Reddit Best Practices

Reddit imagery BEST PRACTICES

Reddit Profiles

People use Reddit to share and discover information, so Reddit users want to learn about new things that are relevant to their interests, profiles included. The best- performing posts have a casual and friendly tone. A good rule of thumb is: How would you describe yourself or project to a friend?

A good tip is to remember to make it interactive and engagement focused. Redditors love sharing their own stories and opinions. Conversation is hugely popular around the site, and drives the feeling of connection and belonging that turns even the most casual of lurkers into hardcore Redditors.

What you can do with Reddit profile pages:

• Easily post to your profile page. Only you will be able to submit content to your page

• Start conversations and for the first time ever, see the wisdom of your crowd using Reddit’s one- of-a-kind commenting system push the best, most interesting commentary to the top.

• Invite users to follow you and organically discover your content in the reddit.com feed

• Amplify posts via paid distribution

• Customize, with an avatar, cover image, and more

• Add moderators to help you moderate the comments that appear on your profile page BEST PRACTICES

Content Approach

Here are some engagement first ideas for your content.

Open-ended: Articles that naturally prompt questions and discussion.

User prompts: Redditors want to contribute. Ask questions, ask for suggestions or even content creation like Photoshop battles. • “We’re writing a piece on X, what are your thoughts and questions?”

Exclusives and leaks: Exclusivity is great but should also incorporate conversation. • EW’s Twin Peaks cover release was successful because the reporter really engaged in the comments.

Standard posts: More straightforward links, as they would appear on your site/other social channels, can be mixed into your profile. However, the bulk of your content should be engagement-focused as you’re building a following.

Self-Promotion: There is no 1:1 rule for profiles. That being said, guidance to partners is on no more than 1 out of 6 posts should be link posts, We also have a Self-Promotion wiki for guidelines on best practices.

Promotion of your user profile: From the inception of your profile and for a period of time thereafter, you’ll need to also need to promote your user profile through other channels to gain followers — other social channels, articles, etc. Feel free to share interesting non-Reddit social content on your page.

Surprise and delight: Feel-good opportunities have a big network effect since Reddit is composed of fan communities. Something to keep in mind as you experiment. • Marvel promoted the film Logan with the Reddit sales team. A user shared a personal story about meeting Hugh Jackman, Marvel reached out with premiere tickets and the gesture was seen immediately by hardcore Marvel fans on Reddit (top comment thread). BEST PRACTICES

Engage & Comment

Talk, don’t broadcast!

You aren’t limited to posting or commenting on your own profile. Redditors appreciate genuine interactions but can react negatively if the engagement feels forced or is clearly promoting something.

Don’t just post to your profile or communities. Actively participating in the comments is a great way to positively engage and get to know your fans.

Commenting as a user in other community discussions can be very powerful as an individual since you’re a known entity with subject matter authority. Consider asking a question in AMAs. Redditors will be delighted to see you engaging as they do. • If it adds to the discussion, share your own content. Be mindful of the community’s rules on promotion. • Users will be more interested in engaging with you if you’re engaging like a real person, not as a formal spokesperson.

Be authentic!

Comment and engage where it makes sense for you. For example; Major League Baseball (/u/ MLBOfficial) regularly comments in /r/baseball, an Entertainment Weekly reporter took questions in cover reveal post, Jonathan Nolan chimes in on Westworld and AI discussions, the Cards Against Humanity founder commented on a post about his company. BEST PRACTICES All AMAs must contain a link to “Proof”.

• Proof lets our community know that Proof you are really here to answer questions and stops impersonation. That way, we know that your AMA Let Reddit know who you are was actually done by you.

Proof lets our community know that you are really here to contribute and stops • Proof is easy! It typically is just a impersonation. It lets Redditors know that all posts and comments are actually done selfie taken with a paper sign that by you. lists the date of the AMA, your 2. Proof name, and your username. Posting So what is proof exactly? Easy! Typically - we only ask for a selfie taken with a paper a proof picture to social media is sign that lists your name and your user name. Sharing your proof photo to other social also a great way to build interest. media channels is also a great way to build interest. • If you’re not feeling particularly Proof can also consist of sharing exclusive content, or a social media post on one of photogenic, proof may also consist your other official accounts sharing your Reddit profile user name. of a social media post made on one of your official accounts discussing the upcoming AMA.

Tip: Have fun with proof pictures! Include things that are important to you or the topic of the AMA. Reddit loves pets and insider details like images of props, costumes, and anything else that seems fun or interesting. Reddit Glossary GLOSSARY

Reddit redditor, u/ community, r/

The name Reddit is a play on words - A person who uses Reddit is a The various discussion spaces on Reddit as in “I read it on Reddit”. ‘redditor’. should be referred to as ‘Reddit communities’, or simply ‘communities’. ‘Reddit’ is a proper noun, however it Names on Reddit are preceded by ‘u/‘ can also be used as a verb, i.e. “to which is an abbreviation of ‘username’. Community names are preceded by ‘r/’ reddit”. For example, “u/kn0thing”. which is an abbreviation of ‘Reddit’. For example, “the r/worldnews community”. Experienced redditors call these ‘subreddits’ or ‘subs’.

front page home feed profile

The ‘front page’ is a feed where Every redditor’s personalized feed of Content redditors have shared and trending content is aggregated from content is their ‘home’ or ‘home feed’. discussions they have had on Reddit across thousands of active communities Trending content from communities appear on their ‘profile’. For example, on Reddit. This is the view of Reddit they are subscribed to appears in their “u/kn0thing’s profile”. that is shown to all logged out users by home feed. default. Currently, redditors can have a standard profile or a ‘profile page’ which “Making the front page” means that a allows users to post directly to their own piece of content has become popular profile. enough to be featured in this feed. GLOSSARY

post comments subscribe

A Reddit ‘post’ is the broad term for The ‘comments’ sit below posts on post Redditors ‘subscribe’ to a community to content (images, videos, articles, text) pages, and are where redditors have see trending posts from that community in on Reddit. public discussions. their home feed.

follow upvote, downvote karma

Redditors ‘follow’ other redditors to see Redditors can ‘upvote’ or ‘downvote’ Redditors accrue ‘karma’ when they trending posts from that redditor in their content to directly affect its ‘vote score’. participate on Reddit. Karma is a score home feed. This feature is exclusive to that increases as a redditor’s posts and the new ‘profile page’ experience. A post’s vote score determines how comments get upvoted. ‘hot’ a post is, and its position on front page, home, and community feeds. Karma is a numerical representation of the value a redditor has contributed to the site. It is not equivalent to a post or comment’s vote score. GLOSSARY

moderator AMA gold

Each community is run by one or many ‘AMA’ or ‘Ask Me Anything’ is a live, Reddit gold is a digital currency that lives moderators. These are volunteer open interview on Reddit. The exclusively on Reddit. Gold can be redditors who create a set of rules and interviewee introduces themselves, and purchased or gifted to another user. guidelines for specific communities, to commenters chime in with questions in ensure there is a consistent flow of the comments. Receiving gold grants a user access to relevant content extra features to improve their reddit AMAs have been hosted by celebrities, experience. average folks, artists, even Bill Gates.

promoted post gifts Snoo

At the top of a community or front page Reddit ‘gifts’ or ‘gift exchange’ is a giant Also known as the ‘Reddit alien’ or that feed is a promoted post. This is a paid online gift exchange between redditors. ‘alien / bug thing’, Snoo is Reddit’s placement unit for advertisers to smiling, genderless community mascot. promote and syndicate content across Gift exchanges are themed around Snoo’s name is a play on “what’s new”. Reddit. everything from events to TV shows to holidays. Snoo can also generally refer to its It is the home to Reddit’s ‘adversations’. alien race, who are collectively known as ‘snoos’. GLOSSARY

crosspost flair trophy

A post must be placed in a specific and Reddit communities are able to Redditors accrue ‘trophies’ for various relevant Reddit community. However, if designate custom ‘flair’ that users can milestones on Reddit. These will appear a post is relevant to more than one employ when posting in that community. in their ‘trophy case’ on their profile page. community, redditors can ‘crosspost’ the content to multiple relevant subreddits. This can be text, text plus image, or just image Still have questions? We understand.

Check out some more FAQ’s at https://www.reddit.com/wiki/faq Learn some more Best Practices at https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us Read up on profiles and Reddiquette here

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