brand is related to a personality who agrees to respond live, seeking to interact with the audience. If, on the other hand, you do not have someone known or interesting who can fill that role, the plan may not work at all. The second way to promote organically involves creating or actively participating in a Subreddit related to your brand in general, a particular product or the area in which your business operates . As we already said, creating a community will give you the opportunity to know what users think about your products and the concept they have about your brand. You can simply give them the space to express themselves or give feedback about it; But the most important thing is that you listen to what they have to say to you. When it comes to creating communities, a real risk is that many people make negative comments and that the space becomes a kind of complaint book. Be careful, because you cannot delete the posts of others, even if you were the creator of the Subreddit. Reddit is a platform that requires a lot of effort and creativity to get the desired results. Here we bring you some examples to inspire you. How Brands Use Reddit for their Marketing Strategies Let’s go with some examples of brands that succeeded with Marketing Strategies on Reddit. Content Promotion Toyota promoted a video post on a Subreddit dedicated to Formula 1. The material, where you can see a race in which two drivers drive Supras, is adapted to the type of content expected by the audience. The post is promoted, but it does not show an advertisement, but a story that appeals directly to the people who make up the community. By posting this specific video on this particular Subreddit, the brand shows that it knows the users and knows of their interest in race cars. When promoting your content on Reddit, try to choose those communities that really fit the characteristics of your brand and be careful to make material that is of particular value to them. Generic content has no place on this social network. AMAs The Economist, an English newspaper, regularly uses Reddit to get its editors to share their ideas with the audience. Although it may not seem like it, the AMAs proposed by this account are of great interest to users, who interact and ask very interesting questions. By doing this on a regular basis, people can gain in-depth insight into the motivations and work of the various members of the newspaper’s editorial team. This increases confidence in the newspaper and its legitimacy as a reliable source of information, which will make users choose it when looking for ways to get informed. In addition, the proposals offered are attractive and the characters that are selected to answer the questions have interesting stories to tell. Don’t forget that for your strategy to work, content is the key. Subreddits Nordstrom, a luxury department store in the United States, launched its own community on Reddit. In it, users talk about new products, share experiences about being employees of the brand and can even make inquiries related to customer service. Reddit is an excellent space to create an online community . But don’t lose sight of the fact that the type of content that the platform prioritizes is that produced by the people who make it up. With this in mind, for best results promote the Subreddit on other social networks . Nordstrom did it – the community launch was via Twitter. In this channel, users will be able to give their opinions without censorship , so you will see both good and bad comments. Potential buyers can use it as a source of information to decide their purchase, which will give them greater confidence in your brand. conclusion Reddit is a platform with great potential. Its main attraction is the ability to create strong communities around specific themes. Your brand can enter this world, but you must have your marketing strategy prepared. Produce attractive, quality and specific content for this platform and you will see how the engagement of your publications increases. Even if you decide not to use it, Reddit will help you see first-hand what the audience is saying about your brand. With that information, you can implement new and better actions to meet their needs. Try this platform and you will discover a new way to boost the reach of your business.  If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

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