As you’ll notice, we’ve been focusing recently on the “marriage” of search engine optimization and social media – and talking about things like how you can use social media sites for your SEO campaign, or how you can leverage Twitter for link building.
We believe that social can have a tremendous impact on search. And by “social” we don’t mean just Twitter and Facebook. We take into account other websites, too, like Reddit.
Reddit – a social bookmarking site – is one of the darlings that we’re keeping an eye on this 2011. It has been around, having been launched 5 years ago, but Reddit enjoyed its best year last 2010 when it experienced a 300 percent surge in traffic (thanks largely to the expense of faltering Digg) and record 829 million page views last December alone. The site markets itself as “the voice of the Internet – (with) news before it happens”.
Being a social bookmarking site, Reddit delivers user-generated news links, which the Reddit community (of “Redditors”) can then vote up or down. The most popular stories, or the stories with the most good votes, are then promoted to the front page – a key feature that nourishes Reddit’s potential as a viral marketing, link building, and social sharing platform.
How do leverage this platform and turn it into a useful Internet marketing tool? Here’s our guide to using Reddit for business.
Submit quality links. If you have a website or blog that regularly delivers fresh, quality content, don’t hesitate to promote it on Reddit. By its viral or social nature, the site is a great way of boosting your traffic and search ranking performance. Just make sure, though, that what you submit is something that will be useful to other users. Spam won’t make it past Reddit’s reliable moderation and automatic filtering program.
Come up with irresistible titles. Submitting your link or article? Don’t be happy with just generating a new inbound link to your website or blog. Make sure your content gets read, too. Write catchy titles that make it hard for Redditors not to click through.
Add tags. Yes, SEO best practices apply to social. So don’t forget to add tags whenever you’re submitting new links to Reddit. That way, your content has a greater chance of being found by the people who are looking for it.
Target several categories. You may be a small business owner with a niche market, but that doesn’t mean you cannot target a number of categories on Reddit. Take the time to place links under categories to which your content is most relevant. Reporting the latest development in your company or industry? Add it on Business, News, or Announcements. Explaining the tech behind your product? Choose Science, Gadgets, Technology, or the cutely named category, Today I Learned. Releasing a funny new commercial? Add it to Humor, Offbeat, or Videos. Make the most of your freedom to choose.
Use pictures and videos. It’s a great way to stand out, and to add visual appeal to each link you submit. Pictures and videos are particularly useful in a text- and link-heavy website like Reddit. It only takes a few seconds to do it – promise!
Actively participate. No, Reddit isn’t a site that serves self-promotional interests. It is a community that rewards active participation and engagement. There’s this thing called the “karma ladder”: if you vote often enough for the good links, articles, or entries that you like, then the more likely you’ll get followed by fellow Redditors. The more likely they are going to vote for your articles as “good”, too – moving you up the karma ladder.
Add testimonials. Here’s an excellent way of subtly promoting your business or brand: pull together your positive customer reviews, best testimonials, and maybe even a quotable quote or two – then submit a Reddit link that leads to the page where you’ve gathered them. It’s a great alternative to E-mail newsletters, Yelp listings, or Facebook Fan Pages – and the format is so much simpler.