Reddit is a website with two reputations.
For Redditors (as its users are called), it's a good way to keep your finger on the pulse of the internet, participate in open discussions around shared interests, get answers from highly engaged niche communities, and, of course, perpetuate memes.
For outsiders who haven’t learned how to use Reddit, though, it might seem like a haven for snark and sarcasm, where anonymity runs rampant and users commit to weird inside jokes and try to one-up each other for upvotes.
Reddit is an entirely different world compared to TikTok, Instagram, Twitter or wherever else you might spend your time online. So in a way, Snoo—Reddit’s iconic alien pictured in this post’s header—is a fitting mascot for this strange, wildly popular community-based website.
But there are plenty of reasons to put some time into learning how to use Reddit.
With 52 million daily active users and a $10 billion valuation, Reddit is the 16th most popular social media platform and considers itself “the front page of the internet.”
Reddit is also where a lot of viral content gets early traction, where celebrities and interesting people open up and tell the world to “ask me anything,” and people come together to talk about every topic under the sun.
There is a subreddit for (almost) everything—from r/Fitness for exercise and nutrition enthusiasts to r/CatsStandingUp which is literally just a bunch of pictures of cats … standing up.
This subreddit isn’t even among the top 100 weirdest things you’ll find on Reddit.
Once you get past the complicated-looking interface, understand the basics of how “sharing” works on the platform, and get to know its nuances, Reddit can add a lot of value to your life and—despite being generally averse to marketing—to your business.
Understanding the basics of Reddit
The first thing you need to understand is that Reddit thrives on anonymity, but it's kept in check by transparency.
Reddit thrives on anonymity, but its kept in check by transparency.
Using your real name or birth year in your username is strongly discouraged unless you plan to invest in your own personal brand. Speaking and engaging freely with others is how you get the most out of Reddit. That’s because other users can easily see your entire posting/commenting history, which makes it easy for the community to police itself and gauge how authentic a person is based on past behavior on the site.
Creating an account is easy enough. All you need is a username and password—you only need to enter your email if you want to verify your account for long-term use.
For this reason, it’s not uncommon for users to have one or two “main” accounts that they rely on and several “throwaway accounts” that are only used once or in certain situations.
Once you’ve signed up, you'll be automatically subscribed to several popular subreddits, like r/videos and r/gifs, but should also search for and subscribe to other subreddits you want to be a part of based on your interests.
Subreddits are niche communities within Reddit—each with its own rules, subscribers, and posts—indicated by r/subreddit (based on the URL structure: reddit.com/r/subreddit).
You can sort all the posts within a subreddit by Hot, New, Rising, Controversial, and Top submissions.
If you’re interested in handcrafts, you might join r/somethingimade or r/crafts.
If you run your own business, maybe you’ll weigh in at r/Entrepreneur or r/smallbusiness.
If you’re into cooking, you’ll probably check out r/Cooking or r/AskCulinary.
If there’s a subreddit you want that doesn’t exist (though that’s unlikely), you can even create your own subreddit.
Learning the language of Reddit
On Reddit, people tend to be fluent not only in “internet speak” but also terminology that’s specific to the platform. There are a whole host of terms and abbreviations you’ll end up learning over time.
Here’s a glossary of commonly used Reddit terms to help you navigate this strange new world—many of which will be covered in greater detail throughout this post:
A glossary of Reddit terms
- Upvote: A positive vote that indicates a post or comment contributes value to the subreddit or discussion.
- Downvote: A negative vote that indicates a post or comment is irrelevant, promotional, or doesn’t contribute any value.
- Karma: There’s post karma and comment karma, both of which reflect the quality of your account on Reddit. These points are awarded based on the upvotes you get from your actions on Reddit, and only exist to give the community a sense of your legitimacy and experience as a Redditor.
- Reddit Gold: A premium Reddit membership with additional features that can be bought for yourself or awarded to users who you think have made a significant contribution to Reddit.
- OP (original poster): Referring to the person who shared the post that the comment is made on.
- Mod (moderator): An account that polices the subreddit to make sure its rules are being followed, with special permissions to ban and remove users, posts, and comments as they see fit.
- TL;DR (too long; didn’t read): A short summary briefly describing a large body of text, usually in a lengthy text post.
- X-post (cross post): Sharing a post from one subreddit to another by submitting the URL of the original submission on Reddit and adding to the title that it’s an “X-post from [original subreddit].” This is considered the proper way to share something across multiple subreddits.
- Repost: Posting something that has already been posted in that subreddit. Try to avoid this by searching the subreddit to see if your link has already been shared.
- Lurking: Actively consuming a subreddit, but not actively contributing to it. Many people use Reddit this way.
- Throwaway account: A Reddit account that isn’t a user’s main account and wasn’t made for long-term use. A user can have several accounts made for different occasions.
- OC (original content): Content that is deemed original to Reddit and isn’t reposted from elsewhere, but is something a user has created themselves.
- IRL (in real life): Synonymous with the offline world and refers to your actual experiences outside of your online Reddit identity.
- NSFW (not safe for work): Explicit or inappropriate content you might not want to open in a public place. This is usually found in the post’s title to warn people before they click the link.
- FTFY (fixed that for you): A correction made regarding a typo or factual error, or sometimes used as a tongue-in-cheek comment.
- TIL(today I learned): Something the user didn’t know before, but now knows (probably) because of the internet. There’s an entire subreddit for these lessons in r/todayilearned.
- AMA (ask me anything): An invitation for Redditors to ask any questions they may have with the promise that the user will answer. It usually starts with “I am a [something unique/interesting about you], ask me anything.” Visit r/AMA for examples.
- Shadow banning: Since a person with a banned account can just go make another one, "shadow banning” is a special punishment where the user is unaware that they are banned because, instead of having their account shut down, all of their future posts are essentially made invisible to everyone else.
- Flair: Added as part of your display name within a specific subreddit (some are defined by the mods, and some let you create your own). Sometimes the subreddit’s rules will require you to use a flair to indicate you are a specific type of poster.
By no means is this a comprehensive list, nor should you expect to grasp it all right away, but it's a good resource to refer back to as you get to know Reddit.
Reddiquette: Understanding the rules of Reddit
Online etiquette is important wherever you post online. But it’s even more important on Reddit, where it’s easy to hide behind anonymity and engage in bullying, spam, and sneaky self-promotion.
You can read up in full about Reddit’s own guidelines, or Reddiquette, but it boils down to one simple rule:
Aim to contribute value with every action and consider the community first.
When you post something, ask yourself if it’s relevant to the subreddit and do a quick search to see if it’s already been posted there.
When you upvote, downvote, or comment on someone’s post, consider how it’s benefiting the greater good of the subreddit.
You’ll quickly realize that commenting and sharing on Reddit is very different from, say, Facebook.
Posts and comments need to add value—posting the same thing someone else has posted or commenting with “That’s hilarious” or “Cute dog” won’t get you upvotes, but something new, witty, insightful, or educational will.
Each subreddit also has its own rules and guidelines, which you can find on the right sidebar.
These rules are enforced through a combination of:
- Manual moderation via the subreddit’s moderators
- Automation via moderator “bots” that flag posts that break certain rules
- The subreddit’s community via the downvoting and reporting system
It’s best to assume each subreddit is different from the next and to take some time to get to know the rules and posting behavior of each one before contributing. Ignoring the rules can get your post deleted or get you banned from the subreddit.
Posting and commenting on Reddit
Posting and commenting on Reddit is how you get upvotes that lead to karma, which is Reddit’s way of quantifying the contributions of each user.
There are two types of submissions you can make on Reddit (although certain subreddits might limit themselves to just one or the other):
- Post: Expand into a text-based post that you can format and add links to to provoke a discussion.
- Image: Share pictures with a title to convey an idea.
- Link: Take visitors directly to a webpage or piece of content when they click through on your post.
- Poll: Get an opinion on anything and encourage Redditors to vote.
- Talk: Host events, AMAs, hangout, and connect with other Redditors through live audio.
You can submit these from the “Create a post” page on your subreddit and clicking Post when you’re ready to publish.
Before you submit, however, be sure to use Reddit’s search feature to make sure you’re not reposting an existing post (Redditors frown upon this). You can find tips here on how to get specific with your searches.
Timing, the text you write, and the subreddit you submit to all play a role in gaining traction on Reddit. Get enough upvotes and comments in a short amount of time and your post could end up at the top of the subreddit and then eventually the front page of Reddit, where millions of people will see it.
How to build up your Reddit karma quickly
Since Reddit embraces anonymity and having multiple accounts is common among users, the karma system is how Reddit establishes credibility. The more karma you have, the more seriously Reddit will take you. But there are two kinds: post karma and comment karma.
You get post karma for the upvotes you receive on posts, and comment karma for the upvotes you receive on your comments, so it’s a good idea to be active in the comments of your own submissions and in posts by others. You can also lose karma if your individual posts or comments are irrelevant and get enough downvotes for the count to fall below zero.
There’s no easy way to build karma on Reddit. You’ll need to consistently contribute to the platform in meaningful ways.
However, there are strategies to help you get going:
- Make a list of very niche subreddits that you’re in a good position to contribute to because you’re an expert or enthusiast. Then go to the New tab and see if there are any relevant questions you can answer.
- Go to r/AskReddit and ask or answer questions for post and comment karma.
- Make an effort to incorporate Reddit submissions into your regular day-to-day browsing. When you find something worth sharing, post it on one of the highly active subreddits on this list, wherever it would be most relevant.
How to use Reddit to share your indie game
Reddit’s community puts a lot of effort into protecting its integrity. Users will go out of their way to vet suspicious activity by browsing an account’s posting history to gauge its authenticity.
Reddit generally hates shameless marketing, self-promotion, URL shorteners, and anything that makes you seem like you’re only using Reddit as a place to sell your products or services. If you want to understand the level of disdain Redditors have toward this behavior, just look at r/indiegames.
But that doesn’t mean Reddit can’t be useful for game developers. Redditors trust the platform when it comes to helpful information about products. Some 90% of people who use Reddit for research reportedly trust the product information they find more than information they find on other sites.
Once you’ve built up some karma and a decent posting history, you can begin harnessing Reddit to grow and improve your business. Let’s look at what types of content you can publish on the platform, whether you’re a startup or an established business.
1. Pay for Reddit ads
Recent data revealed that Reddit purchase journeys result in deeper research sessions, nine times faster purchase decisions, and 15% more spending compared to other social platforms.
Advertising on Reddit is probably among one of the safest ways to market your game on Reddit. With Reddit ads, you can target people based on the subreddits they’ve subscribed to, which lets you get in front of some very specific, super-passionate niches.
Keep in mind that Reddit advertising operates on a cost-per-impression (CPM) basis rather than cost-per-click (CPC), which you might be used to with Facebook ads or Google Ads.
2. Promote in the right subreddits
There's a subreddit for everything, and that includes deals. If your game is totally free, you can post in r/freegames. If it is just a demo, you can post in r/freegamedemos.
If your game is made with Unity Engine, post in r/unity3d; if it is made using Unreal Engine, use r/UnrealEngine, if it is made using RPG Maker post in r/rpgmaker and so on. If your demo or game is on indiexpo website, you can create a post in r/indiexpo.
3. Customer service and community management
Brands both small and large should consider monitoring Reddit for brand mentions and replying to them. There are a lot of people on Reddit asking about potential purchases, airing complaints about companies, and talking about other things you’ll want to keep an eye out for. A community management plan can lead to higher engagement with Redditors and more sales.
4. Post something interesting (that happens to do with your business)
Reddit might not like marketing, but it does like authenticity. For a lot of game developers, their game is an extension of their life and it won’t come across as inauthentic to share it in certain contexts.
5. Do an AMA if you have a compelling story
You can raise your game company's profile and build your personal brand by doing an AMA on Reddit. Post in r/AMA, or find a relevant post and comment on it with “I am the Game Developer of ______. Ask me anything.”
AMAs are conducted by regular folks, like this car salesman, all the way up to Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple. As long as you can position yourself as someone with unique insight, Reddit will have some good questions to ask.
6. Curate viral content
Reddit is an endless source of good content. By subscribing to the subreddits that relate to the niche you’re selling in, you’ll get a steady stream of top quality content to curate: articles, videos, GIFs, and more.
7. Hire local or remote talent
Like any social network, you can also use Reddit to find and hire specific talent. If you’re looking for someone who lives near you to hire full time, you can post about the job in your city or region’s subreddit (e.g., r/Toronto, if you're hiring in Toronto). Or you can post in the subreddits dedicated to the skills you need (e.g., r/gameartists, if you’re looking for a copywriter).
8. Market research and feedback
Depending on the subreddit, you can ask its subscribers to give you feedback about your game or product idea. Be careful and transparent about doing this in non-business-related subreddits, especially when you are a new user.
When in doubt, ask for feedback in business-related subreddits such as r/indiedev.
Reddit is best when you put the community first
When I first gave Reddit a try, I was put off because I didn't “get it” and couldn’t find any substance on it because I didn’t know how to find it.
But once you’ve subscribed and contributed to a few subreddits and understand how to find the discussions you want, it becomes a great source of value in your life, where you can freely ask your questions to a community of enthusiasts, learn new things every day, and contribute front-page-worthy posts.
Hopefully you now have a better understanding of how to use Reddit.
Reddit won’t always make sense. It can be hard to familiarize yourself with the site when every subreddit has its defined rules and inside jokes, each carving out its own unique corner of the web. But that’s what makes it so great.
