Reddit is where the biggest news of the day is breaking and where the funniest memes are seen. If you are on the internet, you must have heard about Reddit in some way or the other. As a marketer, Reddit represents both a challenge as well as an opportunity.
The opportunity with Reddit lies in the fact that it is not yet exploited like the big social media sites. The challenge is due to the closely knit community of reddit users who look at any hidden agendas with a scornful eye.
With over 52 million daily active users, Reddit continues to remain an unexplored area for digital marketers. The challenges associated with Reddit marketing are not insurmountable. With the proper mix of content and strategic posting, success can be achieved.
Today, we look at 7 tips on how to achieve success with Reddit marketing. Hop on the bandwagon.
Understand the platform
This is easier said than done when it comes to Reddit. Yes, understanding Facebook and Twitter is also not easy but there are enough resources available online that let you make sense of the two. With Reddit, it is all community driven and hence you need to understand Reddit users to understand the platform.
The first and foremost thing that you must understand about Reddit as a platform is that the users form a strong community and if you betray the fact that you are on the platform not as a member of the community but to market your products or services, then you will not survive for long.
It is this love for similar interests be it movies, TV shows, sports or even politics that binds Reddit users together and that they value the most. Once you understand this, it will be easier to take the next steps.
Become a part of the community
Community is key in Reddit and there is no better way for you to reach the members of the community than by becoming a part of one. Just creating a Reddit account and following people is not enough.
Reddit is unlike any other social media platform. As a marketer, you cannot just create an account and keep posting your strategized content. This will sound the death knell for your Reddit presence.
As an active member of the community, you are expected to read posts, vote using Reddit upvotes or downvotes, answer questions and create your posts. In short, be helpful to others first.
Learn the ropes of the game of subreddits
In Reddit, all the fun happens in various subreddits. Each subreddit has its own rules. For instance, a subreddit on cats may have a rule that only cat pictures can be posted in it. This was a simple example but there may be complicated rules too.
Apart from specific rules, there are tons of dos and don’ts in Reddit, which every user must follow. If you mess it up, you may be banned too and then the path is very dark ahead.
With respect to voting too, there are specific instructions which need to be followed. Like if you have an inherent dislike for a particular diet, you cannot just downvote a post recommending it. Voting is taken very seriously on Reddit.
Start creating unique content
Once a clear understanding of the Reddit community and its guidelines has been achieved, the next step is to create content which is very specifically tailor made for Reddit.
The content must be interesting and useful. These are the two golden rules of content on Reddit. Yes, memes work well with Reddit users but again the memes have to be intelligent ones and cannot be based on cliches.
At Reddit, the content need not be unidirectional. In fact, the best content that you can share as a brand can be answering questions that community members may have about your brand. Clearing misconceptions about your brand can also be done but it needs a tad bit of tact to avoid looking like a PR exercise.
Build up your “karma”
Before we get into what is “karma” on Reddit and how you can earn some, let us talk about why you need it. The key to all social media marketing is to get the user away from the social media and towards your resources or product page. This is easily possible on some social media sites. But not on Reddit.
On Reddit, in order to add a link to a post or a comment, you need “karma”. This karma can be gained by becoming a genuine and helpful user of the community. A Reddit user earns karma if his post or comment gets upvoted.
As a brand, the more karma your account has, the more chances are that users will take you to be a genuine contributor to the subreddit that you are a part of.
Use Reddit Ads to build a campaign
Only once you have completed the 5 steps above, can you think of building a campaign with Reddit Ads to achieve any semblance of success.
Sure, you can test ads in subreddits that you want to target to see whether the audience is responding or not. But the overall requirement is that you have to be a positive influence on the community first.
The creativity level of the Reddit Ads has to be top notch. Ads can be designed for the whole of Reddit or directed towards a particular subreddit.
Many marketers spend a lot of time on Reddit trying to get viral through the use of memes or gifs. While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with this approach, it needs to be backed by an attempt to contribute towards the community you are interested in.
Reddit marketing has the potential to blow up in the near future. It sure demands a lot of time on the part of marketers for them to understand the nuances involved but once you are past the initial stage, success is not very far.
