Why You Should Consider Using Reddit
Despite only being 10 years old, Reddit has quickly become one of the largest sites on the Internet. According to reports from Reddit, the site has almost 160 million unique visitors a month and 7 billion page views per month. Reddit also revealed that 1.8 million users cast almost 24 million votes in a single month, which is a significant amount of engagement. With numbers like this, businesses everywhere are trying to learn how to utilize the massive platform to drive traffic to their own sites. But Reddit may be one of the hardest places on the Internet to do any sort of marketing since the community takes a strong stance against spam and/or promotional attempts. With that being said, if you take the time to understand how Reddit works, there are still quite a few ways businesses can take advantage of the community.
If you aren’t familiar with Reddit, you’re probably going to have no idea what is going on the first time you visit the site. Don’t be fooled though. It may look complicated but its functionality is pretty great. Reddit also gets easier when it is actually useful to you, so for starters, it helps if you become an active member of a few subreddits that you care about.
Reddit is made up of many smaller, user-created discussion forums that are topically themed. These are known as subreddits and anyone can create one focused on the topic of their choice. Reddit users have definitely taken advantage of this too. When browsing the site, you will find thousands of subreddits covering nearly every topic imaginable. But how exactly can a business use this to their advantage?
Think about it this way, how many times have you read or heard somewhere that you need to find or establish your target audience in order to reach potential customers? I’m sure your answer will be “a lot” since finding your target audience is a fundamental part of any marketing strategy. The great thing about Reddit is your audience is automatically divided in the subreddits. This gives businesses an opportunity to find out what people are talking about in their industry or product genre, and you could even get a jump on trends before your competition. But before you start jumping into the conversations on subreddits, you will need to understand how people think and interact in the particular ones you would like to target.
One of the best places to start is with the top posts of all time in a subreddit. These are important because they will show you the type of content a particular subreddit appreciates the most. This also gives business an opportunity to find out what potential customers are talking about and what information they are seeking. The feedback and opinions from Reddit users on subreddits can be a great source of insight for a business and could be a valuable tool in future marketing campaigns.
To have a clear understanding of subreddits, it is important to know some of the Reddit terminology. As we stated earlier, subreddits are basically individual communities that are focused around one specific topic. Each subreddit has their own unique tone, set of rules, and appreciates different types of content. There are two types of content that can be found in subreddits: self posts which include a title and text and link posts which include a title and link.
It is important to note that one of these types can be disable or not accepted as well as the other depending on the subreddit. This is why it is important to know the audience of a particular subreddit before approaching it. Posting the right content to the correct one is vital to making sure your submission doesn’t get downvoted into nothingness.
One of the most interesting parts about Reddit is that unlike most other sites that are strictly controlled by a team of moderators or editors, Reddit is controlled by its users. Everything on Reddit is driven by “karma,” which reflects your standing in the community based on positive and negative points (upvotes and downvotes) on comments you’ve made or links you’ve submitted. Every Reddit user can vote on every link or discussion posted and everyone’s vote counts the same amount. An upvote means that you think post is good or you agree with it and a downvote means the opposite. Pay attention to the posts in each subreddit that get upvoted the most and which types of comments get upvoted and downvoted the most. This way you have a clear understanding of popular opinions on common topics in your niche area.
Although upvotes and downvotes are meant to be used to identify good and bad posts, they are also often used to express users opinions. Since the content on Reddit is controlled by its users, they shape Reddit by their own opinions and beliefs. This gives users a sense of ownership in the community and increases interaction. It is a good idea for a business to target smaller but highly relevant subreddits (ideally with at least 5,000 subscribers). Your content is more likely to get upvotes in smaller subreddits rather than larger ones where your posts may get lost in all the noise.
The trick to being successful on Reddit is that there is not one. You have to become a member and genuinely contribute great content if you want any results for your time or to drive any sort of traffic to your site. If you create great content that is relevant to the users in the subreddits you decide to target, you will be rewarded with valuable advice and guidance. But, having a clear understanding of the communities you want to interact with is crucial if you want to have a successful and beneficial experience on Reddit.
