Exploring the Power of Reddit: all you need to know to monetize with Social Mining

Irene Marcianò, Marketing Specialist at DAO Labs

June 20, 2023

News

Exploring the Power of Reddit: all you need to know to monetize with Social Mining

Introduction

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Today, consumers are immune to traditional advertising. User-generated content (UGC) has become more and more important as marketing teams push for greater authenticity, transparency and interactive new media experience. Yet the number of social platforms where consumers can share content is continuously growing, and Reddit is one of them, with its 50 million daily active users worldwide. The platform, with its diverse communities, engaging discussions, and the ability to amplify ideas, has become a central hub for millions of users worldwide.

DAO Labs has recently launched its public testing phase of the DAOVERSE Reddit Program, which started on May 26^th. 10 experienced Redditors from the community worked on the first round of tests. Now, the group of testers is gradually increasing and we expect many more to come. After a period of bug elimination and reviews the module will be made public to everyone who wants to make a profitable side hustle on Social Mining.

In this article we will dig into the platform, talking about Reddit’s functionalities and features, its importance for UGC and the potentiality to spread the word on Social Mining, as well as some tips on how to compose good (and viral) posts for the platform.

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What is Reddit and how does it work?

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Reddit, founded in 2005, is a social news aggregation, discussion, and community-based platform. It consists of a vast network of communities, known as "subreddits," each focused on a specific topic or interest. From technology to movies, jobs to gaming, and everything in between, Reddit covers virtually every niche you can think about.
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On this platform, users can browse, vote, comment, and submit content. The approval rating lies in upvoting and downvoting content, and this voting system allows the community to collectively determine which content rises to the top and gains visibility.

Reddit uses a story algorithm to determine the importance the community reserves to every single post, meaning that both the number of votes and submission time of links have the biggest impact on how posts rank on the platform.

The first few minutes of the post going live, as well as the initial reactions and engagement it receives are crucial to its future existence on the platform. If the post instantly achieves engagement right after posting, more users will be likely to see it. The relevance decreases, instead, if it happens later.

The best way, then, is to focus on time: the post that gains visibility gradually and from the start can continue to speed up.

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The Importance of Reddit for UGC

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1. Community-driven content: Reddit focuses on UGC. It empowers users to contribute with their thoughts, ideas, and creativity, giving them a platform to share their knowledge and experiences with a large audience.

2. Niche expertise: Each subreddit tends to attract passionate individuals with specialised knowledge. This creates opportunities for users to learn from experts, ask questions, and explore topics they're interested in.

3. Source of information: Reddit represents a useful and valuable resource for gathering information and opinions from people around the world. Here users can receive recommendations, feedback, and advice on several topics.

4. Trend identification: With millions of users actively participating in discussions, Reddit shows all the emerging trends, popular opinions and facts, and new perspectives. It can be a valuable tool for marketers, and trend analysts to gain insights into consumer sentiment.

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Spreading the Word on Social Mining

Social media platforms, such as Reddit, when properly used and managed, can be beneficial to reaching thousands of people in a heartbeat. The opportunities are endless, from brand engagement to understanding your audience, and ultimately building those valuable customer relationships, and also creating opportunities of monetization both for business and users.

As a matter of fact, Reddit provides:

1. Subreddit communities: When users find a subreddit aligned with their interests, they can share relevant information or initiatives within that community. This targeted approach helps spread the word to individuals who are already engaged and interested in the topic.

2. Viral potential: Engaging content on Reddit has the potential to go viral and reach a massive audience. Memes, creative projects, and thought-provoking discussions can quickly gain traction, leading to widespread visibility and impact beyond the platform itself.

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When we talk about virality we must also consider where the platform is more widely used and what kind of users mostly visit and browse the platform. In general terms, we can say that the platform is more popular among English-speaking communities, above all in the USA, where users reach 18% of the US adult population. As a matter of fact, the latest Reddit statistics show that it is currently the tenth most-used social networking site in the United States (Pew Research Center, 2021). Alas, content must adapt to the preferences of those users, even though -despite the statistics- this dominance is in decline, in favour of other countries, such as India.

How will Social Mining help monetize through Reddit?

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Joining the Reddit Program on one of the Social Mining platforms provided by DAO Labs, valuable contributions can have the chance to be monetized. How?

First of all, we need to understand the platform and identify the right combo of requirements to go viral. In fact, writing, commenting, and composing the best posts on Reddit requires a combination of understanding the platform's culture, following subreddit-specific rules, and creating engaging content. Here are some tips to help you push impactful posts on Reddit:

1. Study the subreddit: Before posting, spend some time exploring the subreddit you plan to contribute to. Read the community guidelines and become confident with the topics, tone, and expectations. Each subreddit has its own rules and preferences, so tailor your content accordingly.

2. Be concise and clear: Reddit users appreciate well-written and short posts. Make your title informative and appealing, and use the body of your post to provide more context, if necessary. Write in a way that is accessible to a wide audience, avoiding a complicated language.

3. Provide value: Ensure to offer something of value to the community. It means, sharing interesting perspectives, useful information, personal stories, even provoking content. Strive to educate, entertain, or light engaging discussions.

4. Add visuals: Incorporating images, memes or gifs, and videos can make your posts more attractive and notable. Visuals can effectively convey information, add humour, or evoke emotions. Ensure that the specific subreddit approves visuals and that they are relevant and consistent with the topic.

5. Engage with the community: Interact with other Redditors by upvoting or replying to comments on your posts and actively participating in discussions. Answer, ask questions, and express appreciation for contributions. Building a positive presence and fostering meaningful conversations can increase the impact of your posts.

6. Follow Reddiquette: Reddit has a set of guidelines known as "Reddiquette." Become familiar with them to ensure respectful and consistent interactions. Avoid personal attacks, spamming, or excessively self-promoting your content or business. Basically, contribute positively.

7. Stay active: Regularly contributing to the subreddit(s) you're interested in is important to your authority and influence. So, do not forget to participate in discussions, comment on others' posts, and share quality content.

8. Time counts: Posting at the right time can significantly impact the visibility and engagement of your content. Consider the time zones and demographics of your target audience. Experiment with posting at different times and days to test when the subreddits of your interest are most active.
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9. Learn from feedback: Pay attention to the feedback and responses you receive on your posts, as well as from the deletion rate of your posts on different subreddits, to improve your future contributions. Adapt to the subreddit’s rules and continually fine-tune your content.
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Now, keep in mind the above recommendations and start your journey with the DAO Labs Reddit Program.

The testing phase

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Since the beginning of the Test Phase, started on May 26th, 69 Daoversians onboarded but only the 20 best Reddit users from the DAOVERSE community, were selected to join this crucial phase of the program, which will open its doors to the whole community very soon.

Every single week our Redditors experimented with different content styles, from short educational articles to questions, from static images to gif, posting on a wide range of subreddits, in order to identify possible patterns, test the algorithm, verify approval and deletion rate based on the content shared, as well as the right strategy to grab the Reddit audience and get the best from the platform in terms of organic engagement and awareness.

Redditors were asked not only to share threads on different communities on Reddit, but also to comment on relevant and pertinent posts. Results have shown that threads, which are the primary content units on Reddit, serving as the starting point for discussions and contribute to the overall community experience, encounter more chances to go viral but, at the same time, the highest risk to be removed for several reasons: self-promotion, off-topics content compared to the Reddiquette, or violation of subreddit rules, and it is necessary to properly understand what moderators would like to see on their own subreddits. Comments, instead, have so far the best chances to remain live on the platform. They are useful and powerful because they contribute to make Reddit the dynamic and engaging platform it is supposed to be, which is based on the quality of content and the power to provide additional information, insights or sources related to the post, encouraging diverse viewpoints. Comments also help to ensure that accurate information is disseminated and promotes a more informed community. Besides, comments guarantee support and empathy to users browsing and asking for advice on the platform. They provide emotional support, and guidance.
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