The Ultimate Marketer's' Guide to Reddit

Unless you have been living on an island with no internet access, you must have heard about Reddit from somewhere or the other.

As they call it,

“The Front Page of the Internet”

The Slogan seems interesting, right?

Want to know what Reddit is?

Reddit is basically a social news aggregation, web content rating and discussion forum. It is rated as the 11th most visited website in US. This tells us how popular it has become in the market.

Doesn't it sound the best place to promote your work?

Of course it does.. But don't forget that Redditors do NOT like self-promotion. So you have to be in limits as well.

Don't panic… i know it's a bit confusing that what it is actually about!!

So, here in this post today I am going to take you through all the features that you will come across at Reddit and how can you become a great marketer using them.

Let's Get Rolling with Reddit

Upvote/downvote & Karma Theory:

When you will log on to Reddit, you will observe the two arrows that appear on the title's left side, one facing down and one up. These are the upvotes and downvotes.which redditors give to your links or comments.


Source

A lot of upvotes means that your link or comment is worth reading and that the community has really liked it.

The mix of these upvotes and downvotes is named as Karma. Basically the count which comes after your upvotes and downvotes is your Karma that the Redditors have given you.

Now you'll be coming across two kinds of Karma's. One is Link Karma and the other is Comment Karma.

Of course very easy to judge that the link karma is on the links that you share and the comment karma is on the comments you do on the posts.


Source

Now this is not as easy as it sounds like.

You think you will easily earn these upvotes and karma?

No, my friend, there is a proper strategy behind it. This isn't like Facebook 'Likes' or the Twitter's 'Tweets'.

How to get Upvotes?

Only the quality content will get these upvotes. Redditors are not an easy audience. It requires good content to be able to be popular in their eyes.

These are some straight-forward, authentic and quality-lover kind of people. They will never give you upvotes for free.

You think you can make the Redditors Fool?

You simply can't play with these Redditors. If you are planning to raise your Karma with the help of fake accounts or by making some friends who will keep upvoting, Reddit has a check on that too. It will ban you both. So watch out!

Tips to have a Good Karma:

• Share Quality Links
• Make reasonable comments
• Seek for the Real Upvotes
• Upvote others too, only when you think they deserve that
• Share on the relevant Subreddit to gain more audience

High Karma will make your name a brand itself and then you are good to do strategic self-promotion.

Subreddits

Now the next step is to join the relevant Subreddits. These are the groups on Reddit which have various manin topics of discussion. There are Subreddits on science, IT, Education, fashion and much more.

So, you have to chose the one which suits your niche. Some popular subreddits at Reddit are:

IAMA- This is 'I am A Subreddit'. Here people come and disclose who they are. It'd mostly about strange occupations and habits. You will see some amazing stuff here on this one.

AMA- AMA is 'Ask me anything. At 'IAMA' subreddit you can easily AMA to any professional you want. You simply need to mention AMA followed by a query.

Make your own Subreddit:

You can also form a Subreddit of your own. This can be anything you are interested in.

After you build a certain network, you can easily make up Subreddit, can be something related to your own product.

This can be an awesome chance to direct traffic to your own website and market your own product strategically.

Reddit Gold:

Just like LinkedIn Premium account, Reddit Gold is a Premium account at Reddit.

Remember, this account is not for fun. In fact this will give you a reach at various other perks and opportunities.

Reddit Gold will also give you an access to a super-secret Subreddit along with various benefits.

This account will also provide you many great chances to market your product in unbeatable ways. Because it has a set of most regular Redditors and the most relevant people.

Who is Reddit Best For?

Now, you must be thinking what is the best thing that you should be marketing at Reddit.

The answer is 'Anything', literally anything. Reddit provides you with hundreds of Subreddits talking about almost everything happening in this world.

You will see subreddits on everything you can think of. Be it fashion, be it business, be it science or be it marijuana. You can master anything on Reddit.

But…

Here is the Kicker:

Your purpose at Reddit can be anything, but keep one thing in mind. Do not share spam. Redditors hate it. They hate sharing random stuff just for the sake of promotions.

They dislike self-promotions or spam.

Market anything, join any subreddit but 'share quality links'.

Offering quality and Value should be your priority at Reddit.

Once you do this, you will rock it and be the best.

Not enough?

Being best also includes building a good name in the market and hence directing people towards your product and website.

What's the Bottom Line?

Reddit is basically the best place to get more eyeballs to your website, blog or any other product.

Mostly people are afraid of joining Reddit because they think that the 'freedom of speech' here puts no limit on people and that they can actually be defamed through the kind of language some Redditors use.

But, if you know the tactics to handle criticism, you will simply put this platform on fire.

Because it is really the ideal place to promote your website among the relevant audience!

Bonus infographic:


Source: Prestigemarketing.

This is a guest contribution from Hammad Akbar. He's a tech entrepreneur with a passion for technology and online marketing. He's currently focusing on a new startup TruConversion , a SaaS application in web/mobile analytics space. Follow him on Twitter and Linkedin.