If you do not visit it often, you may think of Reddit as a scary website. After all, isn’t Reddit a place where flame wars start and chaos reigns? It can be a little bit more “in your face” than other social media sites. However, in some cases, Reddit can be an important part of your social media marketing strategy—if you want it to be.
Reddit can be difficult to describe to those who are unfamiliar. Wikipedia states this: “Reddit is an entertainment, social networking, and news website where registered community members can submit content, such as text posts or direct links.” This may sound simple enough, but there is so much more to the site than just a content database. Reddit is where trends begin and often spread like wildfire. This is why it should be an important part of your social media plan.
More so than with Facebook or Twitter, for instance, success with Reddit means getting involved in the site and being interactive. This isn’t a place for a “hit and run” link. You will be ignored at best and blasted by the natives at worst. Reddit is useful as a content sharing site when you use the site just as any other visitor would and share genuinely good content.
So Why Bother?
In March 2015, Reddit had over 168 million unique visitors viewing over 7.5 billion pages. The way it is set up anyone can create a community (called a subReddit) about nearly any subject imaginable. The flexibility found in this open source community is unlike anything else out there. Plus, Reddit is THE PLACE where trends begin and grow. If you want to be part of what is viral before it GOES viral, Reddit is your ideal destination.
A Few Tips
Since the site is so much different from other social media or content marketing sites, you may want to keep these tips in mind before you dive in the deep end.
- Subscribe to relevant SubReddits – Pay attention to what is happening in your industry by following a few of the bigger SubReddits. These mini-communities are where all the action happens.
- Listen before you speak – Before you post anything spend some time getting a feel for what others are posting in the community. You will have an idea what flies and what flops.
- Avoid shameless self-promotion – That is NOT the spirit of Reddit. There is an entire page of the Reddit wiki about this topic.
- Consider Reddit Ads – If you want to use Reddit as an actual marketing tool, think about paid ads, and you can reach this audience directly.
Now that you understand a bit more about Reddit, maybe you will be a little less scared of this useful and interesting site. Just make sure you know that if you agree to a Reddit “Ask me Anything” that you will be asked some crazy stuff!
Tracy S is a full-time content writer who also enjoys playing pool, traveling, hugging her cats and writing short one-line bios.
