How brands can harness the power of Reddit in their digital strategy
+the importance of establishing your brand niche and the cultural moments | news that caught our attention this week
quick summary ⚡️
What makes Reddit attractive for brands is the communities of passionate users, which often go untapped in digital strategies.
Breaking down how to find your personal brand niche
The top memes of 2023, Google Bard is coming to YouTube and more in the cultural moments and news that caught our attention this week
How often you should be posting to social media
why Reddit should be a part of your digital strategy
Kait Richmond is a writer, producer and contributor to the M.T. Deco Blog
Reddit is a great place for brands to be - if you know how to use it.
A lot of people are mystified by Reddit, but millions more are not. There are 70 million daily active users (Redditors) who are a part of more than 100,000 active communities (Subreddits). Redditors are smart, savvy consumers who can sniff out promotional B.S. faster than your average social media user, so while it can be a tricky platform for brands, the communities there can make it worthwhile.
It’s not exactly thought of as traditional social media, but it has been on the periphery of that conversation as long as it’s been around. Started in 2005, Reddit was built to be “the front page of the Internet.” It does, in some ways, resemble a newspaper, being very text-heavy with photos. Here’s how it works, according to Sprout Social:
Reddit’s algorithm is designed to rank content based on what’s Hot and Best, guided by key signals like:
The number of upvotes, downvotes and total votes it gets. Reddit uses votes as a signal to determine post relevance.
Recent posts gain more traction and visibility. If you’re marketing on Reddit, ensure you consistently post valuable content.
The types of comments it gets. For example, a comment with nine up-votes and two down-votes will rank higher than a comment with one-up votes and no-down votes.
What makes Reddit attractive for brands is the communities of passionate users. The beauty brand Laneige tapped into that this year, seeing opportunity in Subreddits like r/SkincareAddiction, which has 2.5 million members.
“We knew the beauty communities on Reddit are so strong, and that they have a strong affinity toward beauty and skin care,” said Shrija Pandya, senior manager of growth and performance marketing at Laneige, told Glossy. “From a media perspective, we were trying to understand what we could do that was new and innovative and how we could build upon the channels where we have untapped new audiences.”
Laneige partnered with Reddit to use promoted posts and videos across multiple Subreddits with the goal of “promoting brand awareness, purchase consideration and intent.” According to Glossy, Laneige succeeded “with a 50% higher click-through rate than Reddit’s beauty vertical benchmark and a 42% higher video completion rate than Reddit’s beauty vertical benchmark for six-second videos.”
The communities to tap into are endless and although Redditors are not always fans of brands selling directly on the platform, there are plenty of places that drive purchase, like r/BuyItForLife, where there are 1.8 million members.
We know what you’re thinking: you’re intrigued, but not sure where to begin. The first step is to start checking out Subreddits dedicated to your own interests. If you decide to explore further for your brand, here are a few thought starters:
Begin with social listening, because this will further help you learn how Reddit works while gathering useful information along the way.
Reddit is not friendly to salespeople, but if used the right way, it can be friendly to customer service reps. In a blog on how to market on Reddit, Sprout Social put it best: “Arguably one of the best ways to approach marketing on Reddit is to prioritize support over selling.”
If you have a Redditor on your team, let them handle the account. Just make sure that Redditor has a brand-safe history!
more on the MTD blog
creators: specificity is key 🔑🔑🔑
Today we’re talking about WHY and HOW to find your brand niche.
You don’t need us to tell you that competition is fierce. Establishing your niche(s) is what helps your audience find you.
That means you’re not posting about everything under the sun. Keeping yourself narrow might seem like you’re alienating yourself from potential audiences, it actually can have the opposite effect.
Being as specific as possible is important. A couple examples: think less about focusing on wellness broadly [Goop already exists], and be the person who specializes in yoga and smoothies for wellness. Or getting the best rest for wellness. Or optimizing daily routines with dogs for wellness in the northeast of the U.S.
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Need more concrete ideas to get started? Don’t worry, we’ve got you.
Mission. Identify your greater purpose and the ‘why’ behind what you’re doing. You can’t be wrong, but you do need a clear mission.
Content pillars. Content pillars are guardrails to help you create content that makes sense for your brand. We typically advise choosing 5 and generally 2 are obvious and correlate with your business, like product features or latest blog posts, 1-2 are things you can’t help but be passionate about.
Scientific method. Once you begin publishing, become attuned to your analytics and learn what works, and what doesn’t for your audience.
more on the MTD blog
💎cultural gems💎
The cultural moments and news that caught our attention this week:
From babygirl to ‘Barbenheimer’: Here are the most notable memes of 2023 (NBC News). Take a walk down meme-ory lane.
How Google Bard is changing our relationship with YouTube (Jules Terpak). “Bard, Google’s version of Chat GPT, is now integrated into the YouTube platform, meaning you can have a conversation with someone’s video instead of watching it.”
The fantasy of the fun TV dad (NY Times). “‘Bluey’ has been praised for its rare and complex depiction of parents, and Bandit has been commended as an exceptional father… I don’t know how he keeps house, works as an archaeologist and serves as a full-time prop artist to his daughters, but he does it all while only feigning complaint. He is not only a good father — he is a fantasy, one crafted to appeal to adults as much as to children.”
For the lonely, tech offers friendship - at a price (Washington Post). The Washington Post spoke to social media users across age ranges to see how tech impacts their lives and connection to others.
should i post everyday?
There’s a short answer and a long answer to this question.
The short answer we always tell our clients is to post as much as you can while consistently posting high-quality content.
[Easier said than done, we know 🫠]
The long answer is more nuanced and specific to each individual or brand.
For long-term brand building, the most reliable bet is to build a community organically from the ground up with equal focus on both the production and distribution of content. This tends to take longer, and requires a lot of patience in order to cultivate that dream group of people who support you, buy your products, and are invested in all the things you’re doing. You’ve got to prioritize them from the beginning, and hang in there over time. But if you’re up for the task, here’s how:
Start somewhere. Create a 6-month content strategy plan and fully commit to executing it.
Use analytics. Once you’re regularly posting you’ll start to learn a lot about what works and what falls short in creating content. Use your analytics for your site and social platforms to make small adjustments to days, times, and cadence + frequency of content
Audit after 6 months. Once you hit the 6-month mark, do a deep dive into the analytics to understand performance.
Make a long-term plan. Based on the audit, lay out a fresh 6-month, 1-year, and 3-year playbook that you can re-commit to. Continue using analytics and auditing every 6 months, and get the help you need in the areas where you are falling short.
more on the MTD blog