Learn how to use reddit to your advantage.
The social sharing site reddit is wildly popular, and becoming more so every day. As of this May, reddit had 170 million unique visitors from 180 different countries. A place for people to post articles, links and information, reddit is a unique site that allows the community to decide which posts are interesting and relevant. They call themselves the “front page of the Internet” because they collect bits and pieces from across the web and organize them by popularity. For this reason, reddit has huge implications in the world of PR. It presents an opportunity to gain a lot of awareness for your brand, although there are a few things you must know before you try to use reddit for your business.
Anybody can become a user on reddit, and all users are allowed to create posts in the site’s hundreds of sub-communities, or sub-reddits. Each of these sub-reddits has its own topic, and each has a set of moderators who set the rules for the community. Users also decide what is good and what isn’t by voting on other people’s posts in the sub-reddits. There is an option to give an up-vote or a down-vote for each post, and the posts with the highest scores climb to the front page of that subreddit. You can search reddit for topics that interest you, or you can see the top posts from sub-reddits that interest you.
This being said, there is great potential for generating interest for your brand through reddit. It is important to realize, however, that reddit is unlike other social sharing sites BECAUSE IT IS A MODERATED COMMUNITY.
If you want to be successful on reddit, there are some important rules of etiquette that you must follow.
1. When you first join, you should avoid posting a lot of company content because it will sour your reputation. Eventually, when you have a solid standing in the community, you will be able to post content that will drive web traffic to your brand’s website.
2. You should find a sub-community that fits your niche and comment on other people’s posts. Your comments may then be up-voted, allowing you to gain traction in the community.
3. You can post an AMA (Ask Me Anything) where you say who you are and allow people to ask you anything. You must not be facetious about who you are.
4. Each sub-reddit has a different list of rules and guidelines set by the moderators, so you should read them before you post (for example some do not allow shortened links).
For an example of a company who had great success using reddit, take a look at a board game start-up called Bungled Board Games. They recently raised enough money to get their business on its feet through reddit. Bungled Board Games creates alternate boards for popular board games with more complex scenarios and interesting places. They posted their ideas on a website, then linked it to the crowd-sourcing page KickStarter. They posted this on reddit, and soon the article leaped to the front page because it was so popular. They went from 156 hits to 330,000 hits in hours, thanks to reddit.
If you feel like your company could benefit from using reddit, remember to take note of the special rules and etiquette surrounding the site so you can use it to the fullest! Have questions about how to use reddit for your business? Three Girls Media can help. Contact us today!
Photo Credit: Eva Blue