Reddit is a great tool for driving massive traffic toward a story or site. It’s not perfect for all web marketers, but used in the right way, it can be a powerful method to get the word out about your brand to a huge audience.

The thing to be aware of with reddit is using it purely to promote or push a product. Reddit users are smart, savvy and skeptical, and are just waiting to pounce on a pushy sales pitch, which will either get you blacklisted or result in a waste of time and money on your part.

But with the right tactics, you can tap into their network of around two billion unique page views per month! That is some serious traction. The trick is knowing what content will do well on reddit. Here’s how to submit your content to reddit and get the right attention for it.

Set Up an Account

The first step in submitting is to create your reddit handle by setting up an account. Use something that reflects you or your brand for your handle so that when you do end up driving lots of views, people relate it back to you.

Submit a Link

The next step is to key in the link that you want to promote. A form will pop up asking you to enter the link and give it a title. Make sure the title is as interesting and descriptive as possible. Be sure it is compelling enough that users who are scrolling through hundreds of links each day will actually pause and glance at it. As for the link, make sure to enter the entire thing, not a shortened version; otherwise, people will assume that it is spam and scroll past it.

Choose a Subreddit

Subreddits are categories that users can use to filter content. Make sure you are posting to a relevant subreddit but not one that is too narrow. As long as your subreddit has over 20,000 readers, you’ll have a better chance of your post being seen. Choose one that places your post into a searchable category with users who will genuinely be interested in what you are posting.

Good Reddit Content

Certain things succeed on reddit and certain other things fail miserably. As a rule of thumb, you want to avoid anything generic, anything too self-promotional and anything you have posted previously – reddit users don’t like to see the same content regurgitated. Alternatively, things that do well on reddit are: infographics, interviews, videos and questions. You want to present material in a way that will generate upvotes and comments; both of these will play a hand in making your post more popular. Make sure you understand the commenting community – they are going to be slightly different for every subreddit. And remember, the reddit community at large is smart, savvy and skeptical. They love sarcasm, humor and are weary of phoniness and self-promotion.

Reddit is a great tool to use in conjunction with other marketing tactics. If you can find the right audience for what it is you’re promoting, it can become very successful within the reddit community. With a mindful and cautious approach, you have a great chance of making a story go viral.

Tweetables

  1. Reddit is a great tool to use in conjunction with other marketing tactics.
  2. Understand the commenting community – they are going to be slightly different for every subreddit.
  3. The reddit community at large is smart, savvy and skeptical.