Reddit social listening 101: your complete guide

Reddit is perhaps the most underrated social media platform known to marketers. It has, for years, lived under the shadows of the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Today, Reddit is undoubtedly a treasure trove of consumer and audience insights, making Reddit social listening a must-have for any marketer serious about their brand.

What is Reddit?

Reddit relies on user generated content (UGC), where users post links to interesting articles, article posts, pictures/videos and polls under different categories that are called subreddits.

You may have heard of Reddit mentioned in connection with the r/WallStreetBets community and GameStop earlier this year.

Instead of getting into an intellectual debate on whether Reddit is a social network or a forum (it is both), it is easier to understand that Reddit is a place where communities get together with great affinity, to the point of mobilization.

Despite Reddit's impressive traffic and engagement figures, marketers for the most part are overlooking it. This is great news for you, because you get to have one more resource where a lot of others aren't looking.

It's safe to say, ignore Reddit at your own peril.

Why is Reddit monitoring important?

Reddit's harder stance against commercial content has kept it as a refuge for users, where the discussions are theirs and not a part of a brand's content marketing strategy.

Reddit has impressive usage figures

Reddit is the 19th most popular site on the Internet, according to Alexa Rank. It is the 7th most popular in the United States, 3rd in Great Britain, and 25th in India.

Reddit also boasts 52 million daily active users (Reddit, 2020), with half of those users coming from the US alone. Reddit users are engaged, spending an average of 10 minutes on each visit.

One of the reasons Reddit did not devolve into a content marketing cesspool much like Quota, is that subreddits are moderated by users. It is a great example of how netizens can self-regulate to keep the noise to signal ratio low.

Reddit posts are indexed by Google

The fact that Google indexes Reddit makes the posts on it persistent, which is not how Google and other search engines treat social media platforms. This is why people can argue and debate whether Reddit is a social network or not.

But more importantly for us, persistent posts means they are going to show up in search results. We all know the importance of SEO and social media marketing but there are few things more important than listening to your customers. The fact that Google indexes Reddit posts is nothing more than icing on the cake.

In fact, when doing SEO research, we found that there is a new trend now where users add 'reddit' to their search so they can find more trustworthy posts.

Users trust Reddit content

We are currently experiencing some of the lowest trust levels in news media and other outlets on a global scale. According to a recently released Digital News Report 2021 by Yougov, only 29% of Americans trust the news.

Those are indeed concerning findings, which is why we can expect that there will be a lot more currency in trust moving forward. Reddit is one of the least mistrusted social networks and one of the most trusted.

So when someone posts about your brand or service on Reddit, there is a significant trust stock assigned to it.

What is the best Reddit social listening tool?

Understanding Reddit social listening tools is one thing but you need to know what tools to use to reap the rewards. Here are some of the best tools that you can take advantage of right now.

Using Reddit's own search

Reddit offers a rudimentary search that is surprisingly decent, but with only post time as a filter. This is great for ad-hoc searches, but this is not practical for on-going active social listening on Reddit.

Keep in mind that when you're searching on Reddit, you are searching across the following:

• Subreddit posts
• Users
• Comments

Reddit's web interface makes it easy to switch between those categories to find what you're looking for.

Alerts for Reddit

If you're looking for a reliably consistent way to pull data from Reddit, based on a granular search query then you have found your social media monitoring tool right here.

One of the keys to social listening is getting notifications whenever there is a new mention or post that you're searching for. At SOCIALHOSE, creating alerts is as simple as dragging your feed and deciding on the frequency of your alerts.

Additionally, you can also export the results to an RSS that you can incorporate within your intranet or websites.

Marketing on Reddit

As tempting as it can be, our advice to you is to not do it. Redditers are fiercely anti marketing and promotional material and will quickly downvote you into oblivion. I know, you're thinking “I can be subtle”. I will tell you once again, do not underestimate Reddit and Redditers.

So what can you do other than Reddit monitoring?

Treat Reddit as an extension of your customer support

Your customers are on Reddit talking and praising or complaining about your brand. To really master Reddit social listening, you need to learn to engage with them in the places where they're voicing their opinions. You know that you are in a place where promotion is frowned upon, but being helpful is what is expected and desired. People turn to Reddit every day for answers and who better to get the answer or support from than the company they're inquiring about. This will not only boost your brand but it may help you retain a customer or client you may have otherwise lost.

You can create a company account for Reddit to act as support. Alternatively, you can also use personal accounts to engage with customers. This is especially true for non-support related interactions, because a company account will not sit very well if it's not just offering support.

Run a Reddit AMA session

Many brands and celebrities have held Ask Me Anything events on Reddit. While the cost is $0, it takes a substantial amount of preparation to successfully execute an AMA session.

When deciding on conducting an AMA session, do consider the following:

• Which subreddit to hold AMA session? Targeting based on audience size alone is not enough to achieve optimal engagement.
• Are you a high interest subject? If you're not, you may be disappointed with the results.

Reddit is a tough nut to crack

Reddit isn't the easiest place for marketers to use, but it has an incredible potential that is waiting to be unlocked. I'd like to think of it as the Internet's best kept public secret.

The best way to start is by first listening. Reddit tracking is easy and cost effective. At SOCIALHOSE, you can start Reddit monitoring with as little as $1 per search query.

Have a competitive advantage and start Reddit social listening today.