Here I am, as promised, back with more content creating advice to help build your personal brand! There are a ton of platforms out there and not all of them are the ideal fit for everybody’s brand, but it’s all about finding the ones that work for you. But today I’m going to tell you a little bit about Reddit and how it can help you build your personal brand.
Why use Reddit for Content Creation and Building Your Personal Brand?
In my last post, I reminded you that you don’t have to be everywhere, all the time. And, you definitely don’t have to be on Reddit. It’s just one of many options. If you don’t use Reddit, you’ve probably at least heard of it, and what you’ve heard may not be so great.
- Redditors are too fringe
- Reddit is full of trolls
- It’s hard to get your content noticed on Reddit
While these ideas may have some truth to them—it is the internet after all— they’re not the only truths about Reddit.
Some Facts About Reddit
There’s a reason Reddit calls itself, The Front Page of the Internet. Latest stats say that Reddit has over 430 million active users. That’s more than Twitter’s latest count of 330 million! This means that there are countless possibilities for connecting with your tribe. Not everyone on Reddit is just making memes. And you don’t have to be floundering around amidst a sea of irrelevant information as you would with many other social platforms.
There are subreddits on politics. And painting. And books. Oh, my!
As with Quora, you can also ask the community questions. You do this in the subreddit: r/AskReddit.
Hold up! What’s a subreddit? A subreddit is simply a thread, or group, on a topic. These topics can be broad or very niche. They look like this: Reddit.com/r/topic.
Like with almost all social platforms, posts with images do well. Make sure they are relevant and eye catching though! As with Quora, instead of ‘likes’ you get upvotes or downvotes. You want those up-votes! So create relevant content in the appropriate subreddits.
Something else to keep in mind: As per Quora and others, Reddit isn’t friendly to blatant self-promotion. But you can add links—in fact, you’re encouraged to. Which means opportunity to drive traffic back to your site! You can even share 3rd party content—all to a very niche group/thread, so you’re far more likely to find, or be found by, your audience.
Where Do I Start?
An easy way to start exploring and see if it’s the right platform for you is to go to Reddit’s Homepage and search a topic in the top search bar. You will be shown a list of multiple choices, aka, subreddits. Obviously, you should search within your niche. This will keep you from being overwhelmed by the insane amount of content on the platform. Just stick with the topics, or subreddits, that you plan to be active in.
For example, I just searched “Book Covers” and some of the results I got were:
- Bookcovers: 537 members
- Bookcoverdesign: 236 members
- BookCollecting: 8,207 members
Now, the Bookcollecting subreddit has the most members, so I may want to check that one out first. But it may also not be as niche and specific as I’d like upon diving in. In that case, I’d keep tweaking my original search, or check into those smaller subreddits to see what they have to offer.
This is what you should do too!
When you find one that seems right up your alley, well, that’s when you can start posting. If you don’t find anything that fits just right, it’s okay to move on. Or, if you’re brave, and you feel there’s a need for it you can start your own subreddit.
If you need some specific help you can find a Reddit 101 right here.
The point is, really, to get out there and explore. If Reddit isn’t for you, no worries! There are a ton of other platforms out there for you to try. Some of which I’ll be covering in future posts, of course.
One I came across recently, and was surprised I hadn’t used before, was Paper.li. It’s pretty awesome! Like Reddit, Quora and other platforms you can tailor your feed, or page, to your interests and you can curate your own content as well as 3rd party content. It’s sorta like Pinterest-meets blog-meets a social scheduling platform. Paper.li could be a very useful platform and there are both paid and free versions.
Remember friends, there’s a whole world out there full of opportunities to find your tribe, build your personal brand, and market yourself!
I’d love to hear about your thoughts on Reddit. Are you using it? Which subreddits show promise for you? Any suggestions for other platforms for me to give you the lowdown on? Let me know in the comments!
