Creating Viral Reddit Posts

This post explain how to make Reddit posts that generate positive user engagement.

You can’t think about “Reddit marketing” holistically cause each subreddit is so different.

A successful marketing strategy understands the norms of different Reddit communities and the messaging they value.

Let’s start with concrete examples of successful posts in different subreddits before discussing higher level marketing principles.

Example posts

learnprogramming

The learnprogramming subreddit (2.2 million members) is for code students.

Lots of students in the subreddit are struggling to learn and motivational pep talks are well received. Here’s a post that was upvoted to the top of the subreddit for a couple days:

• Feeling overwhelmed? It’s probably because you’re trying to learn multiple technologies at the same time. 2,300 upvotes.

The post follows a successful pattern:

• empathize with a common struggle
• tell the users you used to suffer just like them
• give actionable advice to get past the hurdle
• end with optimism

People like messages that emphathize with their suffering and help them improve.

apachespark

The apachespark subreddit is a good example of a niche, high-value community. Databricks, the biggest Spark runtime provider, was valued at $28 billion in February 2021, so there are a lot of dollars at stake in this subreddit.

apachespark only has 8,000 members, less than 1% of the learnprogramming subreddit, so it’s a focused audience. It’s the best place for highly focused Spark content.

Here are examples of posts that performed well in this subreddit:

• PSA: The Spark maintainers are intentionally avoiding exposing certain Spark SQL functions via the Scala / PySpark APIs
• My experience contributing to the Spark codebase

These posts talk directly to the subreddit audience and are credible because they link to direct collaborations with the Spark core team.

Niche subreddit participants will remember your username, especially if you have a solid posting history. Once you’ve developed a fanbase, the subreddit is more willing to hear your pitch.

Here’s an example of a project that was well-received by the apachespark subreddit after the OP developed a good reputation in the community.

programming

The programming subreddit (3.4 million members) is for content that’s relevent to the entire programming community.

Certain language / framework specific content is highly upvoted, but only when it provides insights that are generalizable to all developers.

Here’s an example of a post on the maintenance difficulties of Scala that was upvoted.

The linked blog post is highly technical, with more facts than opinions. Scala users are passionate about their language of choice, so this post puts them on the defensive.

Semi-controversial content can be more engaging than plain vanilla content. A “boring” blog post is perfect for certain SEO queries, but you sometimes need to spice it up a bit to engage social communitites.

You can stir the pot a bit, but make sure to avoid trolling. Shitposting gets you downvoted and banned.

scala

The scala subreddit has a unique personality, much like the Scala programming community at large.

Scala is a multi-paradigm language thats used by different types of developers, from Spark data engineers to functional programmers.

Here are some posts that performed well in the Scala subreddit:

• The Death of Hype: What’s Next for Scala
• Elegant Scala Filesystem Operations with os-lib

The Scala subreddit appreciates highly technical content. Li Haoyi is the top open source Scala developer and can get away with highly critical posts, but that’s only because he has a genius blog post to back it up.

The posts that perform well in this subreddit are usually highly technical blog posts or code libraries that are directly relevant to Scala.

learnspanish

The leanspanish subreddit is more light-hearted than the programming subreddits and users even upvote jokes.

Similar to the learnprogramming subreddit, many learnspanish participants are plagued with self doubt. They appreciate content that empathizes with their learning struggle and informs them that they’re not alone. Here’s an example:

• PSA: Many people don’t learn Spanish, even after years of full immersion. 426 upvotes.

Letting students know that learning Spanish is a struggle, even when you live in a Spanish-speaking country, is comforting.

This subreddit is a good example of a community that is open to different types of content. learnspanish subscribers will upvote funny jokes, moral support, or langauge learning resources.

Insta-downvote behaviors

Reddit users are fickle and will downvote you quickly if they don’t know you and feel like you’re trying to sell something.

Some of them will even downvote you for “self promotion” if you link a blog post you authored.

Subreddits, like most online communities, have a small number of vocal participants. A small number of users account for the majority of the subreddit comments. Most are lurkers.

If you rub the vocal commentors the wrong way, they’ll let you know in the comments, and the downvotes will follow.

It’s best to start by blending in to a subreddit. Comment, upvote, and post like a normal user. Don’t start marketing till you’re accepted by the community. Even then, make your marketing subtle.

Reddit compliant marketing

Data Mechanics is a Databricks competitor that’s a great example of a company that’s marketing in a “Reddit-compliant” fashion.

Here’s an example of a post where they’re adding value for free. This is a great way to get their target users on their website and build goodwill.

Most companies are not able to create content that gets upvoted when the Reddit community knows they have a marketing angle.

Success metrics

Daniel Vassallo has a course on building a Twitter following where he warns against focusing on vanity metrics, like number of followers. There are some Twitter users that have millions of followers and get less engagement than users with a fraction of their audience.

When building a Twitter audience, engagement metrics like likes, retweets, and replies are more important.

Don’t focus on karma when evaluating your success on Reddit, especially if you’re operating in niche subreddits. 2,000 upvotes is great for a subreddit like learnprogramming, but completely unrealistic for the apachespark subreddit. You’d be lucky to get 30 upvotes on the apachespark subreddit.

Go to the subreddit, sort by Top All Time, and set your upvote expectations accordingly. Try to generate conversations and nurture relationships with the vocal subreddit participants. If they like you, they’re more likely to comment on your future submissions.

Conclusion

Reddit is a wonderful marketing platform and a great way to connect with focused groups of users.

Treat each subreddit as a separate world. Norms, culture, language, content are all different.

What works in one subreddit might be offensive in another.

Reddit is fun and the subreddit conversation threads are awesome - it makes marketing feel like a hobby that you’d be happy to do in your free time!