CEO of 5WPR Ronn Torossian highlights everything you need to know to fully understand what a Reddit AMA is.

1. Reddit AMA

2. The popular social networking website Reddit allows users to write
messages in response to a submission by another user, known as a
post. Reddit is divided into several categories called subreddits. One of
the more popular subreddits, /r/IAMA, has over 7 million subscribers
and averages nearly 12,000 concurrent readers.

3. An Ask Me Anything (AMA) prompt is a way for an organization to
interact directly with its user base. An organization registers a
username and creates an AMA, which prompts users to ask questions
about the organization. Questions can include what the organization
does, how it handles its day-to-day finances, how it deals with
competition, or approach mundane topics such as what brand of butter
the organization stocks in its kitchen. An AMA is an open invitation to
the community to ask whatever it wants, however it wants.

4. Some of /r/IAMA’s most popular submissions include prompts
from Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Larry King, Bill
Nye, Stan Lee, and Al Gore. In the case of Barack Obama’s AMA, there
were a total of 23,907 comments and 5.28 million page views.
Businesses make up almost 6% of the top 500 AMAs, with
actors/entertainers leading at almost 16%.

5. AMAs can provide a way for businesses to differentiate themselves
from competitors. Rather than having to identify and target marketing
points, a business can use the AMA format to learn what customers
care about directly from the customers themselves. Not all AMA
questions have to be answered; the Reddit platform allows users to
sort comments by popularity, making it easy to separate serious
questions from some of the sillier or more abstract questions. This is
accomplished through a rating system where users vote on a comment
or prompt, either approving it (upvoting) or criticizing it (downvoting)
based on the nature of the submission.

6. Marketing through an AMA requires some initial exposure to the
culture and atmosphere of Reddit. As of July 2013, Reddit’s largest
demographic consists of young white males aged 18-29. Reddit users
are somewhat less susceptible to traditional advertising approaches,
instead preferring a more casual approach with genuine responses
instead of generic pre-planned (or “canned”) responses. The benefit of
Reddit’s comment system is that it doesn’t require immediate
responses, allowing businesses to identify trends in user comments and
formulate responses that will best answer a user’s question.

7. Creating an AMA is a fantastic way for businesses to gain direct user
feedback without a significant time or monetary investment.

8. This post was repurposed for distribution.
To read more news and updates from Ronn Torossian,
go to www.ronntorossianfoundation.com