It is important to use all available avenues in your social marketing strategy. Joining Reddit is an opportunity for you to use a platform not overused by your competitors. Joining Reddit is easy. You can download the app and sign up using your mobile device or sign up online. The tips below were collected with the help of our marketing friends over at Stasher, the world’s largest luggage storage network.
Why use Reddit?
Social media is bigger than Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Each platform has its own unique advantage. Statistics by backlinko show that:
- Reddit has over 430 million active users monthly
- 52 million active users access Reddit everyday
- 25% of US adults use Reddit
- in 2020 Reddit was 7th most popular social media app in the US
It goes without saying that some of your customers exist on Reddit.
How it works
Reddit is a platform of social reviews, opinions, preferences, and therefore recommendations. The posts receive comments, up votes, or down votes. Posts with the most engagement appear at the top. Reddit is useful for marketing because it allows people of similar interests to have their discussions.
You are likely to find people who receive, need, or use contractor services. There will be discussion on a lot of topics concerning the same. They also give each other pointers of who provides the best services. Here is where your presence on Reddit pays off. Apart from being part of the community and learning what people like and dislike, you are likely to find customers here.
On Reddit, you join a community of choice. You will surround yourself fulltime with people interested in the services you provide and information on the same. The communities can be formed using locations. If you are located in Brooklyn, for example, you can join the Welcome to Brooklyn subreddit and engage in posts about news and trends. You will notice that people ask for recommendations of service providers in such location-specific communities.
Being part of these communities first allows you to understand their processes. You cannot begin to market your company if no one else is doing it. You have to be strategic, else people will find your posts annoying. If they are there to talk about their experiences using a certain brand of air conditioner you can give them tips on how to maintain it and mention you know because you have handled it many times for different clients. Subtle, helpful, and no one will come for your neck for advertising.
The following is a simple process to start you off:
Join
Join Reddit to be part of a community matching your brand. Make posts that allow you to engage with the rest of the community but do not make these advertisement posts. You are still a new member so it would be difficult to convince people to seek your services until you build genuine connections.
Understand the community you’ve joined
If a community based in Brooklyn, for instance, is discussing HVAC services but is mainly focused on hacks, participate by giving hacks most of the time. People will recognize your contribution. Self-promote yourself in a smaller percentage compared to engaging with the people just to be helpful. Learn their rules on posting pictures, commenting, and adding captions.
Post valuable content
Take your time to understand what the community you’ve joined would appreciate. Do not recycle your Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook posts.
Creating an account for your company
Use your company’s name or something close. It should mention a service you provide, which becomes the keyword, and your name. Your name creates a humane effect people can be drawn to. Once you are in, search for communities taking about the products and services you provide.
Read posts to up vote, down vote, comment, and engage with the rest. Answer questions, give ideas, and correct misunderstandings on certain topics. After creating connections through engagement, begin creating your own engaging posts.
Remain active by engaging in other people’s posts and creating your own. Your consistency will build up to a solid recognition with time. Create original content, as this tends to get higher engagement levels than recycled ones do. Make use of all content types.
Types of marketing content to post on Reddit
GIFS
GIFS allow you to capture an interesting moment of a full video you would like people to see. Instead of posting the link to the video, which not many will click on, use the GIF to show them what the link contains. The fear of missing out (FOMO) will motivate most people to watch your Facebook or YouTube video. This is a great way to showcase your skills.
Ask me anything posts
Reddit has an Ask Me Anything trend. This is an opportunity for you to build your presence there by providing in-depth answers to the questions people ask.
Interesting pictures
Post pictures you are sure your audience will understand, and relate to. Pictures are low effort. You just need to find the right ones.
Ask questions
Most start up and ecommerce site owners use Reddit to get advice from others in similar situations. There are people who were at your current stage and they understand the challenges you go through. You can ask about:
- tools to use to gauge site performance
- courses covering all one needs to know about ecommerce sites
- challenges faced by startups and solutions
- website review ideas
- managing inventory
- A vs B
Texts and blog posts
Share your website content as a text on Reddit as opposed to sharing a link. Only do this if the content is adding value or is a response to something asked.
Small companies can find opportunities to attract organic followers on Reddit. Just keep in mind that negative comments can always be turned into a joke. Like other social media platforms, there will always be one or two trolls from time to time. Always take the highroad in such situations. Only focus on building your connections and brand.