An overview of the social media website Reddit, and how journalists can use it to enhance their audience.
Link to a tipsheet for Reddit: http://www.scribd.com/doc/116021819/Reddit-101
**You are free to use this presentation as you see fit, but please source to me.
2. Quick Stats
Launched in 2005
In October:
46 million unique visitors
3.8 billion pageviews
1.9 million logged in Redditors
(source: reddit.com/about)
3. Reddit shorthand
“/r/” – Refers to various subreddits (example
/r/politics)
/r/IAmA – “I Am A,” a popular subreddit
“AMA” – Ask Me Anything
“AMAA” – Ask Me Almost Anything
11. On Reddit, stuff more easily
consumable (pics, .gifs), gets
upvoted more and more quickly
than stuff that takes a while to
digest (articles, video).
12. Erik Martin (hueypriest, Reddit admin):
News sometimes breaks on Reddit – IAMAs (Barack
Obama), entertainment (Android 4.0 feedback, citizen
journalism (voting machine, Aurora shooting)
News organizations need to gear their message
towards subreddits that work with the message.
“I think the real power is in using it to build an
audience.”
13. DO:
Find your audience/niche.
Interact with them.
Watch for breaking news.
Follow the subreddit’s rules.
22. Sources from Reddit?
Reddit users highly value their privacy.
Registration only requires a username and a password.
Private message them—response could vary.
26. Interaction:
If it is an “Ask Me Anything”, make sure to answer as
many questions as you can.
Answer as honestly as you can.
Set aside a few hours for it.
A browser extension for Reddit, adds several features not available in the “vanilla” version
RES
comments
r/pics, r/funny, r/gaming, r/technology, r/TIL in both lists – all of these can be summarized in a pic or a single-sentence headlineNarrative transition, mobile platform, culture of anonymityPics, Funny, Videos – mostly user-driven content
Source:stattit.comNote the HUGE difference in the numbers on the charts- funny and pics vs. politics and news
Explain quote- what’s bad about asking what’s appropriate and why is it a problem
If you have breaking, BIG news… post it in r/news.
Tech News Today- a weekly podcast with an active audience on Reddit. Interacts with them by posting links to interviews they’ll be talking about on the show, games they’re discussing, asks what questions the audience wants them to ask upcoming interview-ees.Posts news that is RELEVANT to the users’ interests, and from multiple sources.Put URLs in
AKA “The Saydrah Affair”. This happened early on and shaped Reddit’s culture, and has shaped it since.http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/b7e25/today_i_learned_that_one_of_reddits_most_active/
Aurora example
People like to lie on the internet. No way to establish credibility because everyone is credible (other than karma).
AMAs can go well or poorly – the general feeling is that if you are doing an “AMA”, you are expected to answer the questions people pose at you directly. Reddit doesn’t like feeling duped, and doesn’t like feeling like its time is wasted.
(Ezra Klein AMA)Also note: The serious and the jokes are mixed. Reddit works like that, it’s not separated and that’s okay.
