Ever heard of Reddit? If you have, and are not a user, you’ve probably heard about the “dark and ugly” corners.
Those are the sensational ones covered in the press, where horrible things happen. Reddit is a lot more than that.
For entrepreneurs like us, Reddit is full of interesting, smart discussion from peers all over the world about topics that you care about, like: growing your business, real estate, productivity, social media, marketing and so on.
Do I really want to waste my time with another social network?
Reddit is not really a social network; it more closely resembles a message board where members follow certain topics, post questions, post comments and vote on whether a topic is interesting.
Its system of peer-review votes and down-votes guarantees that when you log in to your account, you’ll only see stuff that’s actually “good” content.
How does the peer-review voting system work?
Once published, content on the site can be “upvoted” or “downvoted” by the audience. The votes are then automatically tallied by the site and appear as a “score” next to each topic.
The better the score, the better the ranking of the story with the best-ranking stories being published on the Reddit main page. This is a very simplified explanation of a very complex system.
If you want to really get into it, I suggest this article by Popular Mechanics that attempts to explain what it all means.
But I don’t want to see NSFW or ugly things!
Don’t fear! If you’re not into those things, you never have to see them.
Unlike other platforms — such as Twitter — where blocking hate speech from appearing on your feed ranges between hard and impossible, Reddit offers a very robust system of sub communities or “subreddits” where you can limit yourself to only frequenting the parts of the site you’re interested in reading.
What is a subreddit?
A subreddit is a sub-forum about a specific topic.
Each subreddit has independent moderators, specific rules and voting systems that depend on the theme.
There are about 10,000 subreddits, and anyone can create a new subreddit for free and make it public or private. A subreddit that receives at least five comments a day is considered “active.”
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How do I get started?
You can see the FAQ section here. Signing up for the site is free, and so is following specific subreddits. You can also read more about how to use Reddit productively.
Best subreddits for real estate agents
Here are a few subreddits that might capture your attention:
/r/Entrepreneur Sample topic: “Can you directly mention your competitor in an ad?” or “SEO is not hard. A step-by-step SEO tutorial for beginners that will get you ranked.”
/r/Career success Sample topic: “10 powerful ways to make people like you” or “The psychology of high and low performers”
/r/Productivity Sample topic: “How I turned Google Chrome into a badass productivity machine” or “How to focus in the age of distraction”
/r/SocialMedia Sample topic: “Find out what your competitor is posting on FB,” “How Instagram’s algorithm is holding us captive” or even “What do freelance social media managers charge?”
/r/RealEstate Sample topic: “Always use a professional photographer — my biggest pet peeve” or even “Should I keep this agent or move on?”
/r/Realtors Sample topic: “PSA: “You’re the only Realtor who has ever called me back” Call your prospects!” or even “You have 5 days to generate a new buyer/seller lead who’s ready to transact in 30 days … how do you find them?”
Last, but not least: Etiquette
Every subreddit has its own idiosyncrasies. Always check the rules of the subreddit you’re participating in before posting, and make sure you are not violating anything or you will be heckled and banned.
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In general, keep details vague. Sharing personal or identifying information is a huge community-wide no-no. You cannot engage in voting manipulation of content, do anything illegal or bully others.
Lastly, Reddit is dotted with NSFW content here and there. If content is tagged, heed the warning, or you might get a visit from office IT.