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Among social media websites, Reddit is described as “one of the trickiest platforms to crack.” This is due to its unique, forum-based format and culture different from other platforms. Despite this, marketing on Reddit has become a new avenue for brands of all kinds, from traditional CPG (consumer packaged goods) to Internet-based services.
This trend follows Reddit’s push to bring more advertising to its platform. Reddits’ unique format has made it seem scary to most marketers, given its’ segmented design, the lack of rules, and the organization for community subreddits. Still, they’ve added more features and opportunities to make marketing on Reddit more feasible.
If you’re interested in other ways to make influencer marketing work for your brand, read this article!
What is Reddit?
Reddit was founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, who intended to create something like “the front page of the internet,” a place where everything can be posted. While the Internets’ organization has changed much in almost two decades, Reddit remains. It’s obvious that the two succeeded.
Users on Reddit (known as Redditors) are shown various ‘subreddits,’ which act as forums covering specific topics and niches. They range from massive ones containing millions of users to niche ones with just a few dozen. Users can make their own subreddits and personalize them using in-built visuals and editors, similar to site-building websites such as Squarespace or Neocities.
Some of the biggest subreddits on Reddit are /r/funny, a subreddit for posting comedy and meme content, /r/AskReddit, a QnA (question and answer) space, and /r/gaming, which is for discussing video games and related topics.
How Does it Work?
Redditors can post content to these subreddits, including posting text, images, videos, links to other websites, or more. Any other user can comment on these, but uniquely to Reddit is the “upvote/downvote” system, which allows users to rate posts by what they support and what they don’t. The overall vote amount is calculated into a rating on the post/comment rated.
Notably, one of the most downvoted Reddit comments is from Electronic Arts (EA), whose response to criticism about their game Star Wars Battlefront 2s’ amount of microtransactions was met with a staggering score of -683,000. This exemplifies how Reddit can be daunting for any prospective marketer. But fear not — there are ways you can be successful!
In 2016, Reddit unveiled promoted posts, which allow advertisers to push their marketing to the top of users’ feeds regardless of whichever subreddit they’re posted in. It still gives opportunities for Redditors to interact with them, which is a large part of Reddits’ core appeal- the sheer breadth of engagement ability with just about anything.
Love Discord and other community-focused platforms? Check out this article!
Examples of Brand Marketing on Reddit
Lemonade Inc
Lemonade Inc is an insurance company whose goal is “transforming insurance from a necessary evil to a social good.” By collaborating with charities and insisting on easily-accessed and wide insurance coverage, it is considered one of the best insurance companies in America.
Lemonade’s marketing on Reddit consisted of a promoted post that advertised how cheap its’ insurance is by comparing it to the price of fast food meals and posting about it on fast food-based subreddits. This was very successful in bringing more awareness to the new insurance company.
Nissan
In 2015, the CEO of the Nissan car company was one of the first ever companies to utilize the AMA model to interact with fans on the subreddit /r/IAmA, a subreddit specifically for AMAs.
It has an upvote score of 1.8k and 4.5k comments, which furthered brand awareness for Nissan and its’ cutting-edge plans. While one of the first, this is far from the most successful attempt at using an AMA for marketing on Reddit.
SpaceX
A brand can market itself on Reddit through an AMA called “Ask me anything.” This allows Redditors to ask notable people or celebrities questions about anything, often focusing on whatever projects or brands they are a part of.
One of the most notable examples is SpaceX, a private company developing and launching space rockets. The CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, hosted an AMA on Reddit about 5 years ago. The AMA was hosted on the /r/space subreddit after the BFR rocket launch. The post currently has a score of over 84.2k and over 11.3k comments.
If you’re interested in unique new subreddits to post or market on, here’s a list of art subreddits, fashion subreddits, and cooking subreddits!
Ally Bank
Ally is a new, online-only bank that aims to provide a better banking experience than traditional banks. With this, they have used Reddits’ promoted posts to advertise to gaming communities, stating that if “you wouldn’t settle for a 1-star controller, why settle for a 1-star bank?”
It hit a specific niche of gamers by advertising this on the /r/playstation subreddit, specifically for fans and players of the PlayStation series of game consoles. This sub-group of gamers makes a tech-based bank like Ally a worthwhile investment. This is another example of good marketing on Reddit.
XboxOne
Another way brands can incorporate best marketing practices on Reddit is by finding pre-existing Reddit communities. While the Xbox company, Microsoft’s gaming and game console division, did not create the /r/XboxOne subreddit, they utilized their community-made subreddit to further their outreach.
Many developers with Xbox host AMAs and previews on the subreddit itself, allowing hardcore and casual fans to speak with and learn more about their favorite properties, upcoming projects, and even interesting hardware tidbits.
Learn how Reddit AMAs can be used to better your influencer marketing strategies in this article!
Conclusion
Reddit is daunting for many marketing prospects due to the difference between it and other social media. Format and culture are relatively different on Reddit than on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. Reddit is known for forums where users can exchange ideas and share longer responses. However, this means that brands that are daring enough to try marketing on Reddit can see great success.
Furthermore, hosting AMAs can help you better connect with your audience or future consumers. Plenty of brands are looking to market on Reddit, so go out there and do the same!
Learn how to take advantage of Reddit influencer marketing at this NeoReach blog!
