How to Supercharge Your Brand with an Online Community (on Reddit)

5 Rules for Growing a Successful Community Online

Half the world’s population, over 3.2 billion people now have internet access. The number of U.S. smartphone users keeps growing every day. The modern consumer wants to be engaged online, but there are 1,000s competing for their attention. And their attention span has shrunk — some say to less than 8 seconds.

You need a way to stand out from the crowd, find the customers you want, and stay top-of-mind. Otherwise, your message will get lost in the daily bombardment of information most people face.

All roads lead to a community, especially on social media. While not a short term strategy for generating leads, an online community has a greater potential for increasing your marketing ROI because results are cumulative. Further, you get a platform for talking about your products without having to sell.

People hate being sold. They want to discuss their needs and get advice in a safe and trusted environment. The good news is you can build an online community where your prospects already are—on social media.

Number of smartphone users in the United States from 2010 to 2022 (in millions)* — Statista

Social media forums like Reddit give you an instant head start on building an online community because they provide free community-building tools. Their site gets 56 million visitors daily, so most of the people you’re trying to reach are probably already there. If you’re not there too, you’re probably missing out.

My name is Derek Little and I’m a Moderator of four subreddits including two of the largest crypto communities on Reddit with over 200k members. I’m also a freelance Online Community Manager that helps brands succeed on Reddit. In this article I’m going to share some of my best advice on how to grow a Reddit online community.

HOW TO GROW A REDDIT COMMUNITY

In addition to 56 million daily visitors, Reddit also has more than 1.2 million sub-reddits (or forums), and each has their own unique audience. The odds that several of these will be perfectly aligned with your product is quite good.

The basic strategy for promoting your brand on Reddit to create a community marketing funnel. At the top of your funnel you reach out to people on Reddit, build awareness and get the right people interested. In the middle you invite them to subscribe to your own subreddit where you can nurture their interests. Finally, at the bottom of your funnel you convert subscribers into customers, users or investors for an ICO.

Reddit unique monthly visits 2018 — Statista

Once someone subscribes to your subreddit, your posts will immediately start appearing on their custom Reddit homepage. Posts that get upvoted may appear on the main Reddit frontpage in front of 56 million daily visitors —a home run for you. Another Reddit tool is the AMA, or “Ask Me Anything” event. This is a live Q&A session that can be held in your own subreddit. If you can get permission to hold an AMA is in someone else’s subreddit, and your post pinned to the top of the forum, then your advertising is free.

I know — it sounds a bit complicated and you may be wondering how you’ll ever get started on Reddit. My story may give you a few ideas.

MY REDDIT MARKETING STORY

I got involved in the blockchain industry by interviewing Founders of startups and telling their company story in an article.

A few of them asked me where they could promote their article, and I learned about Reddit and AMAs. I realized that if someone famous like Bill Gates held an AMA, a lot of people would show up and ask questions. After all, everyone knows Bill. But if you’re an unknown startup trying to introduce an innovative product, the average person won’t know enough to ask questions, or even be remotely interested — and the chances they’ll read your white paper (and understand it) are slim.

Like Facebook, Google and Linkedin, Reddit does not allow advertising of crypto/blockchain related products. However, you can still advertise and educate Redditors about your platform or product in other ways. AMAs are one way to promote your business without coming into conflict with Reddit’s advertising policy.

After contacting a few subreddits and holding a few AMAs for people I’d interviewed, I found that including these interviews on the actual AMA post could help the average person become familiar enough with a complicated product to ask questions. This caught the attention of the owner of ICOCrypto, a top ICO due diligence subreddit. He asked me to be a Moderator and develop a set of AMA Guidelines for his subreddit.

One of the startups I interviewed asked me to organize and moderate their AMA. They asked me to build a custom subreddit for them and grow their community, too. I held more AMAs and promoted these in targeted subreddits with posts, comments and press releases. Here’s what I learned…

5 RULES FOR GROWING A COMMUNITY ON REDDIT

Let’s face it, Reddit is complicated for beginners and can be quite time consuming even for experts. But there are some big benefits. These include access to 1.2 million+ segmented markets, and your own programmable community platform — all free.

To make the most of these advantages, there are five basic rules I suggest you follow. To avoid wasting time though, each of these rules should be customized to your own unique set of goals, products, audience and resources.

RULE 1. — Understand your audience — Who are you trying to attract?

RULE 2. — Find your focus — Why will they be interested?

RULE 3. — Reach out to your target audience — Where are they?

RULE 4. — Build and customize your subreddit — How will we engage?

RULE 5. — Keep adding posts and building value — What do they want?

BONUS RULE: Have some patience (building a community starts slowly. It takes time to establish and grow genuine relationships based on trust).

START BUILDING YOUR BRAND ON REDDIT

It’s a struggle to gain and hold someone’s attention is today’s overcrowded online marketplace. Done right, an online community is the ultimate solution — it’s a trusted environment with no selling where prospects can be nurtured and your community grown continuously. However, don’t expect instant results.

If you ask me, Reddit is the most powerful platform for creating an online community because they get 56 million daily visitors and have over 1.2 million niche groups. You get your own community platform with free community tools. Not only that, you get detailed traffic stats so you know what you’re doing right.

To get the full benefit of Reddit you can hold “Ask Me Anything” events, either in your own subreddit or someone else’s with free advertising. And Reddit can serve as a marketing funnel where all your actions are orchestrated to have a cumulative impact.

Want to grow an online community but don’t have the time or experience? Contact Derek Little, freelance Online Community Manager.

More info:

Reddit profile — u/trailblazerwriting

Derek’s Blockchain News Site — BlockchainTrailblazers.com

Email — derek@trailblazerwriting.com

Website — Trailblazerwriting.com

Storytelling — The 4 Parts of Your Company Story