Reddit Brand Strategy for AI Search — Whiteboard Friday - Moz

Reddit Brand Strategy for AI Search — Whiteboard Friday

April 3, 20226 min read

Written by: Victory Umurhurhu Edited By: Meghan Pahinui

Learn how to build a Reddit brand strategy for AI search. Victory Umurhurhu explains how to navigate Reddit communities to boost visibility and build audience trust.

Hello. My name is Victory, and I am the marketing consultant and founder at Contenticore. Today, I'll be talking to you about Reddit brand strategy for AI search. I'm going to be sharing three modes of brand engagement and how you, as a brand, can thrive and win on the platform.

Bridging the trust gap

Let's start with the trust gap. Right now, AI is creating more content than ever before. It's easier, it's faster, and it's easily available. But what your audience is looking for is not just more content. They are looking for, and they're asking the question, "Can I trust you? Can I trust your content?"

So visibility is no longer just about volume or just keywords. It's about trust. And humans trust humans. I had research where I found out that 90% of audiences are looking for branded authenticity before actually purchasing from those brands.

And also, people are looking for real conversations from real people who have real lived experiences. And Reddit is one of those platforms where you can find those real conversations.

Examining the Reddit AI deals

Let's look at why now and examine the Reddit AI deals.

So Reddit has 166 million daily users as well as over 100k active communities. What this means is your audience is already engaging on the platform.

In 2024, Reddit closed some deals. They closed a Google AI deal worth over $60 million per annum. This actually made Reddit be surfaced by Google in search engine results. They also had a partnership with OpenAI in 2024, which made Reddit's API content be ingested and surfaced by ChatGPT.

I'm going to be sharing three modes of brand engagement and how you, as a brand, can thrive and win on the platform.

Insight-gathering mode

The first one is what I call the insight-gathering mode. Like the name implies, you're actually gathering insights.

Build your insights list

One of the first ways to do that is by building your insight list. I strongly encourage my clients and whoever I work with to have your insight list, which is your insight dashboard, where you're getting what is working for people who are already existing on the platform. So your goal here is to get 10 to 20 subreddit communities where you are going to be gathering your insight from.

The first one is your particular industry. Go to the Reddit search bar, type your industry. For example, if you are a B2B SaaS brand, you could actually search for founders. You could search out for sales, products. Put those phrases and keywords in the search bar, and it's going to surface subreddit communities and subreddit groups for you. Take note of them and write them out on your list.

Next, you could also do what I call checking out adjacent communities. For example, if you are payroll HR, your adjacent communities could be freelancers, small businesses, advertisers, etc.

Next, you could also check out your particular audience and the phrases they're using or other conversations they're having. So go on there and type it out in the search bar.

You could also search for your competitors. What are your competitors doing? Look at their Reddit page and observe how they're going about it.

Read the room

When you're gathering insight, it's important to read the room. Read what is being upvoted, downvoted, banned, and blocked. By this, you can understand how to avoid mistakes and improve your content.

Understand subreddit rules

On Reddit, you are not posting to the platform itself. You are posting to the subreddit group, and every subreddit group has its own ecosystem. The rules and activities that work in one group might not work in another. It's very important to understand these rules.

Observe subreddit activities

Some subreddit groups have activities that they do, for example, self-promo Sunday or fix it Friday. Your goal as a brand is to understand the intent behind these activities and align with them.

Use the Reddit AI answers tools

Fifth, you could also use the Reddit AI answers tool. This tool allows you to type your question, and it surfaces answers from Reddit itself, providing links to sources where you can find more information.

By following these five steps, you should have 10 to 20 subreddit groups that you could enter, engage in, or gather insights from.

Contextual contribution

The second mode is what I call contextual contribution. Here, you're contributing inside existing conversations.

The goal here is to build value first. Don't jump into the Reddit groups to promote your brand yet. You are building credibility. Contributing to existing conversations will help you understand how to engage properly.

Conversation catalyst

Now you've gathered insights, context, and contributed to existing conversations. The goal of the conversation catalyst is to kick-start those conversations yourself. This is where you'll need key copywriting tools like AIDA (Attention-Interest-Desire-Action) and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

You could start by asking open-ended questions, which invite conversations and participation. Additionally, using big numbers with compelling hooks can enhance credibility. You could also host "Ask Me Anything" sessions to engage your audience directly.

The results

After implementing these brand modes of engagement, you have gained insights from your audience. Now, you know how they express their needs and pain points. These insights will help improve your visibility and brand strategy.

Written by
Victory Umurhurhu

Victory is the founder and content strategist at Contenticore, with over 6 years of experience serving multiple clients across 5 continents. She is a Judge for the UK, European and Global Search Awards. Guest speaker at the WTSFest London, BrightonSEO UK, and others. In her free time, she enjoys baking snacks and experimenting with new cake recipes.