Reddit: instructions for use

Reddit.com, the so-called social news site that combines the characteristics of a social network and news portal, has been attracting the attention of SEO experts from all over the world for the past few years thanks to its dizzying attendance and full accessibility. Russian-speaking users have no reason to stand aside, so I invite everyone to a small workshop on the most effective use of this platform for promotion.


To begin to outline the principles of this site.

Like any large, popular and relatively open platform, reddit was doomed to attract the especial interest of spammers, SEO specialists, building external links, and other subjects who urgently need to show something to a wide audience. Usually, this problem is solved on sites in two ways: firstly, by hard filtering of registered visitors "at the entrance" (checking IP on spammers' databases, ingenious captcha for general erudition), secondly, by not less hard moderation for those who passed the initial face -control. The administration of reddit arrived more wittily. She actually came to terms with the fact that users would place a certain amount of advertising on their resource and entered into an agreement with them so that everything, at least, would happen on their terms. Do you want to use the site to lure people to your page? Well, but be kind enough to compensate advertising with ten-time thematic posts. Many probably remember the anti-spamming system that has been used in many forums, when a new member was allowed to add a link to the post only after ten posts approved by the moderators. Reddit, in fact, operates on the same principle, only on an ongoing basis.
')
However, this method works on quantity, without guaranteeing the quality of the content. To control the latter, reddit provides the community with self-regulation to a certain extent. In addition to the moderators of individual sabreddits with the authority to introduce additional rules and remove the posts of violators, there are also a lot of ordinary users, each of whom can vote "for" or "against" any post. In total, the number of votes for all the posted content is the so-called “karma” of the redditor, which determines whether any restrictions will be imposed on it. So, if the materials that you share, do not cause much enthusiasm in a particular sabe, with the next attempt, you may see a polite warning that you have to refrain from posting for a while.

In other words, to get stable traffic with reddit, you need to generate a large amount of content and have some weight in the community. All this implies an investment of time and, of course, a more or less meaningful approach, rather than a mechanical, automated algorithm. The reddit security system is not perfect, but it identifies and neutralizes mailer robots without problems. Therefore, if your strategy focuses on mass and low effort, it is better not to start. But if you are ready to work on the result - how to get to the point?

I settled on reddit.com for a long time and had the opportunity both to try out my own methods of promotion and to observe others in action. If we talk about free promotion, then the majority of people choose one of two main approaches.

The first of them is relatively safe, but it requires patience and does not give the result immediately. It is suitable for people who first of all want to create a name for themselves and are less concerned with attracting traffic. Their strategy is based on positioning itself as a manufacturer or openly distributor of a product. Someone might think that opening their cards this way is a bad idea, but no: usually it only adds to such users the advantages of karma, if not real, then metaphorical. The public on reddit prefers sincerity. These are people who over the years of Internet surfing have become accustomed to the fact that advertisers see them as potential consumers, and have long learned to recognize the usual tricks that are used in such cases. Therefore, in full compliance with the policy of the administration, they are more willing to accept an advertiser who does not try to disguise and hide his intentions - but, of course, with the condition that he will keep within the boundaries of the sites specially created for these purposes.

For example, take the scope of activities with which I am most familiar with the nature of activities - the development of mobile applications. Reddit has dozens of gamedev communities where developers get together to discuss their projects, ask for help and simply show the world step by step how their product is produced (/ r / GameDev, / r / playmygame, / r / indiegaming, / r / devblogs) you really high-quality long-term project, which may cause interest, these subs - a good opportunity to get a loyal audience even before its launch. Show your achievements and teasers, actively participate in discussions, give advice and do not forget to ask them sometimes. In a word, use nine fillers to draw attention to yourself as a developer - then people will be much more susceptible to the tenth advertising post. Many developers create a blog for news and detailed in-processes on the side and simply post posts that redirect users to it. This is reasonable - redditors use links to links, in general and in general, more readily than paragraphs of text, especially since images cannot be embedded in the latter. Although there are also subs that are more focused on discussions, in which reference posts are viewed with suspicion. This is also a word about the inadmissibility of the mechanical approach - be prepared to adapt your content to the statutes of each particular monastery.

This method is more time consuming, but it guarantees quality traffic and, even more valuable, makes the product recognizable. Of course, in this situation, your account becomes, let's say, “branded”, and it will no longer be possible to switch to another, more assertive way of promotion - it can repel newly acquired fans and cause serious damage to the image.

Well, what if you are not ready to play the role of a sociable developer? What if traffic interests you and as quickly as possible? Then the time has come for plan B, which implies promotion on behalf of an ordinary user — a game that is more risky and in something equally complex.

To begin with, I think we need to outline the perspectives. Reddit is deceptive because it gives very, very impressive results right now - a trial post with an intriguing headline can collect hundreds, if not thousands of clicks. Such an effect may bring a novice to the idea that he attacked a gold mine and can count on a daily increase of such an order. I will say at once that stably keeping attendance at such a level is almost impossible. You will either have to be content with point bursts, saving them for those cases when an influx of people is especially needed, or to watch how attendance falls little by little as you get used to abuse the attention of your audience.

As already mentioned, redditers are experienced users with a trained eye; They are well able to recognize even disguised "calls to action." Therefore, the worst thing you can offer them is an abundance of intrusive, littering airing of advertising. If you want to get the most out of it, aim not for mass, but for breadth of coverage.

Suppose we need to pick an audience for all the same mobile games. Where can I find people interested in this product? Examining all the diversity of communities that reddit provides us, we identified several circles of sites where a post with product information can cause a positive response:
- the aforementioned saby dedicated to gamedev. Naturally, this strategy does not have the same emphasis on them as described above, it does not make sense - there are enough rare posts reporting release, updates or even some major news;
- subs about mobile applications, where developers and users share links to ready-made applications. The more products you have, the more often you can afford to appear there;
- gaming saby;
- Themed subs, not directly related to mobile games. Say, the horror fans community, if you do horror films, or the author's fan club, whose works you offer in the format of audio books;
- “Transactional” subs, which collect information about discounts and other lucrative deals on a particular market for potential buyers.

Each of these groups combines dozens of sabs of varying degrees of popularity. By selecting the most generic from each category, we will get a resource base for placing relamny posts. By the way, from my own experience, I can say that you should not focus all your attention on the largest communities - small ones bring little traffic separately, but they can give quite good indicators in total. When selecting subs, it makes sense to take into account not only the amount of content, but also criteria such as poster activity, rule severity, the presence of posts similar to yours, as well as the microclimate and order within the community (how demanding are the content quality here? comments or just votes). Remember, you need not only not to remove your post, but also that, even if it does not break the applause, did not cause a negative, or even scandal, which will cast a shadow on your future attempts to attract this segment of the audience. Much, of course, depends on how to present the product, but some sabs are easier to please than others.

When the field of activity will be marked, I advise you to study in more detail the vowels and unspoken rules of each of the subs - and in the first place, those from whom you expect a lot. This will help determine the regularity and order of posting. Paradoxically, the private requirements of the sabs often have more weight than the general reddit code of laws - at least we violated the posting ratio a couple of times with complete impunity, and then found that some harmless image was removed for the wrong flyer or link to a forbidden resource. . By the way, reddit does not differ in special severity towards violators and punishes mainly with such deletions: even for a local ban, you need to try hard. But at first, you shouldn’t be tempted by fate.

So, with the technical side is over, it's time to do the lyrics, that is, content. Of course, if you are aiming at maximum effect, your posts will not be compiled uniformly, but taking into account the specifics of a particular community. The easiest way is with sabs of the second and fifth groups, originally sharpened for the promotion of applications. There, it is enough to follow the established example, include all the necessary flyers, characteristics and marks, as well as correctly summarize the merits of your brainchild. The hardest thing is with third and fourth category subwoofers, in which you have a difficult task to convince people with one line that they are your target audience. In Sabah, to advance you are at maximum indifference threatens, here the danger is especially great to seem annoying, get bored, or even grab a ban. Call for help all your creativity, knowledge of pop culture (redditors love references) and a sense of humor. And never resort to cheap tricks such as attempts to mislead readers about what they find on the link - this is not forgiven for reddit.

As for the nine posts that you are working on your non-advertising, in our plan B is just white noise. You can post anything and anywhere, the only task of these posts is to cover you and earn karma. Karma for posts and comments is charged separately, but in many sabs, both are taken into account when tracking your activity. Apt and witty comments are a good way to establish yourself in the community, but I categorically do not recommend promoting my products under other people's posts without special permission. First, it will be regarded as arrogance and will push away rather than attract, secondly, you will immediately be drowned in the "minuses" and the comment will go far down or be hidden - no one will see it.

So, I outlined to you two radically different product promotion strategies on reddit.com. Both, according to my observations, are quite effective, but they have different goals, so be guided by your own priorities when choosing and developing a strategy. The main thing is to try never to mix the two approaches, even from different accounts. Finally, I will say that reddit is an extremely ambiguous platform with its own style of communication and a peculiar atmosphere; plunge there is interesting even from a cultural point of view. Be observant and, perhaps, get not only the desired result, but also a curious experience!