Anyone who has ventured onto Reddit, whether casually browsing or diving deep into popular subreddits like r/science (33M members) or r/AskReddit (48M members), knows it can be a source of endless possibilities.
Reddit has over 91 million daily active uniques and more than 100,000 communities where people can dive into anything through experiences built around their interests, hobbies, and passions. On Reddit, users can choose to share as much or as little information about themselves as they like. This further fuels an environment of trust, and it brings an authenticity, or “realness” to interactions on Reddit.
In a recent webinar, we were joined by Gabriel Sands, Reddit’s News & Lifestyle Partnerships Lead. He’s positioned to help busy newsrooms leverage the often untapped resources of Reddit’s communities.
Here, he explains what makes Reddit different from other platforms, explaining its architecture and functionality to enhance content discovery. We’ll also outline how journalists can use Reddit via NewsWhip alongside best practices.
But first, if you’re a Reddit “newb”, here’s an overview of the platform.
What is Reddit and who uses it?
Most of you will have either used or at least heard of Reddit. For the uninitiated, here is Gabriel’s insight into exactly how Reddit works:
“Reddit is oriented entirely around communities. And the communities are either going to be topical or interest-based. Users participate in and contribute to these communities. That’s really what makes them tick… everything architecturally on Reddit hangs from these communities.”
Gabriel Sands
What makes Reddit different?
Some key ways Reddit makes for a more authentic user experience include:
- Reddit is all about communities, called Subreddits. Let’s say you’re seeking news, then the naming convention is ‘r/news’.
- Unlike other platforms, Reddit tailors your feed to your interests and is great for explorative learning.
- Users have pseudonymous usernames, encouraging genuine participation.
- This anonymity leads to more open sharing.
How journalists can use Reddit via NewsWhip
Stories can start on Reddit and often become breaking news in the subsequent weeks. This compounds it as a valuable resource for journalists, who could drive value from the platform for both audience and content development.
In terms of audience development, Reddit users are highly engaged and passionate, often discussing news and related content. This provides an opportunity to expand reach and connect with new audiences. Despite many news outlets being active on Reddit, it remains a relatively untapped resource with a vast network of communities.
When sourcing potential content, journalists often collaborate with users and moderators for sources and submissions, while adopting best practices (outlined below). They monitor contributions to identify trends and inform their content strategy. With over 100,000 communities, it’s crucial to find relevant content within specific areas of focus.
Using Reddit via NewsWhip
There are several ways you can filter and source the content you need from Reddit via NewsWhip Spike.
Keywords: By creating a pre-made Reddit dashboard on NewsWhip Spike, you can track keyword mentions across the network and see where they appear in top communities. For example, searching “congestion pricing” shows how micro-communities develop.
Simply type the keyword into the search bar to get real-time results for the past seven days. For a more targeted view, you can focus on the last 24 hours. You have all of Reddit at your disposal, with many ways to slice the data.
The dashboard lets you search posts and comments, surfacing the term across any subreddit. Rank results by upvotes, number of comments, or recent activity to identify genuine engagement and relevant discussions. It also shows top communities with the most engagement, making it easier to find areas of interest.
Communities: People often want a broad mandate to surface content through keywords. However, there are also specific verticals where communities are already known, and the goal is to simply keep track of them.
To follow discussions on specific topics within Reddit, you can track communities directly. If you have a list of specific verticals, you can monitor those communities via Spike without using keywords. For example, a lifestyle publisher can create a curated list of relevant subreddits and track discussions there.
Audience Development: you can create an Audience Development Dashboard, which helps you see which communities are most active daily. Editorial teams can use it to understand which topics are trending. You can view data from the last seven days or further back (within any timeframe back to 2021), tracking specific users and influential subreddits.
Content Sourcing: By analyzing Reddit content via Spike, you can identify emerging trends and engage with organic discussions. Monitoring comments and posts helps inform editorial decisions. During your morning meetings, you can assess the viability of discussions to determine growth or stagnation.
Everyone always wants more evidence to back editorial decisions, hence why users rely heavily on the comment search in Spike. This tool is incredibly powerful for any Reddit project, allowing you to search for matching comments using keywords. It provides a clear view of top-performing comments, even if you’re not familiar with Reddit’s structure.
The keyword search bar, which includes subreddits, is invaluable. The URL search lets you analyze content or perform competitor analysis over any timeframe.
Best practices for journalists using Reddit
When a journalist wants to engage with Reddit, what’s the next step? How should you incorporate it into your reporting? Below are some best practices to employ.
- Be strategic when posting: Where you post on Reddit can significantly impact your content’s exposure. If you’re analyzing your own content or conducting competitor analysis to see what other publishers or newsrooms are doing, this method provides an effective overview. You can quickly check content performance and posting times without combing through the platform.
- Use Reddit’s embed tool: When a journalist uses Reddit, the next step is to integrate it into their reporting. The simplest way is to use Reddit’s embedding features. Just click “share” and then “embed” on the site to get the embed code, which you can drop into your CMS.
- Always be transparent: Journalists engaging in subreddits should be transparent; trust is key in communities. While Reddit values anonymity, professionals should create dedicated accounts for official use.
Reddit also recently launched Reddit Pro, a suite of tools and features to enable businesses and organizations of all kinds to establish and grow a meaningful organic presence on the platform. To learn more about Reddit Pro and sign up, visit their website.
Key Takeaway
If you’d like to find out more about how NewsWhip Spike can help you with your audience and content development, plus media monitoring, you can read more here.
