Developed a little more than a decade ago, Reddit is today the vastest network for user-generated content. As of June 2016, Reddit boasted 234 million unique users in almost 12,000 active communities.

But before you jump on this opportunity, be aware that the Reddit community is a particular lot. Most Redditers are male, aged 18-29, and avid Internet users. They hate spammers and people who try to use their communities for advertising brand products.

If you’re caught shamelessly marketing your brand, they won’t hesitate to ban your profile, or your entire domain from Reddit. And that could be a huge problem for your brand.

Still, many brands like Redbull or Xbox try their luck on this network because of its sheer potential.

Before making your first move on Reddit, have a look at these 5 tips to help you use Reddit for promoting your business.

1. Get to know the users of Reddit

Create a profile that looks genuine and start observing what’s happening in subreddits which are most relevant to your brand. Listen to the conversation to learn more about users who are engaged in topics where you could contribute.

This study showed that almost a half of Redditers identify as liberal. 39% of them are moderate, and only 13% consider themselves conservative.

On average, a Reddit user will spend more than 13 minutes browsing the website. This is a clear sign that these users are highly engaged with the content of the platform and could be highly receptive to your branded communications.

If this group falls into your target audience, Reddit is a top pick for your marketing strategy.

2. Create a genuine profile

To avoid raising any suspicion about your marketing-oriented presence on the network, you need a profile that looks and feels real. If a Redditer has an inkling that you might be a marketer, they won’t hesitate to screen your posting history to check whether you’re there to promote your business.

That’s why you need to be smart about it and avoid being overly promotional in your posts. Marketers use a 1 to 10 ratio for a reason.

Be present in different subreddits and engage with these communities. When sharing content, link to various sites and keep it high quality. This is how you can amass “karma” points – make sure to have at least a few hundred of those before posting branded content.

Be patient and wait a couple of weeks before posting. You’re here to add value to the community, so be clear about it and try your luck.

3. Posting on Reddit – the essentials

Now that you’re ready to post, you can choose from two different types of posts on Reddit:

• link posts – these direct users to an external site;
• text posts – posts which are hosted on Reddit.

If you’d like to improve traffic to your website, link posts are a top pick. But if you’re here for link building or because you’d like to boost your brand, you should go for text posts.

If you choose text posts, make sure that you’re submitting them to the right subreddits. Keep your content as relevant as possible. Include a lot of insight and strive to educate users about your topic. Keep it interesting and link to many different resources.

4. Choose the right subreddit

When it comes to choosing the subreddit for your posts, there are basically two options.

You can go for a niche subreddit with a small number of highly engaged users. The main advantage of this subreddit type is that its users are relatively easy to convert.

But you can also post to large subreddits which attracts hundreds or thousands of users. You’re not likely to score many conversions here, but you’re bound to get more traffic.

5. Avoid getting banned

Reddit community easily bans users who look like marketers or spammers.

Avoid getting banned by following these tips:

• Don’t be overly promotional
• Submit links to many other websites
• Avoid submitting the same comment to different subreddits
• Never ask for upvotes
• Don’t share sensitive information or illegal content.

What if Reddit isn’t available in your country?

Users of Reddit come from 217 different countries.

But that doesn’t mean Reddit is available everywhere. If you hail from China, you might be struggling with restricted access.

The best solution to this problem is a reliable VPN. Be sure to check out some VPN reviews to choose a service that suits your needs and helps to easily access Reddit.

Key takeaway

Reddit is a very attractive network for marketers looking to engage specific groups of users. Use these six tips to make the most out of Reddit for your brand and attract plenty of new users to your website.