The Reddit Guide for Reputation Management

Reddit isn’t like other social media platforms. Known as “the front page of the internet,” Reddit is a complex and dynamic community-oriented collection of forums on nearly any topic you can imagine.

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Since its partnership with Google, Reddit’s impact has grown. This collaboration has amplified Reddit's presence in search results, making it a critical player in shaping online reputations. In this post, I’ll explore what Reddit is, dive into the Reddit-Google partnership, and provide strategies on how you can work with the platform to put your best foot forward online.

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What is Reddit? 

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Reddit is a social media platform that is made up of several user-created communities called subreddits. Each subreddit functions as a forum and focuses on a different topic, from broad categories like world news or technology to more niche topics such as thrifting or cross stitching.  

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Subreddits can serve several purposes; some are for sharing information, art, or updates, others are for soliciting feedback or advice, while some are created purely for discussion. Communities range from a handful of users to millions, and cover a wide range of topics. Currently, there are over 138,000 active subreddits. 

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One feature of Reddit that sets it apart from other prominent social media platforms is the option to be anonymous. Unlike most other social media platforms, where you connect with people you know personally (or at least know of), Reddit connects users based on common interests and discussion, and does not require you to disclose your personal information on the platform. While some may choose to forgo anonymity, either for things like AMAs (more on this later) or to promote their art, online store, etc., many users choose to more or less keep themselves incognito on the platform. 

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As a Reddit user, you can join (almost) any subreddit you are interested in. As you join subreddits, your personalized Reddit feed will be made up of trending posts from the subreddits you’re a part of. What determines whether or not a post is “hot” is the engagement. Engagement comes in two forms on Reddit: 1) comments on the post, and 2) upvotes and downvotes.

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Generally speaking, an upvote means you appreciate the post or comment, while a downvote indicates that you don’t (though these rules can change depending on the community - just look at the unpopular opinion subreddit). 

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Reddit and Reputation

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Reddit can have a significant impact when it comes to online reputation. There are a few factors that influence this:

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• Engaged User Base: Reddit has over 73 million daily active users. Due to the structure of the platform and the community dynamics that are present, many of these users are returning and use the platform regularly. The democratic nature of upvoting and downvoting can highlight positive content, but the inverse is true as well; content that is controversial or extremely disliked by a community will garner significant negative attention.
• Healthy Skepticism: Reddit users - also known as Redditors - generally hold the integrity of their communities in high regard. If they sense inauthenticity, manipulation, or stealthy marketing attempts, it is likely to make a bad situation worse. If you aren’t careful when it comes to engaging in conversations or attempting to suppress information on Reddit, users are likely to pick up on it and you may experience a “Streisand effect.”
• Community Interaction: Reddit provides the opportunity to interact directly with users. Certain kinds of posts, such as AMAs (Ask Me Anything), can grow awareness and positive regard of you or your business by engaging directly with your audience, displaying transparency, and not shying away from some of the more difficult questions. 
• Information Seeking: Many users look to Reddit for information, be it a product review, financial or relationship advice, tips on starting a new hobby, etc. By providing helpful information on the platform, you can establish yourself as a reliable resource and knowledgable presence on the platform. 
• Ongoing Discussion: Although most of the posts on Reddit are still accessible years later, the platform operates as an ongoing discussion. Last year, roughly 469 million posts were published on Reddit. This can work for you or against you - on one hand, a positive post likely won’t stay relevant for long, but the same is true for negative posts as well. 

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The Reddit Google Partnership

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Perhaps one of the most crucial ways Reddit can impact your online reputation is the recent partnership between the platform and Google. In February 2024, Google announced that it was “deepening” its relationship with Reddit. 

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The rundown is that Google noticed that users often went to Reddit when looking for information. The result was that Google shifted to allow more “content-forward displays of Reddit information” in search results for relevant queries. They were able to do this by receiving access to Reddit’s Data API.

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If this is getting a bit too in the weeds, the bottom line is this: following the Reddit/Google Partnership, Reddit results started populating much more in Google search results. What’s more, these results can update quickly, with new Reddit posts showing up in search results within hours (or less) of being posted. 

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Why does this matter? Because, prior to the partnership, Reddit results populated occasionally in search results, and likely not very near the top unless “reddit” was included in the query. Now, Reddit often populates as one of the most prominent results for several search queries, whether or not “reddit” is included in the query itself. 

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Pre-partnership, your reputation on Reddit, good or bad, was primarily relevant to the audience on Reddit. With Reddit results populating prominent in Google search, the audience for Reddit is not limited to Redditors, increasing the influence of Reddit on your overall reputation. 

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The Reddit Guide for Reputation Management

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Reddit is a complicated platform, as it combines aspects of social media, forums, review platforms, news aggregates in a single site. What’s more, the Reddit community is diligent and protective, and many ORM strategies can be tricky to carry out. If you are experiencing reputation issues on the platform itself, you will need to act quickly and carefully to mitigate the impact on your reputation without aggravating the problem.

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1. Assess Your Reddit Presence

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As with any approach to online reputation management, you need to understand where you’re starting before you can develop a plan of where to go. To assess your presence on Reddit, determine specific keywords that are relevant to you and your business (your name, your business name, product names, etc.). 

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Search for these terms both in Reddit’s search and in Google search. Consider what you see. Are there posts populating about you? How many are there? How old are they? Did they get much engagement? What subreddits were these conversations in? What is the nature of these conversations? Do they cover a specific issue, or are they more varied? In Google search, where do Reddit posts rank before you add “reddit” to your query? 

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Understanding how Reddit is impacting your online presence starts with an assessment of how you appear on the platform. Once you have a strong sense of how you appear on the platform, the nature of the conversations, and the impact on your Google search results, you will be able to formulate a plan moving forward.

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2. Monitor Your Reddit Mentions

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Once you have established your current Reddit reputation, you will need to keep up. Particularly if you found several mentions of you or your business on the platform, you will need to consider using a social listening tool. As we said earlier, there is a constant stream of content and discussion on Reddit, so manual monitoring isn’t really an option.

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It’s worth noting that many traditional social listening tools cannot monitor Reddit, so be sure to check on that specifically when vetting tools. While there are free tools that may help you, you will want to make sure that the way that the information is delivered to you is useable - getting an email every time your company is mentioned on Reddit won’t do you much good if you’re getting mentioned eighty times a day. 

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3. Connect with the Community

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Although the Reddit community can be intense, it is also an engaged community that appreciates transparency, honesty, and frankness. Depending on what you are contending with on the platform, it may be worth trying to connect with users directly.

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There are a couple ways to do this. You can create a Reddit account for you or your business, or for individuals at your business, and weigh in on topics relevant to your work and industry. If you can provide valuable, insightful information, and do so regularly, you may be able to grow credibility on the platform. 

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If you aren’t able to keep up such a regular cadence, or would like to communicate with a community in a more focused way, you can consider doing an AMA. An AMA entails opening the floor to the Reddit community and answering questions about the topic you put forth, whether it’s your business generally, a recent event that you would like to bring more attention to, or even a controversy that you would like to clear up (though, and I cannot stress this enough, you need to be very open to the conversation going south in this final situation). 

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AMAs can help you build trust and integrity in the eyes of your Reddit audience if you are ready to take them on and be candid (to the best of your ability). While you can always delete a post if the conversation does not go in the direction you desire, this still can have an effect on your reputation, so be sure that you are prepared before pursuing this option. 

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4. Know the Guidelines 

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Reddit has several guidelines to keep the conversations on the website safe and fair. If you believe that a post has violated these guidelines, there are steps you can take to report the content and potentially have it removed. These guidelines cover a wide range of concerns, from spamming and vote manipulation to doxxing, impersonation, and hate speech. 

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Additionally, subreddits often have their own guidelines separate from Reddit’s general guidelines. These are often established to maintain the integrity of a community and keep it on track regarding the topic of the subreddit. If a post that you take issue with does not violate Reddit guidelines, it’s worth checking the subreddit guidelines to see if there is a violation occurring there. 

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Remember that comments can be reported as well. A post that is neutral or even positive can draw detracting comments that can still have a negative impact on your reputation on the platform. If you see comments that violate Reddit guidelines, or the guidelines of the subreddit, be sure to submit a report for these as well.

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5. Bring in the Experts

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If I haven’t emphasized it enough, let me reiterate: Reddit is a complicated platform that, particularly following the partnership with Google, can have a tangible impact on your online reputation. If you aren’t familiar with the platform, or if you’re dealing with a substantial reputation issue, you will want to tread carefully when trying to address it.

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One way to ensure that your Reddit reputation improves is to work with the experts. At Status Labs, we are experienced with Reddit and have continued to stay updated with the impact of the platform following the Google partnership. We will ensure that your Reddit strategy is effective, subtle, and targeted, to improve not only your Google search results but your reputation within the platform itself.

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If you believe your Reddit reputation warrants a heavier lift, schedule a free consultation with Status Labs today to learn more about how we can help you put your best foot forward online.

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