I’m not a big fan of Reddit … didn’t love Digg or Delicious either. I don’t have time to participate and I’ve never been one to engage in forum-type conversations unless I am trying to find out how to solve some technical problem like “hard resetting” a new iPhone.

That said, Reddit has been and continues to be an extremely influential platform. It’s a place where breaking news is shared (propaganda at times), gifs go viral, brands and politicians get verbally abused, and you can also hear from some really cool people through AMAs–celebs, CEOs/Founders, astronauts, etc. There’s a goldmine of data there too.

I just finished up reading a MarketingProfs post, “The Complete Guide to Reddit Marketing” and it had some actionable tips for marketers. I added my own commentary after the bolded tips below, so please read the original post to get more of the author’s context:

• Use Reddit ads: Self-explanatory. I’ll just add that with Reddit, you can target content, conversations, and subreddits, allowing you to be extremely focused with your paid media spend.
• Monitor brand mentions: You can do this with most social intelligence platforms. I use Brandwatch for a lot of reasons. Outside of brand monitoring, you can also run an analysis on all Reddit content to better understand emerging trends, conversations, volume, etc. Filtering this data can also uncover whitespace that your brand can latch on to and own–see below as an example.
• Share your content: Obvious, but quick caveat. Content should not come from marketers or PR people. It needs to come from employees–executives, the founder, subject matter experts, engineers, data scientists, product managers, and everyone else in between. And it goes without saying that content cannot be promotional or self-serving–another obvious point, yet ignored all the time.
• Share your experience: Same as above. As every industry pundit says and which is true but often forgotten, “be authentic.”
• Participate in subreddits: This is a big one. Make time to participate. Spend 10-15 minutes a day engaging with other users and content. Once you earn the trust and credibility of other redditors, you’ll be good to go.

My take on Reddit Marketing is clear: Be smart. Check your ego. Provide value.

I ran an analysis on Reddit, just for kicks. If you know me, you’ll know how much I love the Niners and Lakers, so naturally, the analysis will revolve around the two best teams in the world. The below is data from 1/1/2018 to date and the data source is Reddit, via Crimson Hexagon.

The data was a little surprising, to be honest. I didn’t realize how relevant sports is on Reddit, much less the amount of conversation about my two teams. A few insights from the data:

1. There’s zero value by looking just at volume. You’ll find the insights when you filter through the data to find what triggered spikes in conversation. Was it the news cycle? Was there an AMA with Kobe Bryant or Magic Johnson? Or, is it just a bunch of haters talking smack about King James and Jimmy G? Whatever the case, you’ll have to spend some time mining the data in order to find an insight.
2. It’s clear that the Lakers conversation (153,22 forum mentions) was much larger than the 49ers conversation (33,933 forum mentions) but it’s not because Reddit is swarming with Lakers fans. There were a lot of whiners and complainers talking about LeBron James in May, June and July after he signed his contract. You’ll see the Niners spike in conversation over the last month since Football season is upon us. ?

The point here is that Reddit is a viable marketing channel. There’s data that can be mined, and there’s a huge opportunity to expose you brand to a new community a variety of different ways mentioned above.

Reddit marketing is smart. You need to be smart too.