Is Reddit useful for marketing?
Reddit has developed into the most credible, one-stop-shop for free-flowing information on the internet. It is a veritable banquet of easily accessible knowledge, the internet’s goldfish bowl if you like. It is also renowned for predicting and driving new trends. We are going to look specifically at why and how marketing professionals should be harnessing the power of Reddit to both inform their campaigns and to develop an authoritative profile for their clients.
What is Reddit?
Reddit is the ancestral home of specialists on every topic imaginable, publishing everything from blogs, product launches, detailed questions and answers and, of course, instigating mass social movements. With over 430 million active users, there is no development or subject material you can’t read about in real time. That said, it still never ceases to amaze us how many of our clients seem to be unaware of exactly how powerful a platform it is, let alone utilising it to inform and progress their marketing strategies. Many companies are stuck in a rut of continually flogging platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, even when they aren’t appropriate for their particular service or product. For those who have already cottoned on, the dividends of using Reddit are proving limitless.
How it works
Reddit came into being in 2005 as a result of a £100,000 investment by Y combinator. To illustrate it’s growth, it is now worth an estimated €10 billion. Over the last 10-15 years Reddit has slowly but surely grown into a global information force to be reckoned with. Users publish content such as links, images, videos etc and other users ‘upvote’ or ‘downvote’ them. This ensures that quality content and ideas rise to the top and the not-so-good, spammy sort of stuff is submerged. Further to this, Reddit, is the umbrella for a huge group of forums on a vast array of subjects. These forums, or communities, are known as subreddits. They are displayed as r/subject e.g. r/tech or r/manufacturing. There is literally no limit to the number of incredibly specific forums available, which is why there are over 100,000 active communities for you to peruse.
Hang around
Reddit is a vast emporium of information but it is also an absolute treasure trove for market research. Our advice is simple, spend some time getting to know your way around the platform. This won’t be quick but it will be worthwhile. It will help you to develop a better understanding of current and trends and what your customers are currently thinking and talking about. Obviously you want to be hanging around in the subreddit forums that are specific to your industry. In our case at Bishop Communications, that’s predominantly tech and manufacturing. You can probably afford to steer clear of the rabbit holes that are communities such as r/BreadStapledToTrees, unless you’ve got a few hours on a grey Sunday afternoon to while away of course.
Why consider Reddit as part of your marketing strategy?
Some of the most interesting statistics we uncovered about Reddit is the sheer number of users who are simply unavailable on other platforms. For example, 69% of Reddit users are not on Tik-Tok, 52% don’t use Twitter, 47% don’t use Instagram and almost a quarter don’t even use Facebook. This should communicate the point that this is a very different platform to those mentioned above. This is where the specialists hang out, along with those seeking to benefit from specialist knowledge and advice. It is exactly where entrepreneurs, contemporary businesses and marketing professionals should be spending their time. It makes more sense than continually chasing ‘likes’ from the already converted on traditional platforms. You will also discover a wealth of ideas for content for your blogs, website and PR activities, so get mining!
The Do Nots!
Direct marketing is a big no-no on Reddit. It doesn’t land well with a more informed user group. It also goes against the grain of the concept of contributing to the community rather than just taking. That doesn’t mean that more organic marketing, via the medium of creating an authoritative persona, isn’t achievable. As any marketing pro with their finger on the pulse will tell you, the marketing industry is continually changing. There is a shift towards the less gimmicky, more informed sort of marketing that appeals to those who want more detail than is available via traditional marketing methods. Moving with the marketing times and embracing more unconventional methods is essential to maintaining both visibility and viability.
As ever, should you require any further information or assistance with your marketing or PR strategies, just give us a call or drop us a line and we’ll be more than happy to help.
