Listen up.
Reddit is an amazing tool for social listening. Keep up with forums (“subreddits”) to gain insight into the lives of your audience members.
Gradually ramp up your strategy.
Begin with low-barrier actions, such as upvoting, downvoting and commenting in different interest sections and communities to build your credibility. Weigh in as an expert on your unit and its resources. As you start to become a part of the Reddit ecosystem, you can start sharing your own original content for others to weigh in on.
Honesty is the best policy.
Since this platform is information-based, transparency is key in having your audience members trust you. Respond to questions with accurate information about your unit, and correct misinformation (kindly and respectfully) when you see it. Communicate like a person, not like an entity. This will help humanize your brand and help your messages to translate in a more genuine way.
Embrace the idiosyncrasies.
Every subreddit forum as its own unique set of rules. Take time to get to know the rules in the forums that are most relevant to you. These rules can be found in the sidebar of the subreddit you are in. For example, some popular acronyms that have originated on Reddit are:
- TIL - Today I Learned
- TL;DR - Too Long; Didn’t Read
- ELI5 - Explain Like I’m 5
- CMV - Change My View
User flair.
Each subreddit community has its own version of “flair” to help indicate details about the account holder such as “Masters in Psychology” in r/science or major/year in r/ucdavis.
Flair gets approved by the subreddit moderators (mods)
Prompt conversation.
Given the nature of this platform, people are always chiming in on post threads. Why not incorporate callouts directly into your social plan? Use guiding prompts or questions to invite your audience to share experiences related to your unit or UC Davis, and get meaningful discussions going.