One of the oldest and most controversial social media services, Reddit has 230 million unique monthly visitors that comment on discussion forums, or subreddits, that cover almost every topic imaginable.
Unfortunately, Reddit is not exactly friendly to brands or PR. “Redditors” respond to any form of marketing with more skepticism and severity than typical social media users. They quickly lambast corporate promotional efforts, with some Reddit threads being exclusively dedicated to criticizing and mocking large brands.
One subreddit, Hail Corporate, was created solely to report any commercialism or suspiciously promotional posts Redditors find on the network.
Nevertheless, some brands do find success on Reddit. Nissan achieved a huge PR victory after it sold the first car through Amazon, and photos of the world’s largest Amazon delivery box became a popular subject on Reddit.
The site is trying to be more welcoming to brands with improvements to its measurement and reporting capabilities. More robust data and reports will show how well advertisements perform and how viewers feel about brands, based on sentiment analysis.
How to Succeed on Reddit
Experts offer these tips for professionals considering Reddit as a PR tool.
Be careful of being promotional.
“A little bit of self-promotion is typically okay, but Reddit is not inherently a promotional tool,” says Reddit’s own “brandiquette” guide. “Using it organically to push your product or brand can backfire, anger the community and possibly result in a ban on your account.”
Be transparent, informal and genuine.
“You just have to show up and be transparent and legit and you’ll have a great opportunity for success,” says Brent Csutoras, CEO of social media agency at Pixel Road Designs.
Be thick-skinned.
Redditors are known to be outspoken. Rather than taking offense, try to learn from criticism and review its “pressiquette” and self-promotion guidelines to avoid backlash in the first place.
Don’t just link to your corporate site.
Simply submitting your links is unwelcome. They may be removed as spam or your account could be banned. Submit from a variety of sources — ideally 10% or less of your posts and conversation should link to your own content.
Use Ask Me Anything (AMA) forums.
These are Reddit’s free-form “Q and A” sessions, some of which succeed while others fail miserably. Successful AMA forums can provide good insight into consumer opinion and ideas. Based on discussion during an AMA, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream added a new flavor to its lineup, says Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman PR. The best AMAs are genuine, engaging and transparent. Try organizing with subreddit moderators in advance to avoid any potential pitfalls.
Adapted from an article written by William Comcowich, founder and CMO of CyberAlert, a media monitoring company headquartered in Connecticut.
Current Issue - May 2024