What is Reddit and How does it Work?
Reddit is a social news platform and online community where users can debate and vote on other people’s content. Reddit allows users to form “Subreddits”, which are mini-communities within the site. There are countless subreddits covering practically every topic imaginable. Subreddits can be a very efficient way to expand your business.
Reddit has a points system known as “Karma points” to help regulate the site and prevent spammers from overwhelming readers. If you want to earn the Karma points, your content has to be upvoted by the community.
5 Ways to Use Reddit to Grow your Small Business
1. Ask for user opinions
Unlike most other social networks, Reddit will not broadcast your brand message directly to your followers. It’s a platform for engaging with other users. For example, a subreddit community called ‘Top Gear” encourages people to contribute their favorite vehicle photographs.
Each week, the community chooses the best image and posts it in the sidebar of their sub-Reddit. They also publish the picture along with the name of the individual who submitted it. This gives the community’s followers a sense of ownership.
So if you know how to cross-post on Reddit, you can use this approach to grow your small business. Giving followers a voice promotes community involvement and raises your likelihood of getting more brand influencers or advocates.
2. Improve customer service
The Xbox 360 sub-Reddit has done an excellent job of creating a forum for people to talk about this popular console. In addition, Redditors can communicate and share photos, videos, and experiences with the Xbox product.
This helps improve customer services and allows Redditors to redirect users to discuss product issues on the appropriate channels. Always remember that it costs much more to acquire a new customer than to maintain a loyal one. Reddit gives you an opportunity to provide the best possible customer services.
3. Find a subreddit community related to your business
There is a subreddit community for practically anything you can think of. You can join communities that are relevant to your business and then participate in discussions, answer inquiries, write blog posts, and share relevant material with users who are searching for information regarding your industry.
Remember to include your company’s name in your username or postings so that when new people join the community, they immediately recognize you.
4. Never promote your brand directly
If you post apparent marketing content, Redditors will quickly kick you out of the site. Make sure that your content is informative in some way (or humorous) to earn you some Karma points. Don’t always be selling, nobody likes that.
You can start by responding to community issues with authentic answers, creating entertaining content that makes people laugh, asking engaging questions, and posting on recent topics.
Never post the same content twice. Also make sure your promotions aren’t too evident within the posts. If possible, respond to everyone who comments on your content. Finally, add a human touch to your answers or content so that you don’t sound like a marketing robot.
5. Conduct interviews
The popular AMC series Breaking Bad had a SubReddit that was run entirely by supporters. The community held interviews with the show’s cast and the actors personally responded to the most asked questions on Reddit. Doing so regularly increased the size of the group and removed the barrier between the actors and fans.
Facilitating communication between fans and stars is a terrific way to leave a lasting impression on those fans. You can follow the same strategy for your business by inviting a few industry leaders and getting them to answer user queries.
