Does Reddit Marketing Work?
If you already use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, it may be time to expand your marketing outside of the traditional platforms. If you’re ready to take this leap, Reddit is another popular online channel amongst brands. In this article, we explore the social platform in more detail and discuss the question: does Reddit marketing work?
Why Marketers Should Consider Reddit
While all marketers know that social media is vital for brand engagement, many have a narrow view of which social media platforms are important. Many marketers utilise the big platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, and believe that they are the only options for social media marketing. While a huge amount of activity does happen on these platforms, various other social communities can also work well for your brand.
Reddit is one of the biggest yet most underused platforms for social media marketing. At the time of writing, the site is ranked in the top 10 most visited websites and has an average daily user time of 11:29. According to alexa.com, the average user time of Facebook is 9:34. While Reddit may not surpass Facebook in daily traffic, it’s currently ahead of both LinkedIn and Twitter. With this in mind, Reddit marketing can certainly work – providing that you do it right.
How Does Reddit Work?
Reddit’s core focus is on social news aggregation. Billing itself as the “front page of the internet”, Reddit encourages users to submit content for other users to upvote or downvote. This causes the most popular threads to rise to the top of the page while the least popular fall to the bottom.
Reddit is split into thousands of individual communities that are based around various interests. For instance, r/askscience focuses on chemistry, biology and physics and r/nononoyes is filled with videos that appear to be going wrong but turn around at the last minute. Where Instagram users follow specific accounts to tailor the content that appears on their feed, Reddit users subscribe to communities.
Because the most popular threads are pushed to the top, the Reddit homepage allows you to see the internet’s favourite content. If you have a Reddit account, your homepage is tailored to the topics that you’re interested in based on your subscriptions. You can then upvote or downvote this content, argue, carry on discussions and answer other peoples’ questions. Once you have an account, you can participate in whatever way you like. If you want to treat the platform as a news feed and watch from afar – that’s fine. If you want to get involved with discussions and submit your own topics – that’s fine too.
Should Marketers Use Reddit?
Social Media Marketers should see Reddit as an exciting marketing prospect. The platform is great for marketers who like the idea of conversing with potential customers and sharing original, high-quality content. As well as being sorted by interest, topics are also organised by location. This means that Redditors in your local town are more likely to see your content than those who live further afield. This can be particularly useful for brands with a brick-and-mortar store who are looking to target new customers.
What to Avoid When Marketing on Reddit
It takes time and dedication to build a popular community on Reddit. With this in mind, users are fiercely protective of their communities and despise brands or individuals that attempt to join purely for personal gain. To avoid annoying fellow platform users, don’t approach Reddit like posting on Craigslist. Take time to think about the priorities and values of the audience you want to engage and post something interesting or relevant. If you’re selling beauty products, there’s no point advertising your product within a technology community. Not only will the others be uninterested, but it will be blatantly obvious that you’re just their to sell your services. Reddit communities have been built for specific reasons; typically, these are hobbies, interests, social causes, or just entertainment. If you want to find success with Reddit Marketing, you need to have genuine respect for that.
How to Market of Reddit Successfully
If you want to market on Reddit, follow the best practices below.
Be a Genuine Member
The first thing to do is to become a member. Before marketing your brand, take time to use Reddit and get a feel for the platform. If you’re a brand new user with no posts except for the ones made to promote your business, few people will trust you. For best results, be a genuine participant and immerse yourself in the site before marketing your brand.
Give More Than You Take
The next tip is to always give more than you take. The general rule of most Reddit communities is to contribute 80% of the time and keep self-promotion to just 20%. This will vary depending on your content and target community, but 80/20 is the ratio to aim for when you’re first starting out.
Post Original Content
To find success on Reddit, you need to post original content and engage with users in a genuine way. Unfortunately, repurposing a basic Facebook post won’t do much for you, particularly if you dump it into an irrelevant subreddit. Posting original, quality content will help you to become a valued member of the community and unlock a new fan base for your brand.
Don’t Try to Trick People
Don’t even think about tricking people. Whether it’s an undisclosed paid sponsor, a fake account or getting your employees to upvote your content, avoid it if you want success on Reddit. Dedicated Reddit users have seen it all, and they don’t appreciate it when brands try to trick them for their own personal gain.
Understand Your Target Communities
While the tips above are universal across the Reddit platform, remember that your target communities may have rules and cultures of their own. Before marketing your brand, take time to understand your target communities and get to know their traditions and mannerisms. By doing this, you’ll also see what kind of content sparks the most interest and learn how to format your posts for maximum impact.
So, does Reddit marketing work? The simple answer to that question is yes. Providing that you put in the time and dedication, Reddit marketing can boost your visibility, engagement and unlock a new stream of loyal followers.