Simple How-to Guide to Setup a Reddit AMA for Musicians and Brands

I was on a marketing call yesterday with Slightly Stoopid and the Danny Way Foundation for their upcoming benefit shows to raise money for skate parks in Hawaii. This also marks the official launch of Danny Way’s new charitable foundation to encourage kids’ participation in sports and, in conjunction with local communities and organizations, give kids safe, well-designed places to skateboard.

While going over “press” options I brought up the idea of a Reddit AMA (“Ask Me Anything”). This is a simple way to generate organic buzz and outreach while raising awareness for your cause, event, promotion, etc. Slightly Stoopid likes to do them at the beginning of their nationwide summer tours to let their fans know they’re about to hit the road. We proposed that maybe we could get Danny Way to do an AMA to let people know what his new foundation is all about, promote the shows, and connect direct with fans.

Below you’ll find a basic “how-to” guide to setting up your own AMA:

1.) SIGN UP FOR A REDDIT ACCOUNT. Easy. Pick a username (connected with your official name/title) and a password.

2.) SET A DATE & time to hold your AMA. Confirm what works for your artists and your team. Announce and promote it your social networks to let your friends and followers know when to tune in. Most people go with a simple/ natural approach (eg you holding up a handwritten note, iphone video, etc) as opposed to better than the overproduced (e.g. photoshopped/over-the-top design flyer). It’s more authentic. This will act as your **PROOF** (see STEP 5 below)

3.) SUBMIT A CALENDAR REQUEST TO THE MODERATORS. The Mods are the fine folks who take the time to oversee and run their appointed sub-Reddits. If you are a celebrity, brand, or a awesome individual with a unique human experience, you can SUBMIT A CALENDAR REQUEST to Mods to request your AMA to be added to the official calendar listing. This lets Redditors know who will be joining them in the next few days so they too can drop-in for your AMA.

4.) PRE-WRITE YOUR AMA TITLE & TEXT DESCRIPTION! This is important so that you aren’t scrambling 5-minutes before your scheduled “appearance.” The TITLE is meant to invite/attract fans or curious readers to your AMA. Keep it fun/informal… Let your personality do the talking. Don’t be a rigid stiff. The TEXT DESCRIPTION allows you the opportunity to add a little bio, background, and let people know the who, what, where, when, why of your AMA. Be sure to include a KEY link or two as well as your social media **PROOF** (from STEP 2) you used to announce the AMA. Keep this in a text doc or something so that at the appointed time you just copy and paste when you need to SUBMIT

5.) SUBMIT YOUR AMA. First, sign-in to your Reddit Account. Then head on over to r/IAmA where you will see an option to submit in the right side of the page… This will take you to the ABOVE SCREENSHOT depicting the submission form. Now just copy/paste the TITLE and TEXT you’ve already written out.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You cannot post your AMA prior to your appointed date and time or Mods will remove it. It must happen the day-of your AMA and within (say) 10-15 minutes of your proposed time. This is due to how Reddit’s post algorithm works to keep the most relevant and active content/ stories at the top. If you post something earlier than the appointed time with no comments or “up votes” for your post, then Reddit’s system will push your post down into oblivion. However, the more comments, upvotes, and general engagement your post garners once it’s live, the higher Reddit’s rating system will push up your AMA post increasing the overall views, impressions, and potential outreach for your AMA.

6.) YOUR AMA IS LIVE! LET YOUR FOLLOWERS KNOW. Once you hit SUBMIT, your AMA will go live and you will be taken direct to your AMA page. This is where all the fan questions will live and the comment threads will continue develop throughout your AMA. Take this URL and share it on all your social networks, email lists, etc. so that your fans can start asking questions, reading your answers, and interacting with other fans/comments.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1i6adn/high_were_slightly_stoopid_were_live_and_direct/

As the questions roll in you can answer any and all you feel like by hitting the REPLY button underneath any question in the AMA. And in turn people can reply to your replies. This is how entire comment threads and discussions take place within your AMA. Not just between you and your fans, but between the fans and Redditors themselves.

7.) HAVE FUN! Enjoy your AMA. Most of my artists find these to be very enjoyable experiences. As opposed to your standard/bland press interview, the Reddit AMAs I’ve run tend to be very lively, funny, and at times emotional connections with fans. Spend as much time as you want with the questions and be sure to tell your fans when you sign off (Hit EDIT button beneath your AMA post and add an ***UPDATE*** message “Sorry, signing off… Hitting the stage…” etc).

NOTE: You can access Reddit on either a computer or through any number of mobile apps to answer questions on your AMA. For my bands, we usually have multiple people all signed into the same Reddit account on various devices during the scheduled AMA. This way all of them can answer questions together and maximize the experience for fans (while sharing the workload). Sometimes they’ll put their initials in their responses so fans know who answered their question.

For further questions and assistance, please email info@socialsoundsystem.com

Mahalo.