Human beings fear what they do not understand. That is exactly what has happened with Reddit and its relationship with marketers and brands. Touted as the ‘wild west’ of the internet, digital marketers and businesses actively avoided Reddit over fears of brand reputation.
The days of Reddit, being an uncontrolled platform with unruly mobs of users are long gone. With all the updates made to the platform in recent years. Reddit has transformed itself into a more welcoming place for new and old users alike. This change in perception by netizens has started to gain traction in the eyes of businesses looking to engage in niche communities.
Here we try to demystify Reddit and possibly get rid of the common fears a lot of digital marketers have regarding Reddit marketing.
Brand Sensibility
To become a more business-friendly marketing platform, Reddit has gone through multiple cycles of redesigns. It was not lost on the creators of Reddit, that their platform was a little intimidating for the uninitiated. This is why in 2017 founder and CEO of Reddit Steve Huffman, addressed this issue and even described his website to look like; “dystopian Craigslist”.
Zubair Jandali, Vice President of Brand Partnerships of Reddit said; “We’ve done a lot of heavy lifting to build a more sophisticated platform for both users and advertisers, and have been more proactive about having brand safety conversations with our partners.”
Active Brand Protection
In the most recent update, Reddit announced an integration with Oracle Data Cloud. Using Oracle’s Contextual Intelligence technology, marketers will be provided with a higher degree of control over their marketing campaigns. This integration will also enable brands to better manage user-generated content in real-time.
It can be seen that Reddit is trying hard to win the hearts and minds of businesses. Businesses having more control over their marketing campaigns, helps them to avoid the infamous mobs of unruly Redditors.
Community-Driven Platform
The driving force behind Reddit has to be its hundreds of communities separated into their respective ‘subreddits’. These groups of people on the platform present a tremendous marketing opportunity.
Reddit has reported that it has 330 Million Monthly Active Users on its platform. This number is twice as much as Twitter’s 130 Million MAUs. Still, marketers rarely add Reddit into their marketing strategy.
Reddit’s community-based layered audience allows niche businesses to find the best group of prospective customers. Add to this, the feature to Geo-Tag your marketing campaign. This enables businesses to find the most relevant communities in their vicinity.
Shed the Stigma
Reddit is the sixth most visited website in the United States. American users also spent more screen time on Reddit, when compared to Google, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
Add to the mix the fact that the creators of Reddit, have made their mission to create a platform which more fun and safe for both users and businesses. It is now on marketers and businesses to take the next step and come forward on the platform.
Our Take
Reddit is not like your every-day social media platform. Reddit has existed from a period in the life of the internet when things were very different. Over the years, Reddit has become this place of debate, discuss, and shared stories for the people of the internet.
As the company and platform continue to grow and matures into a more welcoming version of itself. Businesses who do not include Reddit in their marketing strategy will lose big.
Reddit offers its users an alternative to traditional social media. It offers them an open playing field of expression and thought. The numbers say it all, Reddit is a platform people love.
