Reddit as a Research Tool

Reddit is a public forum used by hundreds of millions of users to discuss any topic you can think of. Users are mostly anonymous, so it’s hard to extract many pieces of information about them, which is a big difference compared to other social media networks. Nevertheless, the importance and possibilities this platform offers are endless. Let’s dive into it and see why and how marketers should use Reddit as a research tool.

Why do I need it? 

As a marketer, you have many decisions to make and many options to choose from. If you want to do the right thing, take the time to do the necessary research and really listen to what your target audience is asking for. Reddit can be a great place to do this.

And here’s your why:

• Find your high-expectation customers

 Redditors are well educated and well-informed. They look things up, read and research. A lot. So, as high-expectation customers, they are crucial for your business because by understanding their emotions you can meet their expectations. If you meet their expectations, you can overdeliver for your regular customers. And boom, your customers are happy and your market share is getting bigger and bigger!

• Hear people’s authentic opinions on your brand

 Sure, you are trying to communicate your brand’s values and listen to your target audience, but think about getting sincere feedback from your buyers. Now imagine getting feedback from thousands and thousands of people who took their time and energy to discuss your brand. That is why Reddit is irreplaceable.

• Get insights on the dos and don’ts of advertising

 It’s easy to see what marketing techniques your competitors use, but seeing how they affect people is hard. So, let’s say you are in the IT industry, and you see what people are talking about competitors’ software. You see what frustrates them, what they want and need. This will give you a chance to change your software and the way you communicate it. Use precious information to generate new and improved campaigns and use it to make better connections with your potential buyers.

• Save time and money

 The importance of proper market research is evident, boy is it time-consuming and pricey! With the right keywords, do your research on Reddit in just a few hours while drinking coffee and save big time on budget. Let’s be honest, the budget is often a stumbling block in marketing agencies. Reddit can be your life saver in this case.

Okay, but how do I do that?

Now you’ve seen why Reddit can be great for your research, and the main question is how to get started. Although different and more informative, at its core it’s still a social media platform. That’s why the very first step should be getting engagement, or in Reddit terms, collecting karma. Karma points are given to you by the community for sharing valuable content, and essentially reflect the positive impact you left on the platform. Other than gathering good karma, here are a few other things that will help you utilize Reddit’s many communities:

• Create a poll

 Create a poll easily by clicking on ‘create a post’ and choosing the poll option. It will be available for a week for people to vote. Polls are great conversation starters and can be used in every community. For example, you can get people’s opinions on various subjects, from directly asking about their feelings on your brand, to asking for advice on an issue you’re dealing with.

• Follow or create your own subreddit

 This will give you all the insights you need. There are a few rules to creating your own subreddit since they want to be sure you are not a spammer. You must have an account for at least a month and minimum karma points. No one knows how much good karma you need to have but it’s not that hard to gain it. Make a meaningful contribution to a few subreddits and you’ll be good to go. 

• Do a keyword research

 Reddit can be hard to navigate because there are so many topics and discussions happening simultaneously. Take the time to do proper keyword research – you want to be sure that you are reading and exploring subreddits that match your research needs in the best way possible.

• Make a custom feed

 A custom feed (an updated version of multireddits) is a feed created by Redditors, on multiple topics. It can be either public or private. A custom feed is a great way to make your own, unique, community on issues that are important to you. Let’s say you are a brand manager at Apple and you want to see how people respond to the iPhone 13 Pro. You can make a custom feed that includes r/iphone, r/ios, and r/updates under Apple.