I’ve seen a lot of marketers who are interested in using Reddit for branding or community marketing, but aren’t sure how to get started there.
Here are pointers based on notes I took during an AMA w/ Reddit’s Head of Brand Strategy.
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1/ The power of Reddit is in the informed communities:
Gathering around shared passions that shape decisions, opinions, culture. To many, the internet no longer feels open and connected.
Reddit gives people a place to belong – and brands need to find a way to fit that mold.
2/ The most important element of a Reddit marketing strategy is willingness to LISTEN.
Before you dive in, you want to:
🌸 Learn to separate noise from patterns.
🌸 Contextualize your message for the unique subreddit community.
🌸 Look to add value first.
3/ If you’re worried about trolls, the community does a great job of moderating and downvoting comments that don’t serve the broader convo and just aim to disrupt.
4/ But don’t confuse critics for trolls. People who are taking the time to criticize usually are the people who care about what you’re doing the most.
Even if you don’t have a good answer to share at that time, just acknowledging that you hear them can be hugely helpful.
5/ Sometimes leaving comments enabled, even when the feedback is negative, often presents you w/ an opportunity to become closer to the community through conflict if you treat it that way.
6/ On using Reddit to grow a personal brand:
🌸 Use your skills to give value to a community, rather than asking for attention to be given to you.
🌸 Creating value creates attention.
🌸 Creating attention does not create value.
7/ For business brands, there are two possible inroads: either by creating a profile aka u/ or by creating a community (subreddit) aka r/
Setting up a profile is easier and lets you engage with existing communities.
8/ Setting up a dedicated brand community/subreddit is hard and takes time before you see payoff.
This is because it takes time for a quality community to establish itself and people need to see the value of being there before they begin to engage & advocate for the community.
9/ The other option = ads.
This lets you create an active presence and be discerning about audiences you want to engage with. This route is important for advertisers whose priorities are things like brand safety or reaching new audiences where the brand isn’t yet resonating.
10/ The ultimate goal is to get a community to become self-sustaining and then self-growing.
Good community building strategy questions:
🌸 Who is moderating?
🌸 Who is creating content?
🌸 Who is just showing up?
🌸 What is the value for people to invite others?
11/ Advice for startups looking to use Reddit as part of their marketing strategy:
Figure out which communities your product or service adds value to.
If that's difficult, start with where your brand’s expertise can add value.
12/ For brands looking to deal with crises when communicating with a community:
In times of crisis, looking at what specific communities are saying is a great start to finding ways to support.
Without parsing it like that, things can start to feel really overwhelming.
13/ If this was helpful, here are some other threads I've shared you might like.
🌸 Lessons on Community Building from a 15-Year-Old Content Creator
Looking for a list of business, marketing & thought-provoking books from diverse authors?
Look no further! I've got some great suggestions for you
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1/ Antifragile By @nntaleb 2/ Expect to Win By Carla Harris 3/ The Paradox of Choice By Barry Schwartz 4/ Daring Greatly By @BreneBrown 5/ The Tipping Point By @Gladwell
6/Give and Take By @AdamMGrant 7/ What I Know For Sure By @Oprah 8/ How to Win Friends and Influence People By Dale Carnegie 9/ Future Proofed By Natalia Peart 10/ Thinking, Fast and Slow By Daniel Kahneman
A very quick look at the very different customer strategy of Public vs Robinhood
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So after trading was temporarily halted on #GME#AMC#NOK and the like, stock trading apps Public and Robinhood both started getting slammed with 1-star reviews from angry users who disagreed with the block
However, whereas Robin hood appears to not be directly responding, Public immediately began responding to all reviews - and worked to release trading again via the app before end of day
I asked a few of my favorite Twitter leaders for their thoughts on 2021 trends in business, marketing & social media.
Here's a roundup of what they said in a thread.
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More than ever, people are considering WFH, diversity in the workplace and discovering new passions. These trends are impacting our society, which will require startups and companies alike to focus on building products that make a positive impact on society.
-- @nicolexcaba
The pendulum will swing back to the type of ads that have mass appeal, wide reach, and budgets to support them. Niche ads might work for clicks, but general ads work for building a brand. And brands will optimize more for their brand than for campaign performance.
-- @mkobach
I decided to sign up for a number of new newsletters outside of just the marketing ones I already am subscribed to.
I thought I'd share, in case anyone else was looking for something new!
(I'll keep adding here as I make discoveries or get great suggestions!)
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1. TheChecklist.io by @ThisIsFranzou: tips for first-time entrepreneurs and founders 2. Trapital by @RuncieDan: the intersection of hip hop, business 3. Monomythical by @nayafia: working in public, online communities and how they enable individual creators
4. Trends.vc by @DruRly: a newsletter for 30k+ founders 5. Product Ideas by @jakobgreenfeld: no-nonsense insights on product ideation, evaluation and validation 6. Run It Back by journo Victor Luckerson: research, reporting and writing about neglected Black history