Do You Need Reddit for Business?

By Kiril V. Kirilov

Reddit is not the most popular social network among content marketers despite their plans to go public at valuation of $1.8 billion. On the other hand, Reddit ranks among the top ten most popular websites which is a force to consider when planning a branding strategy.

They have some 250 million users, according to their site. Reddit ranks fourth in popularity in the United States, just behind Google, YouTube and Facebook. In 2008, their website featured just about 10,000 specialized forums, or subreddits, where professionals and the average Joe and Jane shared news, opinions, and insights on specific topics. Now, the site has close to 1.2 million subreddits and a good number of Americans use it as a primary news source.

More than two-thirds of Reddit users, or 78 percent, get news on the site, according to a survey by Pew Research Center. That makes Reddit a perfect candidate for a role in any content marketing and branding strategy. Furthermore, some 48 percent of their user base boasts a college degree and 42 percent of Reddit news users report income over $75,000 a year.

You should have in mind, however, that Reddit news users are mostly white and liberal - 74 percent and 47 percent, respectively. This is an important demographics statistics for any marketer or branding expert to consider since there are brands that prefer a more conservative audience. Another important finding in the Pew Research survey is that 47 percent of Reddit users are online almost all of the time, compared with only 21 percent of all U.S. adults.

What is more important, though, is Reddit users are passionate and until recently the loosened Reddit posting rules allowed very heated discussions that went viral in hours. They have adopted stricter rules for what is allowed and what not in a discussion on their site; nonetheless, Reddit is still a place for active professional debates. This, in turn, makes their platform a good place to build your professional reputation as a brand - if you have what to say, of course.

Armed with the above statistics, you can easily see that Reddit is suitable as a tool to promote a startup, not an established brand. With their users actively seeking discussions and provocation, an established company will hardly find an appropriate subreddit to post their content.

In contrast, newly emerging companies that have the advantage of little to no corporate history - and prejudice toward their activity - can build expert reputation by providing insights and valuable information on a wide selection of Reddit forums.

With some 1.5 billion monthly visits and ranking in the top 30-40 sites in the world, according to SimilarWeb, Reddit is a force to reckon with. You should be aware of their specifics, though, and not enter their subreddits with a traditional and/or conservative content marketing and branding strategy in mind.

Plan a provocative strategy built upon participation in heated professional discussions where you can benefit from your expertise. Make it simple but persistent since many Reddit users follow a subforum for years and do not use cheap advertising tricks before an audience comprising mostly high-educated and high-income users.

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