Reddit is probably not your first choice when it comes to your options for digital marketing in Orange County. There’s no doubt that it works a little differently than other traditional marketing platforms. You have your own personal profile and you post your content onto individual subreddits. There is even a subreddit devoted to SEO. As of writing, Reddit is currently the 7th most popular website in the world. 

Here are some tips to get you started on The Front Page of the Internet using SEO on Reddit today:

1. Choosing the right username

Your username will appear as u/(your name here). So, if you’re Edna’s Bakery located in Orange County, you might be known as u/EdnasBakeryOC.  If you are the CEO of your business and you are looking to be a little more personal, you may also choose to use your real name in your username (e.g. EdnaJohnsonBaker). 

2. Selecting subreddits to post on

Sit down and create a list of topics that pertain to your brand or that interest your current audience. If you don’t really have one yet, think about what would likely interest them. Theoretically, you could create your very own subreddit, but this is not recommended unless your brand has enough fans who are on Reddit and willing to post about your business. Many YouTubers and other kinds of influencers have their own subreddits either created and moderated by the individual themselves or by their fans. 

Before we cross that bridge, though, let’s talk about finding subreddits to post on. Consider your industry, your audience, and of course, your voice. For example, if you are a freelance artist looking to drive traffic to your work, you might want to check out r/hireanartist, which has more than 26,000 members. Some communities allow crossposting, so that you can share the same post on similar subreddits. 

Another important note…

Take advantage of this tool as much as you can, but also keep in mind that each community has its own moderators and set of rules. On many other websites, rules in groups can remain consistent throughout the platform, but on Reddit, every moderator is allowed to have their own rules as long as they remain consistent with the site’s terms of service. If you fail to comply with a rule on a particular subreddit, this may result in a permanent ban from a community, even among the first offense.

3. Linking your content to subreddits

Take advantage of linking all of your digital marketing platforms to these subreddits. That means your personal website, your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.! You might want to try re-posting your YouTube or your TikTok videos, as well. Keep in mind, though, that some communities do not allow certain types of media to be posted. Some might be text or links only, while others may allow all forms of content to be shared.

4. Using those keywords

If you know anything about thriving in Orange County marketing yet, then you know all about the importance of researching and selecting the right keywords for your business’ exposure and marketability, so it should be obvious by now to use your keywords in your titles and text body so that they are more likely to show up in a search either on or outside of Reddit (like a top Google search engine result!). You might actually be surprised how often Reddit posts are cached and end up on the front page of Google searches.

5. Be mindful of your language

The Reddit community will probably not respond well to your posts if they are too in-your-face about trying to sell a product or service to them. If you neglect this point, you might find yourself downvoted to oblivion, which will give you negative karma points. If you ever find your karma in the negative numbers, then you are in real hot water. Other users will simply not take you seriously if they see your posts and your comments have a lot of downvotes. 

6. Ask Me Anything!

Once you have an audience, you may want to consider taking advantage of r/AMA. Lots of AMAs are done every day, so they may or may not get buried by more popular posts. In that case, if you already have your very own subreddit with at least 50 members or so, this may be a good idea. It will allow your audience to directly interact with you to ask any questions they’ve been dying to ask you about your brand. This will bridge the gap between you and your consumers, making your interactions within the thread very personable and approachable. Many public figures, even a former U.S. President, have hosted AMAs.

Purchasing Reddit ads

The minimum to start your very own Reddit advertising campaign is $5 per day. This will help you create “promoted” content that will appear on the top of a Redditor’s feed. You can choose from 5 different objectives for your campaign:

• Brand awareness and reach
• Traffic
• Conversions
• Video views
• App installs

You can also set your budget, bid per click, and schedule for your ads, such as the time of the day they will appear on Reddit. You can also control the specific audience your ad will be targeted towards as well as how the preview of the ad will appear to users. If you’re not already a Redditor, even if these sound like excellent optimization tools to use, spending the money on this feature may sound risky because you may not be sure if this is a good idea at all. 

There are many complex steps that go into this process, so we recommend checking out this video to give you a better visual presentation of how you can navigate through the world of Reddit marketing.

Final Thoughts

We personally think Reddit is pretty awesome, but we also understand that it is an acquired taste. It is almost like a different breed of online interaction compared to more popular websites. Drive Traffic Media, a digital marketing agency in Orange County, recommends that you use as many digital marketing outlets as possible to promote your brand, but if you feel one site isn’t working out for you, there’s no shame in changing your digital marketing strategy and moving onto somewhere else where you can excel if you need to.