Why Smart Brands Must Build Communities on Reddit
Reddit is the new backbone of Search and AI.
In 2024, Reddit announced major partnerships with industry giants Google and OpenAI, transforming how its content is accessed and surfaced across search and AI products. As a result, Reddit became the largest source of human knowledge for search engines and AI.
ChatGPT relies heavily on information from Reddit threads when performing product searches. The AI will likely summarize solutions discussed by Reddit users.
The implication for brands is clear: what is said today in conversations on Reddit will be used as knowledge for AI models in the future. As a result, if your brand is not participating, then it is being shaped by strangers, amplified through AI technology, and presented to potentially millions of new customers.
The best approach to this would be to create your own subreddit.
There are two main subreddit strategies to consider: branded (centered on your company or products or investors) and topic based (focused on your industry or niche).
We’ll explore both in detail below but before that let’s talk about three core benefits of a dedicated subreddit:
1. Control the Narrative
Your subreddit can also be a venue where you can promote your company’s accomplishments, such as awards, milestones, and partnerships that tell the story and control the data on what AI learns from.
If it’s a topic based subreddit, it can be for positioning your brand for thought leadership in your industry. Brands that engage positively with their audience today will have an edge when AI delivers results tomorrow. You can influence this narrative or let others do it for you.
2. Centralize Feedback
It is virtually impossible to address disparate reviews found all over Reddit. Responses from brands frequently do more harm than good. Often, users can be banned from Reddit for trying to clarify their replies to previous comments and reviews. However, by having a dedicated subreddit for your brand, you can safely conduct all conversations regardless of whether they are positive or negative.
When creating your subreddit, don’t just allow positive reviews on your subreddit but include both. Since negative reviews exist elsewhere anyway, use your subreddit to address them directly. Converting unhappy customers into fans builds deep trust. AI systems then learn from this transparency and weave that trust into their training data.
3. Scale Support
A well-managed subreddit becomes a self-sustaining ecosystem. It lowers support requests because users help each other solve problems. Power users will pass along best practices to new users, while advocates defend your brand’s reputation. The ability to defend your brand comes from a genuine emotional bond with your brand, not from monetary or other forms of compensation.
Now let’s talk about two different Subreddit strategies:
The majority of brands fail on Reddit because they don’t have an understanding of the “unwritten rules” in each subreddit community. If users spot a post that isn’t relevant, they will report it and moderators will remove it, leaving you at risk of having your account banned. To mitigate this risk, you can create a subreddit specifically for your brand, allowing you to create a safe environment for both your brand and its customers.
Branded subreddits can also be successful for brands that market a variety of products. For example, Google could have multiple branded subreddits for different products like Gemini, Waymo, and Pixel, where each subreddit targets a different group of interests or categories. Brand new products or niche brands that have not built up a large following should also consider this option when building their Reddit presence.
The second type of subreddit is topic-based. A subreddit that is focused on a specific topic, for example “AI tools” or “Sports fans” or “Local demographies”, allows the brand to attract a broader group of potential customers. This also allows the brand to establish itself as a leader in that particular field, creating the opportunity for discussions about products without the brand appearing like they are trying to sell products or services. (Note: Transparency is key here. Users must know a brand supports the community)
From our experience managing successful subreddits in multiple verticals including sports, AI, and cultures, we can help you determine which strategy is right for your brand.
Getting Started
Starting up a subreddit can take some time and therefore be an investment in time and resources. Let’s look at what works:
Audit your current presence on Reddit. Do a search for your brand (or topic) and then check the sentiment. What do you think AI systems are learning about you and your industry?
What is your strategy? Will you have a brand-specific subreddit, a topic-specific subreddit, or combine the two?
Develop your guidelines for the subreddit to reflect your company and brand.
Put content on the subreddit that is discussion-based rather than simply posting advertisements.
Use Reddit-approved strategies like cross posting in relevant subreddits to grow the subreddit.
Provide ongoing support in terms of moderating the subreddit. Moderation should continue indefinitely until the community has a great deal of active members and engagement.
Are You Ready to Start Your Community on Reddit?
We offer services to assist brands in developing a comprehensive Reddit strategy that includes choosing an approach to establishing community guidelines and moderating on an ongoing basis. We will help you whether you want to create a dedicated product community or take a leadership role in your area of interest.
If you would like assistance or would like to talk to us about your strategy, then