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How to use Reddit to get your first users

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Re: How to use Reddit to get your first users

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the sole active moderator of r/electricvehicles, and you wouldn't believe the amount of self-promotion spam that I have to deal with on that sub. It's gotten to the point that I've written a custom Python app to use the Reddit API to pull all of the analytics on any new post and present it to me in a digested form: How old is the account? How much organic-looking activity has the user done across other subreddits…

You have a SaaS product in there.

Probably yes :)

I discovered with this thread that the mod tools are not unified on Reddit!

Re: How to use Reddit to get your first users

#112
post #4

Isn't this problematic due to the 1:10 self-promotion rule on reddit? "For every 1 time you post self-promotional content, 9 other posts (submissions or comments) should not contain self-promotional content."

De facto the only enforcers of this rule are moderators, who care more about their subreddit-specific rules anyway.

Re: How to use Reddit to get your first users

#113

The article can be summarised to: "Use the subreddit where your target audience hangs out" Nothing wrong with the advice, but most subreddits have a no self-promotion policy (and reddit has a "no promotion over 10% of account activity" policy). There are things like self promotion threads but its only visited by people looking to promote their products and not by other people. Users who don't cease the promotion on b…

I'm the sole active moderator of r/electricvehicles, and you wouldn't believe the amount of self-promotion spam that I have to deal with on that sub. It's gotten to the point that I've written a custom Python app to use the Reddit API to pull all of the analytics on any new post and present it to me in a digested form: How old is the account? How much organic-looking activity has the user done across other subreddits…

All those little pieces of code, are what keep millions of subs from just not collapsing.

Say whatever anyone wants, I think reddit is the future of human moderation (millions of experiments), over FAANG and their army of invisible workers and rules.

Re: How to use Reddit to get your first users

#114
post #99

The article can be summarised to: "Use the subreddit where your target audience hangs out" Nothing wrong with the advice, but most subreddits have a no self-promotion policy (and reddit has a "no promotion over 10% of account activity" policy). There are things like self promotion threads but its only visited by people looking to promote their products and not by other people. Users who don't cease the promotion on b…

I have successfully promoted my company on Reddit, but it is tricky, for the reasons mentioned. There are two techniques that worked for me. 0. Be a chronic reddit user for years, with a main account that has thousands of karma and a couple of throwaway accounts that also have various content. 1. Write an interesting blog post with useful content that relates to your product, and post it on a relevant subreddit. Put…

Interesting! You mean facebook & instagram ads or groups/regular posts?

Re: How to use Reddit to get your first users

#115
post #23

My colleague posted a socially awkward penguin meme ridiculing his failure as a mobile game developer. The post itself was funny and relatable, but didn't have any self-promotion. People asked about the game in the comments and he got his biggest download day as a result.

fishing for someone to ask about your product feels just as disingenuous as posting from a brand account but reddit slurps it up.

It seems different to me, because on subreddits plagued by self promotion, nobody will ask.

Re: How to use Reddit to get your first users

#116
post #102

The article can be summarised to: "Use the subreddit where your target audience hangs out" Nothing wrong with the advice, but most subreddits have a no self-promotion policy (and reddit has a "no promotion over 10% of account activity" policy). There are things like self promotion threads but its only visited by people looking to promote their products and not by other people. Users who don't cease the promotion on b…

This is still news to me, the 10% rule is presented as 10% of posts... posting 9 other things to post 1 of my OCs seemed overly excessive. Now I might actually start posting some things...

That's less drivable than ads for sure. I should probably compare the two ROI and see what's the more efficient!

Re: How to use Reddit to get your first users

#117
post #95

Does anyone else have experience posting on Reddit for marketing purposes that they can share? I haven’t done it myself, but my understanding is that most subreddits frown upon self promotion posts. The article makes it sound like it’s as simple as posting to the right subreddits to get views, but I’m skeptical. The author also mentions getting 400 visitors as an example of success. 400 visitors is nice, but given th…

The benefit may be long-term trickle of visitors. I once recommended my app as an answer in a Reddit thread, and it is still getting me a few visitors per week. Really depends on your app and where you promote it. About 5% of my visitors buy my app, and that's probably because they come from targeted Reddit comments (or organic searches for the specific thing my app offers).

That's true, I still get a few visitors per day from the post I made on /r/nocode.

If your post is in the top of the month/year/all time it will bring you visitors on the long term. (I guess they're also better on Google search. Not sure tho)

Re: How to use Reddit to get your first users

#119

The article can be summarised to: "Use the subreddit where your target audience hangs out" Nothing wrong with the advice, but most subreddits have a no self-promotion policy (and reddit has a "no promotion over 10% of account activity" policy). There are things like self promotion threads but its only visited by people looking to promote their products and not by other people. Users who don't cease the promotion on b…

I thought this was a good "Ask HN" on the topic:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25118624

The OP asked about how to self promote on Reddit and there were a variety of answers (including what you said: "don't").

Re: How to use Reddit to get your first users

#120
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have successfully promoted my company on Reddit, but it is tricky, for the reasons mentioned. There are two techniques that worked for me. 0. Be a chronic reddit user for years, with a main account that has thousands of karma and a couple of throwaway accounts that also have various content. 1. Write an interesting blog post with useful content that relates to your product, and post it on a relevant subreddit. Put…

Interesting! You mean facebook & instagram ads or groups/regular posts?

Posts in our company's page or on our own walls gave us the best clickthrough, and we did a lot of grinding to build up our audience there. Facebook ads did well also, we would pay about 30c/click and something like 10% of those turned into sales. Instagram actually didn't do well for us - we got a higher sales capture rate but fewer clicks. We just didn't give the insta account the attention that it deserved (before I left the business, anyway).
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