Has your organisation got a plan in place for Reddit? Twenty years ago, it would probably be fair to say no, but the platform has gone from strength to strength, becoming a professionalised platform that’s backed by proper finance following an IPO.

With a significant and engaged userbase, Reddit has transformed into an authoritative platform for users to share news, links, images, and opinions in a range of niche communities.

What is Reddit?

Reddit is a forum-style social media platform with over 470 million weekly active users. It champions user-generated content in communities, or subreddits, formed around shared interests, boasting over 2.2m subreddits. Participants engage in discussions on specific topics, forming threads, where users can pose questions, share insights, and 'upvote’ responses. Communities are governed by rules which are enforced by moderators, who tend to be formidable opponents. This creates a wealth of data and information on the platform, such as sentiment, perspectives on key topics, key opinion formers and how resonant messaging is.

Which audiences are on Reddit?

The site caters for tens of thousands of niche interests. Redditors use the platform for different purposes, but overall, Reddit is a place for enquiry – the platform’s own research found that 72% of users go to the platform actively seeking information. This information needs to meet users in the places that they inhabit online – Gen Z are unlikely to see or be swayed by an op-ed in a paywalled trade magazine or a mention in a top tier outlet, but a Reddit post about an industry or business is more likely to resonate.  

From a corporate perspective, it is dependent on the audiences that you would like to reach. Reddit can build your brand awareness with new audiences. For example, recent research found that active investment is high among investors, particularly in younger generations, with 87% of Gen Z and 86% of millennials investing each month. There is an opportunity for brands to reach a financially engaged audience who are plugged into the investment process, who are researching and making informed decisions. 

Reputationally, sentiment about brands has a significant impact. If users are doing due diligence about an organisation, or a specific product, negative and unaddressed, Reddit posts can present a significant reputational issue for brands, surfacing issues to be addressed, potentially before organisations are aware.

What about Reddit and AI?

AI companies and search engines are keenly aware of the value that community-generated content provides, shown by Google’s deal with Reddit, which has caused subreddits to appear prominently in both search results and Gemini’s AI overviews. This is important for consumer brands – if a Reddit thread criticises a brand and receives a lot of engagement, it is more likely to appear on AI summaries and be seen by potential customers. An active approach to Reddit can mitigate this, leveraging integrated monitoring and comms activities to mitigate criticism.

What performs well on Reddit?

Reddit is driven by conversations, rather than content – posts should spark a discussion rather than act as a broadcast. In-depth and detailed posts which provoke conversations and include reputable sources tend to perform strongly. Selecting the subreddit to share content on is crucial, as it ensures the presence of users likely to be engaged in the content. For example, an asset manager could (within reason) share some research that they have created, highlighting some key datapoints for discussion around potential implications.

How should organisations engage with Reddit?

It depends on the ideal output. Simply remaining abreast of sentiment, your audience and the key queries and issues can be the most important. Hedge funds monitor Reddit threads and conversations, using the insights to inform their trading activities. Investments and stocks are scrutinised on subreddits with vast numbers of participants, and the overriding sentiment can have wide-ranging ramifications, which the hedge funds act on. Cardew offers monitoring of conversations on Reddit, more on that here.

An active presence allows organisations to insert themselves or at least foster conversations on the platform, increasing brand awareness. A number of companies are taking this approach and are leading the conversation online. Fidelity has an active account on the platform, along with a popular subreddit with over 262k participants, where they prompt discussions about investing, whilst retaining control by moderating their own subreddit, allowing them to set and enforce their own rules (within reason).

An AMA (Ask Me Anything) is a well-trodden path for public figures to demonstrate that they are one with the people, inviting users to submit questions which is answered on the thread. Incoming PM Andy Burnham did one earlier this month, using it to soft launch some of his policy priorities and humanise his brand. AMAs should appear authentic, which requires a huge amount of planning to remain on message and still personal, or it will face backlash. Nissan’s CEO was criticised for a 2014 AMA , where he only answered around 20 questions, many of which were from new accounts, raising authenticity questions.

Tonally, corporates need to be careful – there is a danger of sharing a post and being greeted by the image below. While unsubtle, it hammers home an important point – posting without fully understanding the platform, or treating Reddit like just another social channel, will appear inauthentic and open you up to criticism. This feeds into another risk: conversations drive the platform, but user reactions can be unpredictable and can cause an online pile-on if the conditions are right.

The key takeaways

• You should understand the importance of Reddit in online discourse and how it can shape both online conversations and search results.

• You should be monitoring Reddit for sentiment and reputation reasons to understand what your audiences are saying and make any strategy tweaks from it.

• You should consider ways for your organisation to engage on Reddit, whilst keeping it authentic, appropriate and controlled.

• You should get in contact with Cardew’s digital team on digital@cardewgroup.com to help you formulate your Reddit strategy.