In a world of Facebook, LinkedIn and TikTok, where it’s mostly about keeping up appearances and manipulating algorithms, Reddit stands out as a strange, stubborn oddity. Although Reddit has been around for almost 20 years and always been in the top 20 most-visited websites globally, it experienced massive growth in the last year or so. The company went public in March 2024, valuing at $6.4 billion, and reported a 37% year-on-year growth in Q1 2024. It has 100,000+ active communities, 500 million users and gets 83 million daily unique visits.

Reddit is a news aggregation, content rating and social forums website. Over the years, it has evolved into a Wikipedia-meets-ConsumerReports-meets-Yelp platform, serving as a massive repository of valuable insights. “A platform home to thousands of communities, endless conversation, and authentic human connection” is how Reddit defines itself. The platform offers a vast and diverse range of subreddits (similar to groups on Facebook) on almost any topic imaginable. Users can create a new subreddit, a new post on an existing subreddit or comment on an existing post and share their knowledge and experiences. The upvoting and downvoting of posts and comments lets users rate the information quality. This voting affects the visibility of the content, ensuring the most relevant and high-quality content rises to the top. Anonymity and authenticity are two of the core fundamentals of Reddit. By default, users have pseudo names assigned to them when they register. They can choose to reveal as much or as little as they want to about themselves in their posts or comments.

So what has suddenly skyrocketed Reddit’s relevance in marketing? Certainly not its basic, geeky, nineties-reminscent interface. The key reason for Reddit’s rising popularity among marketers is the attention and priority Google, OpenAI and Perplexity are giving to its content in their search and query results. In February 2024, Google signed a $60 million deal with Reddit, allowing Google real-time access to its content for search results and to help train Google’s future AI models. In April 2024, OpenAI did the same. Earlier, Google’s ‘Hidden Gems’ update in November 2023 prioritised content buried in forums and answer-based platforms such as Reddit and Quora. Recent developments such as Google AI Overviews and SGE (Search Generative Experience) are also prioritising real, ‘lived’ experiences over branded content.

As Google and now OpenAI are essential for any digital-focused brand, a good reputation and presence on Reddit can help companies go a long way. In addition to high search engine visibility, Reddit also offers:

• Precise Targeting: Reddit is largely a topic-focused forum, and each subreddit is meant for people with certain interests. This helps in audience segmentation and precise targeting.

• Building Brand Credibility: Engaging on Reddit allows brands to interact with users by providing guidance, addressing queries, and sharing ideas. It makes a brand more approachable and credible.

• Market Research: Discussions on Reddit are unfiltered, free to access and done by relevant ‘focus and interest groups,’ serving as an excellent starting point for market research.

• Engagement Rates: On average, a user spends 16 active minutes on Reddit per session. This is higher than that of Facebook or Instagram.

Success on Reddit does not come fast; it requires planning, patience and good intent. Reddit expects and demands old-school courting instead of quick, loud conquests.

• The First 30 to 60 Days: In the first two months, just explore the platform. Get involved and start engaging. Find your passion, join subreddits and use the platform –don’t focus on ROI in the beginning. Browse and test out features. Build your karma (approximation of the upvotes you get on your posts and comments). Age your account. Have fun and enjoy the community.

Similar to other platforms, you can take the paid advertising route on Reddit as well. However, to run successful promoted posts and ad campaigns, it is essential to understand the platform’s essence and use it organically to build your brand reputation.

• Who Did It Right? A lot of brands, big and small, have understood what Reddit stands for, catering their communication according to the platform and audience. In 2017, The Washington Post became the first national news publisher to create an official Reddit profile. It’s still going strong and using posts, comments, and AMAs to drive interested audiences directly to the publication’s stories. Another success story is Nissan, which enlisted two of its community managers (they were Redditors themselves) to create a competition thread and invite people to request their favourite items on Amazon. The post received almost 1,500 comments and made it to Reddit’s front page for two consecutive days. Another is Spotify, who started a conversation asking users to share the songs that had the most powerful emotional impact on them. Over 10,000 Redditors responded, and Spotify created a unique Reddit-driven playlist using the responses. The brand won the hearts of thousands and created a ripple effect of success.

• Is It Worth It? Redditors are unforgiving, complicated, and notoriously averse to marketers. They are also information geeks who love to engage, endorse and support products that sit well with them. They are generous, unbiased and authentic in their feedback (good or bad). Reddit is well worth a shot for brands that have the guts to face a tough, honest audience. A smart approach is to think of Reddit as an ongoing focus group that has an influential and wide reach on the internet, rather than thinking of it as a regular advertising platform to make a quick sale. The person who carries your company baton on Reddit should have high EQ and the intelligence to stay calm yet authentic and without sounding like a robot.

Remember the 3Cs of Reddit: conversation, community and connections!

Amber Arshad is a marketing and communications professional. amberdota@gmail.com