You might’ve seen our latest infographic that broke down the current state of Reddit and how it’s growing at an astounding rate (if you haven’t seen it yet we highly recommend you check it out, the numbers are actually pretty crazy!). We wanted to revisit the topic and break it down a little more from our point of view so you know exactly how and why you should be marketing on Reddit!
Why Use Reddit?
Reddit, the self-proclaimed front page of the internet, is probably one of the last spaces you would expect to be venturing for marketing. It’s filled with a variety of people that interact in what is usually a strange or sarcastic manner that’s very different from most digital spaces (I’m allowed to say that because I frequent Reddit). With the difficulty to understand the site in the first place and the challenge of interacting with the users what’s the point, why even bother using Reddit?
The answer is pretty simple: when you talk to any company, agency, or professional and ask them what their top few mediums for marketing are they’re going to have Facebook and Twitter in their top 5, usually as first and second. We can all safely assume no social media site is going to come close to Facebook in reach and versatility in the near future but Twitter is where things start to get interesting.
When you look at social media platforms by market share Twitter is actually ranked 4th behind Facebook (1st), YouTube (2nd), and, yep, you guessed it, Reddit (3rd). Looking at market share and total users Reddit actually seems to be larger and growing faster than Twitter.
Alright, I’m interested, Keep Talking.
After seeing the numbers your ears probably perked up a bit and you’re suddenly a bit more interested in the strange corner of the internet that is Reddit but the truth is, you’ve probably got no idea how to use it! Have no fear, we’ve got you covered with a brief overview of how to use it, at least from a marketing standpoint. The basic idea is that Reddit excels in two specific areas; targeting and interaction.
Targeting Your Market on Reddit
Targeted marketing on Reddit is an interesting mix of going out and finding your target audience and bringing them back to you at the same time. The website itself is broken down into subdomains or, subreddits as they’re called (They’re noted by the /r/ before their name). These subreddits are essentially small sections of the website devoted to very specific things that completely user created and user moderated. The idea itself is a pretty cool one but the application is completely amazing, there are subreddits for literally everything!
Whether you’re looking for the simplest explanations of complex subjects (/r/explainlikeimfive) or everything to do with automation and robots (/r/robotics) there’s a subreddit for that specific subject! This is where things start to get really cool for marketers on Reddit, literally all you have to do is find relevant subreddits to your field or industry and then apply the concept of content marketing!
Interact at Your Own Risk
Creating correct content for Reddit can be a lot more difficult than many other mediums but it can also be a lot more rewarding than other websites. One of the biggest difficulties here is what I mentioned before about all of these subreddits being created and moderated by random users on the site. Because of this you have to make sure you read the rules of each individual subreddit before you post in them or your posts could be deleted.
Once you’ve mastered the rules and are looking to start creating your content there’s one final thing you need to keep in mind, people will only see your content if other people up vote it. This means that you content needs to either be really good, hilarious, or hyper-relevant or no one is going to think twice about it. This might sound intimidating but trust me, the work and risk is worth the reward. If you’re successful, your content can reach the front page of Reddit where it can potentially be viewed by millions of people in seconds.
Reddit can be a rather intimidating platform for most but it’s one that can have the reach and platform to be extremely powerful if time is devoted to using it. You’ve got to learn the platform, learn the people, and monitor it just like anything else. Tell us your thoughts on Reddit as a marketing platform or your past experiences with it in the comments below!
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