A Review of Reddit

Reddit has a population of 5 billion users from all parts of the world and it ranks the 6th most-visited site in the States. This means it’s recorded more traffic than LinkedIn, Twitter, Netflix, eBay, or Instagram. In a review of Reddit, I will help you understand the power of this great platform.

What is Reddit?

Reddit is a social network that thrives broadly on anonymity? Even if you don’t use other social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter, you hear a lot about each of them. But you don’t hear as much about Reddit because it’s a network that thrives in its own niche.

Reddit is a mix of media, trends, micro-cultures, inside jokes, and micro-communities – and this is what makes it amazing.

All you have to do is just learn the ropes, and you will discover a new world of possibilities. So, what’s Reddit all about, and why must it pride itself as the internet’s first page? This post will show you everything you require to know to use Reddit successfully.

Getting Started with Reddit?

Reddit combines site content, social news, an online community, and a social network into a legend type of network. Users can post to the platform text, images, links, and videos. They can up-vote or down-vote the text, images, or videos that they like.

It’s a meritocratic system and it ensures that good content goes up and uninteresting content goes down. So, we can say that Reddit is the home of the most viral sensations and web memes. Reddit is really a different world created in 2005 and growing bigger every day.

 What is a Subreddit?

As explained above, Reddit functions like an online community. A subreddit is a small forum within Reddit and is based on a specific topic. Everything has its own subreddit.

You will find your common topics discussed on subreddits like:

• Travel: /r/travel/ or /r/backpacking/
• Crafts: r/SomethingICreated or r/Crafts
• warming: r/warming or r/AskCulinary
• Fitness: r/Fitness or /r/GYM/
• Job: r/entrepreneur, or r/smallenterprise

But it doesn’t end there. Anything that you can think of in this world, you will find a subreddit for it.

There’s a subreddit that’s dedicated to users who post images showing birds with real arms: /r/birdswitharms/. You will find other subreddits where users post pointless pieces: /r/pointlesspieces.

There is even a subreddit r/CatsStandingUp? It’s a network of users who post interesting videos and images of cats standing up.

Every community has its own norms, practices, rules, etiquette, posts, and subscribers. You will find the subreddit’s rules on the sidebar.

Communities have the ability to sort posts, and this is Key to the Reddit experience. The posts use these features to gain a lot of traction quickly.

It doesn’t commonly happen though, if a subreddit is no longer operating, you can start your own immediately.

Is Reddit A Complete Social Platform?

On social media, people share videos and post updates. And Reddit fits in exactly!

Can Reddit Be Likened to a Social Platform?

On social sites, people own personal feeds and profiles and primarily use the site to build relationships with other users. Reddit doesn’t aim to be a normal social media platform.

Reddit is a forum where content fills up everywhere.

Squirrel Tim described the site better. He said; “If Facebook is someone you know sharing things you don’t like, then Reddit is something you love which somebody you don’t know shares.”

Is Reddit a Social Media Site?

In brief, yes! However, it’s not similar to the common social media sites.

It’s the community values that make it different from others. Reddit appreciates people’s skills, experience, and contribution to the network. The main goal is to create a valuable community that exists in a subreddit.

In short; Reddit is about the community, and not about you. And when it comes to the area of user-generated content (UGC), Reddit is not strong.

You can publish any lovely photo of your selfie or lunch on Instagram. But if you try this on Reddit, you will get a ton of downvotes and negative comments.

There are 2 different categories of people and they are:

• The big fans of Reddit (Redditors)
• The novices.

So, How Do You Use Reddit?

Now that you know what Reddit is, let’s get started. First, Reddit builds its network broadly on anonymity. People don’t usually register with their real names or year of birth and this can be frustrating

People create few real accounts and many dummy accounts that they use for subreddits or certain situations.

The broad anonymity provides a basis for accessibility. In other words, just about anything goes on the Reddit platform. You have the freedom to interact with others and share updates. It strictly monitors anonymity by transparency.

A user can view other users’ posting history. This is how subreddit moderators and communities easily secure themselves. They find out how genuine a user is based on his Reddit Karma and recent posts.

So when you want to create an account, make sure you use an anonymous name as your username.

You will have no problem with creating an account.

• All you need to provide is an active email address, a unique username, and your login password.

• Upon creating an account, Reddit will recommend a trending subreddit to you. Subscribe to it, and then visit reddit.com/subreddits to unlock more subreddits.

• You can also use the drop-down menu at the top of the page to get more subreddits.

What next?

What is Reddit Karma?

Karma is the basis Reddit uses to discover a user’s credibility. The number of karma points accrued shows on every user’s profile.

Your popularity increases as your karma goes up. The more karma points you get, the more seriously other members will interact with you.

There are 2 types of karma and they are:

• Post karma, which you earn from up-votes on your content in subreddits
• Comment karma, which you earn from up-votes on the comments you offer to other users’ posts.

If other users down-vote any of your comments and posts until you score below zero, then you will lose some Karma points.

So, do you grow Karma points on the Reddit platform?

The first step is to subscribe to subreddits that you believe you can contribute to actively. What are your hobbies and interests? Have you got any special skills, experience, or professional knowledge? Then, start participating in your desired subreddits.

Literally, you must leave high-quality comments on other users’ posts frequently. You also reply to the comments others leave on your own posts.

You can always use r/askreddit to ask or provide answers to any question. It takes time and dedication to grow Karma points on Reddit. So, aim to contribute powerfully and frequently.

Contributing to the Reddit Network

Reddit is about interacting with other users in the network. Contributing to discussions, posts, and subreddits is the lifeblood of Reddit. You increase Karma points when you get more upvotes.

To begin to post, proceed to a subreddit and hit the “Create Post” button. This is located below the subreddit title and description.

There are 3 post types to share on the Reddit network and they are:

• Links: Post a link with a good title and direct visitors to a webpage
• Video and Image: Share videos and pictures with a short title
• Posts: Write an interesting post

Note that subreddits will occasionally restrict you to any one of these 3 post types.

Search first Before You Start Sharing on Reddit

Before you make any post, ensure that you use the search feature of Reddit. Check to see that you aren’t posting duplicate content – Redditors hate this!

A good way to perform an accurate search is to use shortcodes. To search for the word “dogs”, use the keyphrase “title: dogs”.

Some search queries that you can explore on Reddit:

• NSFW: NSFW content: For NSFW submissions, set it to yes. You can also set it to no. 0 and 1 are allowed. An example is nsfw: 0 or nsfw: no
• Author: This is the user that submitted the content. An example is an author: PresidentJoe
• Selftext: This is for self-content, the body of the content. An example is selftext: dogs
• Subreddit: This is the submission’s Reddit. An example is subreddit: dogs
• Site: This is the submitted URL. An example is a site: yourURL.com
• URL: This is the site’s address. An example is a URL: dogs
• Title: This is the submission title. An example is a title: dogs.

Also, ensure that you contribute something that will be beneficial to the subreddit.

Understanding the Language and Jargon on Reddit

After spending quality time reading Reddit comments and posts, you’ll find that Redditors have created their own jargon. There are series of special words and abbreviations that they communicate with.

Here’s a list of common terms used on Reddit to help you get familiar with the modern world.

List of the Terms in Reddit

AMAA: This means “Ask Me Almost Anything.”

AMA: This means “Ask Me Anything.” This is an invitation from the Redditors to users, promising to answer anything they ask. It usually begins with “I Am A [something captivating about you], Ask Me Anything.” For example, check out this: r/AMA.

So Brave or Brave: This is used to ironically reach out to someone moving along with trending ideas or to dismiss a comment.

How Should You Use Reddit for Your Business?

Redditors quickly flog anyone who does URL shortening, marketing, and self-promotion. Don’t engage in anything that makes it look like you’re trying to use Reddit as a marketplace.

Keep in mind that Reddit is a community built for interactions.

So, if you play smart selling in a subreddit, this could likely affect your brand reputation in a bad way. What’s the best way to use Reddit for your business?

The safest way to promote your business on Reddit is to run ads! Reddit creates a space for ads. Advertisers are always willing to promote their business. So, this is to prevent users from turning subreddit feeds into self-promoting spaces.

You can target specific people according to their subreddits with your Reddit ads.

So, comply strictly with Reddiquette or face the penalties.

Reddiquette is Reddit’s specific etiquette or rules.

The community created “shadowbanning” due to the broad use of multiple accounts.

“Shadowbanning” is used to describe the process of banning users from the entire Reddit community. And this happens without notifying the user.

When you get “shadowbanned”, your comments and posts will no longer be visible to the community but only to you. Other users will not see them again. So, make sure you don’t get “shadowbanned”.

This will make it impossible for the “shadowbanned” users to keep abusing the community or create multiple accounts. In short, they won’t be able to continue in their wrong actions.

Also, the Redditors will make the profile of the “shadowbanned” user show an error page.

If you feel you got wrongly shadowbanned, log out and then re-login. However, if you think you were wrongly shadowbanned, you can reach out to the Redditors.

How Should You Avoid Getting Shadowbanned?

You can get shadowbanned for illegal attacks, insults, self-serving activities, and for posting someone’s confidential information.

In other words, just play nice!

When you start using the network, remember to first keep in mind other users and the entire community. Aim to help others and create valuable posts. Always keep in mind to check the guidelines in each subreddit before you start using it.

Conclusion

Reddit is a rare class of the social community. It focuses more on building a community than persons. And if you need to discover new trends and sensations before others do, Reddit is the answer.

Don’t forget that:

• There’s a thriving space for every topic or interest.
• Reddit is a place where every niche goes. So, it thrives on anonymity.
• The best way to explore Reddit is to contribute positively to comments and subreddits.
• Reddiquette is taken seriously, and there’s a strict etiquette.
• It takes time and dedication to grow Karma, but as you participate more, your popularity grows.
• You can be shadowbanned if you abuse the community or fill it up with promotional posts.
• The Reddit Ads is the safest way to use Reddit for business.

Discover subreddits and check them out today.

I hope this has helped you in your research, please leave a comment, or a like and share.

Thanks for visiting.

LILY