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New Year, New Newsletter… And Reddit Rebellion

Greetings from Breaking Even, we hope this email finds you well.

We have been plugging along through the turn of the New Year and continued pandemic times. Our newsletter is undergoing some updates, and we look forward to bringing you some interesting information, workshop and training opportunities for your business, and a little something to make you smile.

If you have any questions, comments, or ideas, please reply to this email. Happy to hear from you.

Stay Safe, Nicole, Jane, Patti, Ben, Owen, Sam, and Matt

With Gamestop and other online news, we were inspired to make this month’s theme Reddit, AKA the front page of the internet.

Reddit in the News

You may have seen the news stories about what has happened on Wall Street with the short selling of GameStop shares and the rise of the Redditors in defiance. In short, hedge funds on Wall Street started to short sell GameStop stocks, individual investors gathered in a Reddit community to buy up those stocks at a low price - thus pulling the proverbial rug out from under the hedge funds.

As a result, Reddit has had a moment of spotlight in the news. If you’re interested in learning more about this scenario, Trevor Noah’s explanation is rather entertaining.

At first glance, Reddit could look like an old school forum for anarchists and conspiracy theorists to gather and rail against The Man - but in actuality, it’s a global community of engaged users that make up over 100K niche communities under the Reddit umbrella.

What is Reddit?

Reddit is, simply put, a social media platform. It is quite different from the usual list of social media platforms in that content is contributed to specific communities by individuals with the goal of adding value to the overall. Authenticity and transparency are of the utmost importance to Redditors (users of Reddit), therefore communities are closely monitored by moderators and other users. If internet noise or spammy content is posted, it is very quickly called out by users or taken down by moderators.

Content is voted on (called upvotes or downvotes) by users, so the highest rated content is pushed to the top of the timeline. Posts with the most upvotes quickly move to the top of the timelines - where it is seen first and more widely. This earns Reddit’s name as “the front page of the internet” as their users are active, engaged, and share breaking news links, memes or videos there first. A lot of viral content and trends gain initial traction in Reddit.

Reddit itself is broken down into subreddits - like categories or themed communities. If Facebook relies on friending someone to follow their content, and Instagram allows individual users to post content for all of their followers to see… subreddits are like following a hashtag. There are subreddits/communities ranging from career oriented (r/techstartups) to silly (r/catsvstechnology) to topical (r/TedCruz).

In most cases, anyone can join and post to a subreddit, for other followers of that subreddit to see. Instead of users having their individual streams to post to, it’s more of a collective contribution to group channels. More popular posts will show up on the general Reddit timeline.

Users earn points for their contributions (called karma) and can redeem them for rewards, including ones they can give to other posters. Giving an award can help a piece of content be even more seen on the platform.

Reddit’s Value to Businesses

The transparency and authenticity of Reddit users and content can be valuable to business owners. Redditors are not looking to be the target of marketing, but they will engage with you, share honest opinions, do their research and expect you to do the same. It is a space where you can earn a reputation and a loyal following if you invest time and energy in the community. People come to Reddit to be informed, so the best place you can start is by sharing content relevant to your industry or business. As the business’ karma builds, so does their influence and visibility on Reddit, meaning it takes time to reap the rewards of the platform.

While some subreddits allow you to self promote within their groups, most frown upon promotion. However, you can work with Reddit to purchase paid ads, achieve campaign objectives, reach your target audience, and measure your results. Reddit also shares how the purchase journey of Redditors is unique - Redditors are more informed, make faster purchase decisions, and are more likely to speak positively about the brand.

According to Alexa, Reddit is the 7th most visited site in the US, and 19th in the world. There is a lot of possibility in reaching such a wide and varied audience, if you invest the time to engage authentically. Here’s an example of someone who was in the Reddit community but who posted this and went viral, driving additional sales of her bags:

While some subreddits allow you to self promote within their groups, most frown upon promotion. However, you can work with Reddit to purchase paid ads, achieve campaign objectives, reach your target audience, and measure your results. Reddit also shares how the purchase journey of Redditors is unique - Redditors are more informed, make faster purchase decisions, and are more likely to speak positively about the brand.

According to Alexa, Reddit is the 7th most visited site in the US, and 19th in the world. There is a lot of possibility in reaching such a wide and varied audience, if you invest the time to engage authentically.

Goings On At Breaking Even

From The BEC Blog

Google Analytics can tell you a lot about your website traffic, but there are limits. Join us and special guest James Noble as we talk about alternatives to tracking web stats - and the pros and cons of them.

Read the BEC Blog About Google Analytics Alternatives

BEC Live (Tuesdays at 9:15 AM EST)

In a weekly marketing show, Nicole tackles marketing topics on Facebook and Youtube Live (yes you can watch them after too). This last week was all about TikTok.

Creating Video Content (Upcoming Workshop)

This workshop is tailored for farmers and food entrepreneurs. We will talk about live streaming vs. prerecorded, setting up a video channel on social media, and how small farms are using video to grow their businesses.

Register (Donations for Cooperative Ext Accepted)

We’ve also recently welcomed some new team members hoping to serve our clients better with some diverse skillsets. Owen Baya (son of long term collaborator Matt Baya) is helping us as an intern with research and data entry; Ben Lee joins us with his Silicon Valley tech background and masters in design for some technical heavy lifting; and Patti Mason who owns her own local small business in St. Lawrence County New York joins us with her long form content writing skills.

Celebrating Client Victories

As part of our work with the Adirondack North Country Association last year, we worked with one farm to set up an online ordering system (via Google Form) and made some improvements to their Squarespace website. (Because of the nature of their product AKA pricing by weight, it didn’t make sense to have the form take payment).

We just found out they now have 2 part time people to help fulfill orders and ofter get over 100 orders per week!

Sometimes a few improvements and some good marketing can make a big difference, talk to us about what your business is trying to do and we might be able to help!

Did You Know?

Saturday, February 20th, is Love Your Pet Day! A perfect excuse to spend some quality time with your beloved furry (or scaled, feathered, or finned) friends.

Did you know that most American households own at least one pet? According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, 38.4% of US households own dogs, 25.4% have feline pets, 2.8% feathered bird friends, and 0.7% horses.

For Your Entertainment

Because we’ve all done a wardrobe change for a Zoom meeting at this point, right?

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