Reddit may not be the first social platform that jumps to mind when you think about marketing your brand, but the numbers show that it's on the rise, and should probably be a more significant consideration that it currently is.

According to latest data from Reddit, the platform now has 330 million monthly active users.

That puts the platform on par with Twitter, and well within the top social networks in terms of usage.

For comparison, here’s where each of the major platforms are currently placed on monthly active users:

(Note: LinkedIn and Snapchat don’t report MAU numbers, these stats are based on estimates reported by We Are Social)

What’s more, while Twitter, and to a lesser degree Snapchat, have faced challenges in growing their usage numbers due to increased competition, Reddit has seen its numbers increase by 30% over the last six months, a significant shift.

And it’s not just the broad numbers - according to Alexa, Reddit users are also much more active.

As per We Are Social’s Simon Kemp (on The Next Web):

“The average user spends 15 minutes 47 seconds on Reddit.com each day, compared to just over 11 minutes for visitors to Facebook.com, and 6 minutes 23 seconds on Twitter.com.”

Still think Reddit’s too niche to be on your radar?

The platform's also working to help advertisers make better use of that engagement and reach – and while Reddit has long been seen as a risky proposition for advertisers (due to the Reddit community’s resistance to ads), that may be shifting.

In the past year, Reddit has added:

User profiles to give people, and brands, a definitive on-platform presence to link to

Conversion tracking and data improvements to better quantify the results of your Reddit ads

Improved ad campaign structure to maximize ad performance

An expansion of their Promoted Posts ad option to its mobile app

This week, the platform has also announced the hiring of former Time Inc. President of Digital Jen Wong to take on the role of COO.

As explained by Reddit:

“Her goals as COO will align closely with her past experience at Time, PopSugar, and AOL: using her media, publisher, advertising, and operations expertise to help us build out our offerings for users, advertisers, and partners; applying her experience building successful digital advertising offerings for internet media giants to our own ads platform; and, through it all, working to grow our business while staying true to the things that make Reddit unique.”

While traditionally Reddit hasn’t been as open to advertising as other platforms, and hasn’t provided the same opportunities, that may be turning – and I can confirm, as a regular user, my social media habits have definitely changed, with Reddit now playing a bigger part.

Here’s why – human-based moderation. While algorithms can detect usage patterns and work to show me more of what I like based on my past behavior, which has clearly been effective in boosting engagement on other platforms, Reddit’s human-based moderation process (each subreddit is moderated by volunteer users) may actually be more effective in uncovering content I’m not aware of, improving discovery, while also enabling me to stay in touch with specific subjects.

And it’s amazing how often Reddit is well ahead of the trends on this front – often you’ll see memes and viral hits spiking on other networks weeks behind when you first saw them on Reddit. Users of the platform, which has long denoted itself as ‘the front page of the internet’, pride themselves on being ahead of the curve, which can also help you stay on top of the latest trending topics and discussions.

While Facebook’s algorithm has become the template for automated discovery, Reddit’s system should be seen as the same for human-based moderation, and that’s very powerful, more so than most realize.

And clearly, given the stats, I’m not the only one to notice this – if you’ve not considered Reddit previously, it may be worth taking the time to get involved and get a better understanding of how the app works, and some insight in the relevant subreddits related to your business niche.

The numbers and advances in ad options point to increased opportunity – and if Reddit continues to grow at this rate, it may become a much more relevant consideration very soon.