When marketers talk about repurposing content onto social media, the platforms that regularly get mentioned are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and TikTok…
One that doesn’t get mentioned very often is Reddit.
Since its launch in 2005, many marketers have struggled to get to grips with Reddit. However, with 1.7 billion visits per month and 330 million active users, it is one of the most engaged communities online, making it a social sharing website that is well worth exploring.
So, in this episode and blog post, we dive into Reddit and look at how it works, and what you need to know before you include it in your content strategy.
Plus, we share five ways you can repurpose content for it.
Listen to the podcast on the player below or read on to learn how you can succeed on one of the most under-used social platforms out there:
What is Reddit?
Reddit is a social news aggregation, content and community platform with the tagline, “Dive into anything!”
It’s built around users submitting thoughts, ideas, images and videos that users can vote on. Popular content goes to the top, while content that gets downvoted moves further and further down the thread until it disappears.
According to Broadband Search, Reddit is the 7th most used platform in the U.S. in 2022.
Sometimes referred to as “the front page of the internet”, it has around 150 million pages, 40 million daily searches and 1.7 billion daily comments.
So why isn’t it at the top of every marketer’s hit list?
It may be because Reddit isn’t a traditional social media platform. It's more a hybrid of social media and forums. But whether it's purebred social media or not, there are thousands of communities, countless conversations, and an untold measure of genuine human connection taking place.
Here are some key points to know:
- Users don’t build profiles. They create an account and start posting content (like articles, images, videos, and text posts) or comments
- The site is broken up into ‘subreddits’ – a way to group content around a specific topic. Users join or subscribe to subreddits so they can see and share content about the things that they’re most interested in. You can get everything from “r/funny” and “r/news” to “r/lifehacks” and “r/BikiniBottomTwitter” (where users share SpongeBob SquarePants memes!) Some subreddits have a small collection of subscribers and some have 20 million!
- Users ‘upvote’ and ‘downvote’ posts, meaning that popular posts snowball and are shown to more users and unpopular ones fade into obscurity.
What to consider before posting your content on Reddit
Posting your content in a way that is clearly self-promoting, branded, or attempting to gain traffic/sales will go down like a lead balloon.
Reddit has never been an ad-heavy platform, with most revenue coming from users making in-platform purchases and banner ads on the site.
This means you should focus on authenticity by sharing content in a way that is genuine and primarily intended to give the audience value – not to benefit you.
Reddit can be a harsh place, so approaching it in the wrong way could see you rejected by the subreddits you are part of, or on the receiving end of negative attention for your brand. So be careful!
How to repurpose content for Reddit
So how can you repurpose content for Reddit in a way that truly adds value to the community?
As Reddit is not a traditional social media platform, it’s so important to develop an understanding of the community and how they interact. Sign up, contribute, find the right subreddits for you, and become part of those communities.
Whatever content you are sharing, be honest that it’s yours. Don’t try to fake it by saying, “Wow, I just found this thing randomly. Isn’t it cool?”
People will see through that in a flash and your authenticity will be ruined.
So, how do you repurpose content to Reddit in a way that gives the audience value and isn’t forcing your content on them? Here are 5 ideas to try:
- Share a clip of your podcast or video where you are discussing a certain topic. Explain that you’re happy to answer questions about it and that you want to give people the chance to dive deeper into the discussion.
- Share funny content like bloopers or outtakes. We have a guide to repurposing your bloopers if you need a few pointers! This kind of content is relatable, encourages engagement (either from people laughing at you or giving others the chance to share their own mistakes!), and is an inoffensive way of sharing your content with a wide audience.
- Ask people what they would like to see discussed on a podcast, video, or blog post. Use Reddit as a platform to start discussions and repurpose those discussions into new, fresh content.
- Schedule an Ask Me Anything on r/AMA or your chosen subreddit. AMAs are an open Q&A, so if you are an expert in your field or have a unique perspective or story, you can share it in an AMA and answer questions. This is a great way to explain who you are and what you do, but it’s also great research for your content. The questions people ask can inform what you create in the future. Alternatively, on your podcast, video, or blog, you can let people know that you are going to be on Reddit answering questions about this topic and let them know how they can join in the discussion.
Repurpose your blog post and social media images onto Reddit and break your long-form work down into bitesize content. When people are scrolling through their feed, an eye-catching image is more likely to make them stop and pay attention than a few lines of text. You could even consider repurposing a video, podcast episode, or blog post into an infographic and share that on Reddit.
Bonus tip!
If you already have an established following, you could end up with your own dedicated subreddit, where your audience gathers to discuss your content. You could create it yourself and have it as a dedicated forum for your followers.
For example, you can get anything from fan page subreddits for musicians with a few thousand members, to YouTube creators using subreddits to curate submissions for their videos with millions of members.
Many popular podcasts have dedicated subreddits where fans discuss episodes, provide suggestions for future ones, request guests and even provide user-generated content that could be shared elsewhere!
Repurposing elsewhere
There’s scope to repurpose content for Reddit onto your other social channels too.
If an audience member creates a piece of content worth sharing, you could make polls or r/AMAs and use your findings or realizations to create new content, or simply share on Twitter or LinkedIn.
If you’re still not sure it’s for you, it’s worth just being active on Reddit. It’s great for research, learning more about content creation and as a hub for finding podcast guests.
If you want help with your repurposing, please reach out to us! Our fully done-for-you content repurposing services align with your existing plans and help you maximize ROI on your video and audio content.
Plus, why not take our Content Repurposing Effectiveness Scorecard to find out whether you’re getting the maximum ROI from your content? It’s a quick questionnaire that takes a couple of minutes to complete, after which you’ll receive a detailed report from us, providing tips and advice on how and where you can improve.