What is Reddit?
Reddit combines web content, social news, a forum, and a social network into one giant platform. Registered members can contribute to the site with content such as images, text, videos, and links. All content on the site can be voted up or down by other members.
This meritocratic system ensures that exciting content rises to the top and uninteresting content falls into an abyss. As a result, Reddit is the birthplace of most internet memes and viral sensations.
That’s why Reddit’s iconic alien, “Snoo,” is such a perfect mascot for this oddball community-based platform.
What is a Subreddit?
A subreddit is a micro-community within Reddit based on a specific topic – and there’s a subreddit for everything. Sure, you’ve got your usual topics covered with subreddits like:
But it doesn’t stop there.
These niche communities each have rules, etiquette, subscribers, and posts.
You can view the subreddit’s rules in the right-hand sidebar:
At the top of each subreddit feed, you can use the drop-down menu to sort posts by:
Hot: Posts that are popular right now.
New: Recently shared posts.
Controversial: Posts receive a relatively equal amount of upvotes and downvotes.
Top: The most popular posts in a subreddit.
Rising: Posts that are currently receiving a lot of upvotes.
Niche communities, content voting, and the ability to filter posts by Hot, New, Controversial, Top, and Rising are central to the Reddit experience. These features allow interesting posts to gain massive traction quickly.
Although it’s improbable, if a subreddit doesn’t exist, you can always create your subreddit.
Is Reddit Social Media?
A social media website is a network platform people use to share and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities.
So, how can you become a Redditor? How to Use Reddit
Now that we’ve answered the question, “What is Reddit?” let’s dive in.
First things first: Reddit thrives on anonymity.
Most users don’t use their real names or birth year in their usernames, and it’s strongly discouraged.
The widespread anonymity provides a foundation for openness – in other words, anything goes on Reddit. You can share and interact freely. Plus, this anonymity is kept in check by transparency.
All users can see each other’s entire posting and commenting history. This makes it easy for subreddit communities and moderators to police themselves and learn how authentic a person is based on their previous posts and “Reddit karma.”So, when creating an account, consider using an anonymous username.
It’s easy to create an account. It would be best to have an email address, a username that isn’t in use, and a password.
When you first sign up, Reddit will suggest popular subreddits to subscribe to. Then, you can head to reddit.com/subreddits to search for more subreddits.
You can also use the tabs at the top of the page to navigate subreddits.
Start Posting and Commenting on Reddit
The site’s lifeblood is individual contributions to subreddits, posts, and discussions. Posting and commenting on Reddit is also how you get upvotes, increasing your karma.
To share a new post, head to a subreddit and click “Create Post” under the subreddit title and description.
There are three main types of posts that you can share on Reddit:
Post: Write something and add some media to go along with it.
Image & Video: Share media files with a simple title.
Link: Share a connection with a simple label to take visitors to another webpage or content.
It’s worth noting that subreddits will sometimes limit you to just one of these three types of posts.
How to Use Reddit for Business
Redditors are quick to shoot down anyone who engages in self-promotion, marketing, URL shorteners, and anything else that makes it seem like you’re using Reddit as a place to sell something.
Remember, this platform is all about community.
So, while you might be tempted to sneak your products into a subreddit like r/shutupandtakemymoney, there’s always the chance it might backfire and damage your business’ brand. How can you use Reddit for business?
Well, the safest way to use Reddit for business is to use Reddit ads.
These ads are tolerated because advertisers are upfront about their intention to promote their business. Plus, they’re using a dedicated space for promotions instead of clogging up subreddit feeds with self-serving content.
Reddit ads allow you to target people based on the subreddits they subscribe to. This means you can promote your marketing messages directly to specific, passionate, and engaged niches.
Reddiquette: Stick to the Rules or Face the Consequences
“Reddiquette” is the name given to Reddit’s particular rules and etiquette – which you’ve probably realized by now is vast.
You can read Reddit’s complete reddiquette guide here.
It’s imperative to stick to etiquette to avoid being “shadowbanned.”
Because of anonymity and the widespread use of multiple accounts, Reddit created “shadowbanning.”
This term describes banning users from all of Reddit if they break the rules – without the user being notified.
The shadowbanned user’s posts and comments will continue to appear for them, but others won’t see them.
This prevents users who abuse the rules from simply setting up another account to continue misbehavior.
However, a shadowbanned user’s profile will display an error page.
Plus, you can log out and check your profile if you’ve been shadowbanned. And if you feel you’ve been unfairly shadowbanned, you can follow these guidelines.
So, how can you avoid being shadowbanned?
Bullying, insults, personal attacks, illegal activities, trolling, and posting someone’s personal information on Reddit will all get you shadowbanned.
Consider other people and the community first whenever you engage on the site. Aim to contribute and add value. Also, remember to check and follow each subreddit’s guidelines.
