- TechNicole Support
- Posts
- Is Reddit For Weirdos?
Is Reddit For Weirdos?
April 2023
Where’s the spot online that:
1) Got us 1/5 of our Youtube subscribers in 48 hours,
2) Drives traffic to our website every month despite the fact we haven’t shared a direct link in years3) Where Nicole accidentally met Ben?
Yes it is all the same website and yes, that site is Reddit.
And if you think Reddit is where a bunch of weirdos hang out… you might right. There are separate subreddits or communities for cats on pizza boxes, cats in pockets, and ‘purrkour’ which I bet you can guess what that’s about…
And while it can be a fun place to find content about your very niche interests (even your more obscure or grown up ones), it can also be a place where you can drive traffic to your website and build your reputation and connections so a bunch of strangers get to know, like, and trust you. And isn’t that what the internet is all about?
In short, consider this your very short TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read) version of Reddit explained and ways your business can be on this specific but ultimately quite useful social network.
Nicole
Seven Things You Need To Know About Reddit
1) You need an account and you use your account to follow communities called "subreddits.” So r/Entrepreneur is found at reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur where over 2 million people are members includes such content as a marketing case study of Little Nas X, a rant about a business lost over COVID, and a discussion about if cryptocurrency really is entrepreneurship. You can search for subreddits, browse the topics tabs, or let Reddit suggest subreddits to you based on what you look at over time.
2) Subreddits can be opened or closed, highly moderated or less moderated so each one feels different. There might be r/SmallBusiness feels different than r/Entrepreneur which feels different than r/Startup. You might have something you want to discuss that would fit in any of those subreddits but reading the posts and comments there for a bit before you do will give you the vibe, who is there, and how (and if) community guidelines are enforced.
3) Posts and comments on Reddit can be upvoted or downvoted. The most upvoted content goes to the top of the subreddit it’s in and the most upvoted content sitewide goes to the homepage of Reddit for even more people to see. As content you post gets upvoted, you earn ‘karma’, which is points. You can see everyone’s karma points when you click on their profile so people who contribute most to the website are rewarded.
4) There are three tabs to your Reddit: your home screen (a summary of posts from the Subreddits you’ve joined), News (aggregated content from highly upvoted news articles), and Popular (aggregated content from highly upvoted content overall, some news obviously in there). Like every other social media, you can scroll the feed, upvote/downvote content, comment, save posts, or share.
5) Even though videos are popular in terms of upvoted posts, Reddit highly values honesty and community so long text-based posts get a lot more upvotes and appreciation than they do on other platforms.
6) Because of this 'community first’ approach and Reddit really looking down on overly promotional content, maintaining Reddit can take a lot more time compared to other platforms. Spending time in communities making recommendations and comments in addition to mentioning stuff you sell when it works is a great approach. We did this for a company that did custom maps as part of decor so hanging out in r/HomeDecorating, r/BudgetDecor, r/DesignMyRoom, r/CozyPlaces, etc. allowed us to give decorating advice with my client handle and URL visible, which we see from our site drives traffic consistently as people search for and find information threads sometimes months or years after they’ve been started. (See the example above, a top post in the r/Entrepreneur subreddit was posted three years ago!)
7) You can run ads on Reddit, targeted people of certain subreddits or by demographic. A popular format is an AMA (Ask Me Anything) ad where the company posts and keeps comments open for other Reddit users to ask questions and discuss their brand, product, or service.
In short, I was a little nervous when I first joined Reddit about the quality of people I would find but it turns out, just like other places on the internet, you can avoid the terrible corners and find your people there. And when I couldn’t figure out why one of my Youtube videos got more than 20 times the traffic it normally does, I tracked it down to this Reddit post.
In short, if your product or service has any kind of education associated with it and you’re in it for the long haul, Reddit might be sending you traffic and helping you build your reputation for years to come… if you don’t just visit for the cat content. :)
Other Fun Stuff On The Internet
Nicole was featured in this Vox article about influencers scamming with courses. They even gave her pull quote (in case you don’t read the whole thing):
“IF THERE WAS ONE THING THAT ‘WORKED,’ I WOULD TELL YOU WHAT IT IS, MAKE YOU PAY ME $10,000 FOR IT, AND LIE ON A BEACH.”
The NERD Summit went great. Here’s the talk about lead generation ads I gave to a group of web developers and other tech professionals at UMass Amherst in March.
Need to get your digital life cleaned up? We’re doing a virtual pay-what-you-want event (it’s free if you’re a BEC client or member of Anchorspace). Join us for a virtual event on Tuesday May 9 6-8 PM Eastern Standard Time!
The “TikTok bill” we see going through Congress is actually ridiculous (you’re allowed to not like TikTok but this bill is a huge step back in our personal and in our case professional freedoms.) And because we have to laugh so as not to cry, here’s a list of things TikTok could pivot to so Congress will leave it alone from humor site McSweeney’s
If you want some desk-spiration, here’s a website that has pictures and descriptions including a list of software and items different creative people have in their workspace.
