The Social Platform You Aren’t Leveraging, But Should
There’s a sphere on the internet that can connect you with millions, provide an astronomical boost to your traffic, and increase your SEO exponentially.
And, it’s likely one you’ve ignored.
It’s not Instagram, Google+, or Netflix.
Frequently overlooked, this social site can give you an audience of millions, create an medium for viral content and allow you to address very specific crowds.
Known as “the front page of the internet”, Reddit is a social online community boasting 174 million monthly users. Users post on and discuss a variety of topics – humor, politics, entertainment, fitness, technology, random factiods, and more.
Reddit appeals primarily to the 20 and 30-somethings, and the Reddit crowd is smart, young, tech savvy, liberal, and nerdy. Sound like your target audience? Then you’ll want to keep reading.
Users tend to spend much time online and they’re willing to share content that strikes their fancy.
Reddit is a platform for viral content. A very social site where users post useful information, funny pictures, and even their “shower thoughts”, thoughts and ideas spread rapidly.
I have personally witnessed the dramatic gains from a blog post’s exposure on Reddit.
When I worked for an education company, our data analytics expert discovered one of our ancient blog posts was suddenly receiving a massive uptick in traffic. We were all baffled that a post from over three years ago was suddenly receiving an onslaught of attention.
With a bit of research, we discovered that the link had been posted in answer to a question on a Reddit thread and, consequently, our post suddenly saw an onslaught of traffic.
What this means for you: Redditors are very sensitive to marketers and being marketed to. Unlike social giants Twitter and Facebook, Reddit users do not like being sold or marketed to. While they’re willing to share content they enjoy, Redditors can turn into a virtual lynch mob if you meet with their disapproval. A brutally honest crowd, they will let you know precisely what they’re thinking – in no uncertain terms.
So, while there is grand potential for leveraging Reddit in your content marketing efforts, you must go about the process very carefully!
Step One:
Create a Reddit account. It’s free and can be set up in about 30 seconds. All you need is your name and a working email address.
Step Two:
Familiarize yourself with Reddiquite (Reddit rules of etiquette).
Carefully scour theses rules, but here’s the “Cliff Notes” edition:
You can post your own content, but Redditors are sensitive to this. Here’s the “rule of thumb” from Reddit on self-posting:
“Feel free to post links to your own content (within reason). But if that’s all you ever post, or it always seems to get voted down, take a good hard look in the mirror — you just might be a spammer. A widely used rule of thumb is the 9:1 ratio, i.e. only 1 out of every 10 of your submissions should be your own content.”
you’d be ok with others posting.Find Reddit threads and sub-reddits in your field of interest and contribute – often! Ask good questions, share content that is not your own, and comment on and upvote other’s content. Be a good citizen of Reddit, and only post the kind of content
While being a “good citizen” may mean you have a slow, meticulous process for gaining recognition – it’s worth it. Worthwhile successes don’t come easily.
Step Three:
Participate! Find a subreddit (Reddit thread) that fits your topic and comment, vote and contribute!
Reddit exists on a system called “Karma”. Karma refers to how much good you’re doing in the Reddit community. If your posts receive a large number of “upvotes” (think “Likes” on Facebook) You’ll have good Karma. “Downvotes” will detract from your overall score). Ultimately, too much bad karma may lead to the revocation of your Reddit privileges – either for a matter of minutes or permanently.
Now that you’re acquainted with the basics of Reddit, tomorrow we’ll explore how you can ethically put the network to work for you. While it takes careful work, Reddit can provide a huge boost to your company.
Editor’s Note: read part two here, with more tips on how to successfully engage Reddit.
Rachel Novotny
I’m a Paleo foodie, coffee connoisseur, and writer who is passionate about helping people achieve their potential. I divide my time between crafting written word, making memories with friends, adventuring with my husband Dave, pretending I know what I’m doing in yoga class, and exploring San Antonio with my Husky mix, Jackie. Follow me on Linkedin or Twitter!
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I love using Reddit for sharing content. Some other good social media sharing tools are StumbleUpon and ScoopIt. All these are really easy to use and also provide you with some great content that is relevant to the topics that are of interest to you. Really great article!