With over 1.5 billion registered users, there’s no question that Reddit has become the go-to platform for virtual communities.
Users, or Redditors, come from all walks of life, which is why you’re sure to find a community made for you.
Whether you’re a crypto bro, parents looking for advice, a stanning fanboy/girl, or someone who just needs a friend, you can easily join relevant subreddit groups.
And, on the rare chance that there’s no active community on Reddit, users can make their own Subreddits.
If you’re wondering how to build a community online, Reddit is simply the best way to go.
Whether you’re an investment analyst who’s interested in market trends, a gamer searching for the latest trick, or a tech junkie who wants the juicy details about the latest iPhone release, Reddit has a community for you.
Reddit is a unique social platform that brings people together around common topics of interest. These groups are called ‘Subreddits’, which is basically a fancy name for “communities.”
If you’ve never tried using Reddit, you’re likely skeptical that creating a Subreddit will help grow your brand, right?
Well, in theory, Reddit should be a marketer’s dream, but many companies often overlook the platform. While you may have found it difficult to grow your brand on Reddit, don’t give up! It may be that you need to simply adjust your Reddit strategy so that you can reach Reddit’s user base of 430 million users.
If you’re unsure whether or not to use Reddit, we’ve got you covered. This article will show you the benefits of using an online community to grow your brand and how to make a Reddit community. We’ll also teach you how to create a new subreddit so that you can build a community on Reddit.
Benefits of community building on Reddit
While using Reddit communities may be a hard sell for those who have tried the platform and failed, it can prove beneficial for businesses or individuals who understand how to use Reddit to reach their customers and build their brand.
That’s why you should consider using a reddit marketing agency – like ours – that you can trust 🙂
Here are some of the benefits of using Reddit to build a community for your brand:
1. Customer research and analysis
As a member of a subreddit, you’ll be able to interact with the other members of that subreddit community. Whether you’ve created a new subreddit or joined an existing subreddit that’s relevant to your business, you’ll be able to use Reddit for market research and customer analysis.
Within a subreddit, you can click on other members to view their Reddit profiles. Once you’re on their profile, you can view other posts that the user has liked or disliked to gain an understanding of what your target audience enjoys.
You can also view their comments on your competitor’s posts to see what they’re saying about your competition. This information will help you analyze your potential customers and help you avoid any mistakes that your competition has made in the past.
2. Competitor research and analysis
The beautiful thing about Reddit is that you can remain anonymous while you use the platform. You can utilize this anonymity to research your competitors and analyze what they’re doing to build a Reddit community.
Once you’ve identified your competitors on Reddit, you’ll want to look at their Reddit profile to see which subreddits they’ve joined. You’ll also want to look at their comments and likes to see how they’re interacting with their current customers or potential customers that you’d like to reach with your business.
After you’ve researched and analyzed your competition, you can use your brand’s Reddit account to join the same relevant subreddits as your competition. Once you’ve been approved as a member of those subreddits, you can begin competing for your competitors’ customers and other potential customers within the subreddit.
3. Gain consistent brand exposure
One of the many benefits of using Reddit is that you can consistently gain brand exposure from potential customers. As of 2021, Reddit has 430 million users, with around 52 million members using Reddit every day. This goes to show that Reddit is an active platform, loved by its users.
The average Reddit user also spends above 10 minutes per visit on Reddit. This means that every time a member opens the Reddit app or logs into Reddit on their desktop, they’ll spend above 10 minutes scrolling through the subreddit communities that they’ve joined and exploring new subreddits that they can join.
As a brand, you can utilize the time Reddit members spend on the platform every day. By actively engaging in the right subreddits, you can place your brand and content in front of the most interested people in what you have to offer. Being active in relevant subreddits can position your brand in front of countless users daily.
4. A unique customer reach
If you’re looking to grow your brand through an online community, you’ll want to consider using Reddit. Instead of using traditional methods to gain online traction, such as Facebook ads, you’ll be able to grow a community around your industry and attract other users that are interested in what you have to say.
One of the benefits of using Reddit instead of PPC ads is that it’s cheaper than paying for ads. With ads, you’ll need to pay for your impressions. However, with Reddit, you’ll be able to get your content in front of your subreddit audience for free once you’ve built your Reddit community.
While it will take time for you to build a Reddit community, you’ll never have to worry about paying for ads so that the users can see your brand. This free advertising provides a unique and cost-effective way of reaching your customers and gaining exposure for your business.
5. Honest feedback and free focus groups
Another benefit of building a community on Reddit is that the users on the platform are brutally honest. Since most users can remain anonymous, they don’t feel afraid to share their true feelings and opinions.
Your brand can take advantage of this blatant honesty and use any feedback as a free focus group. Instead of paying people to review your brand, products, or services, you’ll simply have to begin posting about your brand on Reddit and get feedback that’s free and unabashedly truthful.
If the users on Reddit love your product, then they’ll be sure to share the love with your brand’s Reddit profile. But, on the other hand, if they hate what you’re saying or have to offer, then you can expect to get some of the harshest criticism that you’ve ever experienced.
While many brands may not be ready for honest feedback about their products or services, direct feedback can help you fix your mistakes and make your target audience happier with your brand.
6. A community helps your brand
When you take the time to build a community on Reddit, you’ll be helping to build your brand. While it may seem like you’re just posting content and answering questions that community members have asked, you’re setting up your brand for future success by helping other people.
First off, you’re setting up your brand as the expert within your industry. Every time you answer someone’s questions, they may take your advice and use it, which builds trust with your customers. Also, when future customers begin to ask the same questions, they’ll be able to find the Reddit threads where you answered the question for a different customer, saving you a lot of time.
As you’re answering your customers’ questions, you can also direct them to your services or products as the ‘solution’ to their problems. This strategy will help you boost your brand and grow sales through Reddit.
Once the customers have used your products or services to solve their problems, you can be sure that they’ll leave feedback. This free feedback will act as a focus group on your own brand.
In the end, if the customers found that their problems were solved, they’ll often leave a success story within the thread. This feedback can help future customers see that other people found success through your brand, resulting in more sales. However, if the customer’s problems weren’t solved, then this can have a negative impact on both current and future users.
Whether you receive glowing success stories or harsh criticism, they can all work to better your brand and drive sales in the future, as long as you continue to help your customers and fix any problems they may have encountered with your brand.
How to build a community through subreddits
Now that you understand the benefits of building a community on Reddit, it’s time to take Reddit by storm and learn how to build an online community so you can grow your brand on Reddit.
While it may seem like a daunting task to build a Reddit community, it’s fairly simple if you understand what you’re doing. Here are some tips for creating a new subreddit and building a Reddit community.
1. Join relevant subreddit groups
When you’re starting out on Reddit, you won’t be able to create a new subreddit for your brand right away. Instead, you’ll need to create a Reddit profile and begin earning ‘karma,’ which is the Reddit reward system for posting high-quality content.
Once you’ve earned enough karma, and your account is old enough, you’ll be able to launch your amazing new subreddit.
To earn karma, you’ll need to become a member of subreddit groups and begin posting high-quality content that’s relevant to the subreddit community. Then, if the other members within that subreddit community enjoyed your posts, they’d upvote your post, which earns karma for your Reddit profile.
When you join relevant subreddit groups, you’ll also find other Reddit users who may be interested in joining your online community once you create a new subreddit for your brand.
2. Be an active Reddit user
For Reddit users to care about what you have to say about your brand, you’ll need to join their conversation and become an active Reddit user. You must become a trusted member of the Reddit community if you want them to value your opinion.
While it may be tempting to create a new subreddit and begin posting branded content, you’ll want to avoid this mistake. Instead, you’ll want to start by joining other people’s discussions, adding interesting or informative comments, upvoting other members’ posts, and resharing valuable content from other creators on Reddit.
Subreddits let you build online communities around a topic you and others are interested in. It’s a great way to connect with like-minded people while getting various opinions.
By being an active member, you’ll become recognized within your subreddit groups. Your activity will also earn you karma, which can show other Reddit members that you’re an expert within your industry and a trusted member of Reddit.
Certain subreddit groups may require a minimum amount of karma for you to join their online community or post. For example, some subreddit groups use this rule to remove Reddit users who are too new or post spammy content that never gets upvotes. By having an active account and earning karma, you’ll be able to join exclusive subreddits that are relevant to your brand.
As you gain more karma, your account will also be viewed as more authoritative than other Reddit users. This will make it more likely that other Reddit users will want to join your online community. Redditors tend to enjoy subreddits that are moderated by authoritative users.
3. Create a new subreddit for your brand
In order for you to create a new subreddit, you’ll be required to possess about 50 karma (the exact number is unknown) and have been an active Reddit user for over 30 days. Once you’ve passed these requirements set out by Reddit, you’ll be able to create a subreddit.
As you’re creating a subreddit, you’ll want to choose a community name that’s relevant to your brand. This will ensure that other Reddit users will be able to find your subreddit when they’re searching for new subreddit communities to join.
You should always remember that once you’ve created a subreddit, you won’t be able to change the name for the subreddit community because the name is permanent. You also can’t delete a subreddit after you’ve created a new subreddit. So while you’ll be able to leave the subreddit community, it will never be deleted.
4. Cross-posting to relevant subreddits
One of the ways that you can grow your subreddit is by cross-posting content from one subreddit group to another similar subreddit group. This will expose your subreddit group to the users of another subreddit group and give them a chance to join another subreddit group that’s similar to the ones they’ve already joined.
While it may seem confusing to cross-post content, it’s pretty easy. Here’s how:
- Click on the original post in your subreddit community.
- Click on the ‘share’ button right below the post.
- Select the ‘crosspost’ option.
- Click ‘Choose a Community’ and select a relevant subreddit.
- Click on ‘post’ to have your content shared with the selected subreddits.
The process is a simple way for you to share high-quality content with other Reddit users. However, remember to only cross-post content to relevant subreddits, or you may get kicked out of your subreddit for violating the community guidelines.
For example, if you owned a car dealership with mechanic services, you may want to join subreddit groups such as r/Autos or r/Cars in order to find other car enthusiasts. If you’re looking to sell more auto parts online, or promote your mechanic services then you could monitor a subreddit such as r/MechanicAdvice. Cross-posting allows you to promote your services as the solution to the problems that other members are experiencing.
5. Post high-quality content
Once you’ve begun cross-sharing content from your subreddit to other online communities, you’ll find that you’ll have Reddit users checking out your subreddit. This can be exciting, but the work isn’t done.
If you want your subreddit to grow, you need these users to join your subreddit.
A simple way to encourage other Reddit users to join your subreddit is by posting high-quality content that’s relevant to their specific interests. If they come to your subreddit and find mediocre content, they will likely leave and never return.
As a moderator in your subreddit, you’ll also need to stay on top of the content that other Reddit users are sharing and cross-posting within your subreddit. After all, if you want to grow your subreddit, you’ll need to build an online community around a topic that the users enjoy.
How to grow a subreddit
What’s excellent about Reddit is that you’ll always find someone with a different opinion playing devil’s advocate, a must to enrich the discussion.
Are you interested? If you’re thinking of making a subreddit, read ahead on how to grow a subreddit!
Creating (and subsequently building) an active subreddit can be a bit tricky. And this is coming from Redditors that have been on the platform for years.
In theory, creating subreddit takes a few seconds but there is so much more to that if you want to succeed and make something out of it.
Good graphics can make a good impression
Creating your own subreddit is easy once your Reddit account meets the requirements. The real challenge begins with maintaining and growing your new subreddit.
First things first, presentation matters. Put some effort into your new subreddit’s banner, icons, and other media.
Good images and photos are often the first things that greet potential community members. If you want to make a good impression, then it’s time to work on your skills in graphic design.
A good impression is likely to lead Reddit members to join your subreddit group.
Make It “meatier’ with content
Photos and images give potential community members an idea of what your subreddit is about, but these won’t be enough to work with. That’s why the next thing you need is content.
Pay special attention to your subreddit’s description—think of this part as the short spiel you pitch to strangers who come by your club’s booth.
No, not a blog post. A short, substantial, and friendly description should catch Redditors’ interests. Don’t wait for other users to fill up your subreddit with posts!
Potential community members might end up browsing an empty or bare subreddit—nothing exciting about that. You can’t exactly grow a new subreddit with no content at all.
Post enough content to get users interested in your subreddit and to get users to interact with your subreddit’s contents. You want people to go from passive spectators to reddit users interacting in your subreddit.
When you’re trying to brainstorm for a reddit post, think of what content the average reddit user would pause to look at.
You can boost your reddit posts with the right image to capture everyone’s attention. Redditors might even return the favor by replying with an image that fits into the thread.
Replies can be a good indicator of a subreddit community that’s growing well.
(Insider tip: Memes are the best way to engage your community!)
Moderate your community
As the subreddit creator, you are also its moderator. You’ll need to put on the big boy hat and enforce some rules. Multiple violations can cause your subreddit to be moderated or worse, banned.
Yes, being a stickler for rules is a stick in the mud. After all, they do ruin the fun. However, rules are also there to bring order to the chaos that will be your subreddit.
Trust us. From experience, you’ll need them to manage your community. A chaotic subreddit is not always a thriving subreddit.
Some rules are already a given: harassment and bullying are complete no-nos, be respectful to your fellow community members, etc.
You may also enforce specific regulations that are unique to your community. For starters, a two-week spoiler ban can be placed on subreddits about shows, movies, or books.
Sniff around your subreddit to see if some active members want to work with you to create these community guidelines. There’s no problem with working solo on your subreddit’s rules too.
Whichever option you pick, you definitely need to have a good grasp of your reddit community, and the only way to do that is to interact with them.
Consistent presence
Last but not least, make your presence felt. Whether this is through gently enforcing rules or participating in your subreddit discussions, your community needs to see and feel that you’re there.
Reddit users have to go from being just “other reddit users” to being people part of your reddit community.
Your subreddit community doesn’t grow only from solo effort, nor will it grow with just community engagement. Moderators and subredditors must work hand in hand to grow an active subreddit.
When you talk to other Redditors, you see what they want to get from your subreddit. Maybe some users are part of your community to make friends?
Other users might be there to post questions or to help answer questions. Some might be part of your subreddit to share their own knowledge and tips.
You’ll only get to find out if you try to talk to your members. This is especially important with new subreddits.
Your community will likely start small, which is why every interaction with every user can contribute to building a stable, long-term community. It also creates more traffic for your online community.
Taking the time to contribute to a discussion or answer a user’s inquiries are green flags showing how your subreddit is active and will keep being active in the future. And that’s what users generally want: an online community they can participate in.
Members of your community can proudly tell other subreddit communities, “Hey, our subreddit’s really active, and the mod’s super nice and chill.” Now that’s a good marker for a successful subreddit.
Get used to a new routine
Unfortunately, your work doesn’t end there. As much as we’d like to tell you that you can now rest and wait for Redditors to come in, you still have to invest a lot of time.
Once your new subreddit starts growing, it will keep on going! Working out a regular routine can help you out.
This routine could include tasks like uploading and approving posts, participating in discussions, looking at upvoted posts, etc.
Remember, you must be consistent with your presence because users are on Reddit to converse in relevant subreddit groups. As much as many users try to deny it, Reddit has become similar to a social media platform.
People come in to socialize, and that’s what you must give to your subreddit followers.
Find the right team
There’s always a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Growing a subreddit may sound complicated, but it can really pay off in the long run. For individuals, this can come in the form of a tight-knit social circle, a group of friends you can steadily rely on, and a source of entertainment.
For brands, however, the payoff is a bit more valuable. An active subreddit presence can increase brand awareness, loyalty, and even conversions.
It also provides an additional communication channel for companies to interact with their current customers directly.
Similar to having an online presence on Facebook, appearing on relevant subreddits increase one’s visibility. With the right moderator and strategy, you can even promote discourse and casually lead Redditors to your sales funnel.
FAQs
Does it cost money to make a subreddit?
It does not cost any money to create a subreddit! Creating and building a subreddit is a great way to build a community, perform market research, and get product feedback for free!
How do I create a successful subreddit?
Creating a successful subreddit takes time and energy, as well as implementing the tactics we’ve outlined in this article. Over time, interested Redditors will come to your subreddit, and if you are providing value to the community, subscribe and become an active participant!
How do I get more traffic on my subreddit?
The best way to get more traffic on your subreddit is to post interesting, engaging, value-adding content, and share that content to other, similar subreddits where your ideal members might be browsing! If they like the content, they will check your subreddit to see more, and hopefully subscribe!
Summary
With Reddit being home to over 400 million users, it seems logical that you should be using the platform to build an online community for your brand. While it may seem challenging to create a thriving subreddit, Soar can help with subreddit development.
If you’d like to grow your brand through Reddit, you can Schedule a Call with our team.
Take a second to check out how we hacked 18,335 site visits in 1 day with Reddit and consider if that kind of traffic and community would help skyrocket your brand!
The Soar team will work with you and help you create and grow a subreddit community around your brand. We’ll collaborate with you to plan the future of your subreddit, take care of all the hassle for you and fill your subreddit with engaging content that’s relevant to the interests of your subreddit community.
So what are you waiting for? Reach out today and let’s get you up and running!