Wondering how to use Reddit, but heard people talking about it being a scary platform to use? Well if your sole intention is to use Reddit for marketing to pedal your crappy e-book or online course, then yes, prepare to be chewed up and spat out! Reddit is not the place for overt marketing.
Generally speaking, people go on Reddit for two things…
- To be entertained
- To help people
So if you’re really funny, that’s great! There a ton of sub-reddits like r/Showerthoughts where you can impress people with your wit.
However, the focus of this article will be how you can help people on Reddit, which can in turn result in more traffic coming to your website.
Reddit’s tagline is ‘the front page of the internet’ and that’s because to the majority of young American’s, it is.
It’s a unique blend of news, photos, links, memes, and communities known as sub-reddits, and there are sub-reddits on every topic you can imagine.
Think of a sub-reddit as a little bit like a ‘group’ on Facebook.
You follow the sub-reddits for topics that interest you, and the posts that are added to those sub-reddits show up on your homepage like a newsfeed.
When content is posted, people can upvote it or downvote it, depending on if they enjoy it, like it, or find it valuable.
Content that is not specific to the sub-reddit it is posted in will be voted down without mercy, and the post will likely be removed by a moderator.
A common misconception is that Reddit is ‘just another social media platform’ and a lot of business owners tend to ignore it, and focus all their time on Facebook or Instagram.
But if your target market are hanging out on Reddit, not Facebook, then you could be missing out on a big opportunity…
To get started on Reddit, you simply go to reddit.com and create a free account with your email address and select a username and password.
There are a few things to consider when setting up your account:
Once you have selected your username, you can’t change it in any way, so choose wisely.
You don’t have to verify your email address, but you should, so you can earn ‘karma’ (more on karma later).
Everything you post, as in every link, every comment, every photo, will be stored under your profile for all time, so make sure you would feel comfortable if one day someone trawled through your Reddit history…
Once you have setup your Reddit account, you will be prompted to find and join sub-reddits on topics you’re most interested in, then you’re away, ready to learn, help people, and earn karma!
Reddit is a unique platform, rather than being a place where people come to find out what their family and friends are doing, it is a place to come for information, opinion, and of course, debate.
When you look at the numbers, you’ll be blown away!
Users average 21 billion (that’s billion) screen views a month
Native video receives one billion (again, that’s billion) views per month
430 million people actively use Reddit each month (rivalling Twitter)
42% of internet users aged 18-24 use Reddit
More than 46 million searches are done on Reddit every.single.day
Average visit time on Reddit is 16 minutes
If you make content that is for people between 18 and 24, you should be salivating at the possibility of being able to connect directly with your audience without having to pay for ads.
But to be successful on Reddit, you need to understand the rules and intricacies.
In a nutshell, reddiquette is a declaration of the values of redditors, written and managed directly by redditors.
Two of the key components of being part of the Reddit community are to remember the human, and to behave online the same way you would offline.
A good rule of thumb before commenting on another post, or responding to a comment on something you post, is to ask yourself ‘would I say this if I was standing in front of this person?’
If you understand reddiquette and follow it, you’ll become a valuable member of the community, your karma will increase, and you’ll see your traffic increase.
Ignore reddiquette and your salesy posts will get downvoted and deleted, and you’ll probably be on the receiving end of some savage comments.
While Reddit can get a bad rap for being a harsh platform to hang out on, it is hands down a safer and less toxic environment than what Facebook and Twitter have become in recent years.
Content that does well on Reddit is usually funny, educational, or raw.
In many of the parenting sub-reddits, parents at their wits end ask for advice, and can receive an overwhelming number of replies and offers for support.
People love helping people, so a real and raw post will often go a long way.
Likewise if you have specific knowledge in a particular niche, and you share that knowledge with the sole intention of helping people for no reward, you will find a community of appreciative people eager to upvote your contribution.
Photography also does really well on Reddit, and not just in photography sub-reddits.
If you can highlight your topic with an emotive image (that you have taken, not stolen from Google) then you’re likely to get more eyeballs on your post.
Then if you’re ready to go down the rabbit hole, posts about politics, especially American politics, will see a plethora of comments come flooding your way.
The golden rule is to help people, so remember to keep your posts or answers educational, as that content does well on Reddit.
Each sub-reddit has its own set of rules, like being familiar with reddiquette, not spamming the group, not bullying or harassing people, and so on. The usual things you would expect from any group where people will be sharing information and replying to posts.
However, some sub-reddits will have unique rules that you need to read and adhere to before you start participating, or you risk getting yourself banned.
For example, some sub-reddits strictly forbid self-promotion.
If you enter such a sub-reddit with the intention of posting about your products and services, you can expect to be kicked out quite quickly. Moderators are very active in their groups, and they don’t take kindly to having them hijacked.
Other sub-reddits will want you to use a 9-1 approach. You need to post nine things that are not self-promotion (and are of value of course) before you can do one self-promotion post.
It’s always worth taking a moment to read over the sub-reddit rules before joining, because if you don’t, and you break them, your posts will be downvoted (bad for karma) and you’ll be kicked out swiftly.
You get Reddit karma when people upvote your posts or comments. You lose karma when people downvote your posts or comments.
Simple.
So if you create helpful posts or you help people asking a question by giving them a really good answer, people will upvote your post or reply, which increases your karma score.
Likewise, if you’re posting spammy rubbish everywhere, or leaving rude and unhelpful replies, your posts/replies will get downvoted.
Some sub-reddits will have a minimum karma score before granting entry, as they want to keep the quality of the group high.
Reddit also uses the karma score of a post as a way of working out the best content. If a post gets a lot of karma early on, it could make it into the ‘hot’ section, which is similar to ‘trending’ on Twitter or ‘top’ on Instagram. ‘Hot’ on Reddit can put you on the homepage, and help your post catch fire and go viral.
Reddit gold is a way of rewarding someone for an outstanding post or comment, using real-life money.
When you award Reddit gold to someone, they get to use Reddit Premium (which includes 100 gold coins) for a week, and it shows a gold award on their post or comment. It costs 500 coins ($1.99USD) to give out a gold award.
There are also two other options, silver, which shows a silver award on the comment or post, and platinum, which gives the recipient a month of Reddit Premium and 700 coins, plus their post/comment shows a Platinum Award on it.
When I talk to people about different social platforms, a lot say ‘yeah but should I be on Reddit, my niche is xyz’ and the answer is, it depends.
If you can find sub-reddits that have your niche, then yes, If you can’t (and it’s unlikely) then it’s probably not for you.
Here’s the thing though…
Whether your niche is on Reddit or not, you should only use it if you intend on being social, i.e. not just using it for marketing.
Remember back when you would use platforms like Facebook or Instagram to see what family and friends were doing? Back before it became all about reach, the algorithm, and promoting that next online training idea?
Remember back when you would use platforms like Facebook or Instagram to see what family and friends were doing? Back before it became all about reach, the algorithm, and promoting that next online training idea?
That’s how you need to use Reddit.
If you go in with the intention of helping others, learning a few things yourself, you’re not afraid of being called out when you overstep the mark, and you’re willing to share your knowledge with others, then the rewards from using Reddit will help you in business.
You’ll also become a more well-rounded person, separate to business, which can only be a good thing too 😉
