Should I Be On Reddit?
Ah, Reddit. It's notoriously difficult to describe, yet continues to be a social hub for millions of users each and every day. With that kind of traffic, bloggers and business owners want a piece of the traffic pie. But, how? How does the site work? What does a good post look like? Although Reddit is a little tricky, it's definitely one of the best ways to draw in engaged, active readers.
What is Reddit?
Reddit is a user-generated content site in which individuals post links or text about different topics. Reddit is broken down into smaller groups called subreddits, which cover specific topics. There's a subreddit for everything. Seriously. Here are a few you might like:
The best way to understand how Reddit works is to check it out. As an avid user who spends far too many hours per day on the site, it's gone from a place for purely personal amusement to professional networking and career development. Seriously. It's not all cat pictures.
Here's a screen capture of the Reddit homepage.
Look at the homepage. It's a gray screen with blue links paired next to up and down votes. People post links or text, and others comment and/or upvote or downvote. That's about it. Read, rate, and move on.
How can Reddit help my business?
Well, it takes a special touch. Redditors tend to be the good internet trolls. People can be harsh and cutting, which is sometimes good but mostly discouraging. They always appreciate authentic, honest engagement. If they visit your user overview page and all they see is a cascading list of self-promotion, you're out. You won't get upvotes, you won't get traffic, you won't do well.
If, on the other hand, you share your stuff alongside that of others, you'll do well. Interact, read, comment, upvote, and become part of the Reddit world before throwing in your links.
Personally, I do not share each of my latest posts with Reddit. Some just won't get much traction whereas others will do incredibly well. In fact, some of my highest traffic rates across all of my websites come right from Reddit.
Here are a few questions to answer before posting on Reddit:
- Have I read the subreddit rules (on the sidebar)?
- Is this really the best place to post this?
- Is this link purely promotional?
- What sort of benefit does this link offer readers of this subreddit?
- Have I posted other links like this lately?
- Have I interacted with the Reddit community?
- Have I shared links from other sites lately?
One of the newest and most promising subreddits is r/BlogTraffic, which is one of the only places on the site you can post links to your blog and articles purely for critique and blogger insight.
The best part about Reddit is that, if you do it right, you can draw in traffic from the best kind of audience: people already vetted for their interest. Have a cooking blog? Share recipes on different cooking subreddits and you'll get views from people interested in cooking. It's that simple. It's that awesome!
Do you use Reddit for business and/or pleasure? What have your experiences been like?