Marketing is uniquely evolving every day. Although social media has changed the way marketers work, they didn’t expect that, at some point, they will need to strategize different campaigns to fit each social network. Even social networks that weren't perceived as influential as others, managed to dominate a big spot in the marketing world. Representing one of the big marketing trends, Reddit Marketing, is a significant concept that's worth planning for.
Reddit was introduced to the world in June, 2005 in Medford, Massachusetts. By 2016, Reddit had 234 million active users in 217 different countries worldwide. With 853,824 subreddits, it had 11,646 active communities and 8.19 billion monthly page views. Considering these numbers, and comparing them to other social media channels, Reddit has created its own unique position in terms of reaching audiences and marketing for brands.
Regardless of its ranking as the 26th social network globally, and the 9th in the US, Reddit usually starts all memetic content. It causes that content to spread across the online world, widely and rapidly. That’s why it is referred to as “The Front Page of the Internet".
What makes Reddit marketing able to provide such significant support for marketers when they promote for brands, is that:
- Reddit is one of the fastest growing social media network. In fact, it was considered the second fastest growing network in 2014.
- Reddit is the second most trusted social network, from which people look for information and news. Reddit has earned its trustworthiness from the authenticity that its communities provided. In other words, these communities consist of people who have passion about certain topics. With that passion, comes knowledge and expertise, which builds credibility. That’s why Reddit marketing provides a solid trust that all brands needed. That trust helps them effectively communicate with their customers and reach their target audience.
- Reddit builds relationships and familiarity. Referring also to its unique feature of establishing and expanding communities, Reddit successfully build closer relationships between people. The feeling of knowing the people in the community because they share the same passion for a topic, makes them trust their knowledge. As a result, their expertise about that given topic builds credibility and authenticity. So, Reddit marketing seems to have an advantage when it comes to trust in customers’ opinions and reviews. In other words, when people write positive feedback about a certain company, it's more valuable and promotional for brands. It is even more effective than thousands-of-dollars campaigns or fancy advertising. Adding this benefit, marketers can start building their own communities and plan for a consumer- based and customary-built marketing strategies.
- Reddit Marketing can be a successful content marketing strategy, because Reddit allows anyone to create content. Although this idea doesn't seem new, the benefits of generating content on Reddit is uniquely different than other networks. Reddit users have the ability and the freedom to vote on content. This affects its ranking in the community, moving good content to the top, and leaving the “not-worth-reading” at the bottom. As people are the ones who vote, when using Reddit marketing, marketers must use this credibility feature to promote for their brands. This means that, they will need to generate interesting and engaging content about their brands. They can also promote for users’ positive content. Then, audiences and customers can judge on the quality and the worthiness of that content. Then, people's recommendations will encourage others to read it or avoid it.
Understanding these facts, explains why Reddit marketing is unique and has a great potential for success. But, how companies use Reddit in marketing?
Studying Reddit:
- Number of users: 264.63 million users (April 2016)
- Demographics:
Gender:
Females: 53%
Males: 47%
Age Groups: Share of internet users: 2nd Q of 2015:
16-24: 6%
25-34: 6%
35-44: 4%
45-54: 2%
55-64: 1%
Location: Share of internet users: 2nd Q of 2015
Middle East and Africa: 7%
Latin America: 6%
North America: 5%
APAC: 5%
Europe: 3%
Reddit Marketing Dos:
- Show commitment. Being on Reddit, is being on one of the most interactive social networks. This means that companies must compete for opportunities to stay on the top of people’s interest. Providing people constantly with engaging materials is the only way to achieve that. That means that their Reddit accounts must be active at all times, to match the rapidly-expanding social platform.
- Present value to the community. Reddit marketing isn't only about posting content and interacting with audiences to establish positive reputation and solid brand-image. In addition, it is about choosing the right audience to communicate with and targeting the most suitable customers. For its interaction to be beneficial, the company must define its community, then constantly present value to that community. In other words, they must work hard to present fresh materials that concerns and interests people, in a regular manner.
- Match the voice of the community. Sometimes, even when companies are interactive and informative on Reddit, their Reddit marketing strategy isn't as fruitful as they expected. This happens because companies usually don’t pay attention to the way they communicate with their communities. They have authority to discuss certain topics, coming from their expertise, but failed to facilitate this authenticity to match the community’s voice. Following the community’s tone and writing and sharing in their voice, help people understand the content, and interact accordingly.
Reddit Marketing Don’ts:
- Don’t advertise: Reddit is not a place to advertise for a company’s products and services. Companies can promote for their brands, but not to advertise. Posting content that is only advertising will be boring and won’t grab people’s attention. More importantly, Reddit hates advertisements on its platform. It even detects that marketed content, and let people mock it in a specialized subreddit. In some cases, Reddit had to ban some accounts from posting on its platform. Reddit marketing should be about promoting for the company and enhancing its brand-image. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that it must be all about advertising. Besides, advertising materials are not as interesting to people as they used to be. More importantly, people don’t fully-trust them anymore.
- Don’t post everywhere, at anytime: Companies must define their communities before posting their content. They must have specific channels and subreddits to which they are related and involved. Moreover, in order for their Reddit marketing strategy to work, companies must detect the best time to post their content. That is in accordance to their communities, and the habits of their target audience. In the U.S., for example, the best time to post on Reddit is between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m.. That's because it's before people get to work, so they have some time to read what others published.
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