How to Post a Video on Reddit

 

By now, you’ve probably heard of Reddit. It’s the fifth most popular website in the United States. Globally, it ranks in the top 20. This blog will look at how to post a video on Reddit. More specifically, we’ll focus on how to use Reddit for your business by sharing video. 

To achieve this goal, we have to understand what Reddit is and how it works. In fact, Reddit is not actually a single website. Instead, it’s made up of over a million “subreddits.” And a subreddit is essentially a forum dedicated to a specific topic.

Users can “subscribe” to subreddits matching their interests, or create one of their own. Then they can “upvote” content they like, and “downvote” content they don’t like. In this digital democracy, popular content rises to the top. So, how can a business benefit from Reddit? Let’s turn now to our discussion of how to post a video on Reddit.

Introduction to Reddit for Business

It can be tricky for a business to succeed on Reddit. That’s because, according to one marketing professional, “Reddit hates blatant marketing.”

But don’t be discouraged by this. If you are able to succeed at Reddit marketing, it can be highly effective. That’s because people on Reddit tend to be highly motivated. People use Reddit for two things: to find helpful information, and for entertainment. The entertainment side can be hard to reach without creating excellent funny content.

But the other main reason people use Reddit is to find useful information. This is where a business can really shine. There are subreddits for fashion, computers, cars, fishing, engineering, entertainment, sports—almost anything you can imagine. And many users on these forums are looking for actionable advice and solutions to their problems.

Benefits of Using Reddit for Business

Next, let’s consider why a business should use Reddit? Well, in the first place, Reddit users tend to be very engaged. It’s not just a place for passive content consumption—although that does happen. But posting, comments, and voting make Reddit a very active place for users.

Therefore, all of this represents an opportunity for enterprises. Whether you’re in entertainment or sports, marketing or product sales, there are people on Reddit looking for solutions that you can offer. And videos can help you communicate this.

In summary, professionals can get the following benefits from using Reddit:

• Access to a highly engaged community
• Instant feedback
• Ability to create custom communities around your brand/product
• High traffic
• High video usage rate

With that context in mind, let’s turn to the focus of this post: how to post a video on Reddit.

How to Post a Video on Reddit

If you’re used to other social media such as Facebook or Twitter, Reddit may seem confusing at first. In particular, the platform has a unique environment and distinct rules, both written and unwritten. However, the time you spend to understand those rules and get familiar with the platform will be time well invested.

Here’s how to post a video on Reddit, in 4 main steps.

1. First, you need to create an account on Reddit. This procedure is fairly straightforward and similar to other social media sites. You choose a user name, choose a password, and then provide a valid email address.
2. Once your account is set up, visit a subreddit of your choice, like www.reddit.com/r/videos. Note that each unique community has rules, which appear in the sidebar of that subreddit page. There are general Reddit community rules, as well. Make sure to check those out.
3. When you’re ready to post, click/tap “Submit a New Link” to share a link to another site where you’re hosting your video. Remember, Reddit itself is not itself a video hosting platform, so you’ll need a link to your video where it is hosted. (For example, you can copy and paste a Dacast share link here.)
4. Finally, write a title for your post. Choose one that’s eye-catching and will draw attention. Once this is done, you’re ready to share!

Choosing the Right Subreddit

Choosing an appropriate subreddit is one of the most important elements in posting videos on Reddit. One of the biggest advantages of this platform is the existence of subreddits. Crucially, this lets you present your content to viewers more likely to appreciate it, rather than to the entire Reddit universe.

Look for niche subreddits that cater to your exact audience. For example, let’s say that you’re broadcasting educational content in the journalism realm. You might consider sharing content, when appropriate, to subreddits like:

• r/Journalism
• r/JournalismSchool
• r/BusinessOfMedia/
• r/JournalismJobs

Choose a subreddit based on what you want your viewers to do in terms of followup/conversion activity, but don’t make this choice quickly or off the cuff. Explore a potential subreddit first to see what kinds of things are posted there and what comments they get. Your first instinct may not be the best choice.

The choice of subreddit is the most important Reddit-specific thing you can do to draw viewers. The rest is content and presentation. Have something good linked and give it a good title, and people will find it. If you’re creating quality content, viewers are likely to have something to say about it.

How to Maximize Engagement

Technically, posting a video link to Reddit is quite simple — no harder than posting a link on any other social media site. As we’ve covered, the only complicating factors are the choice of subreddit and the high emphasis on participating etiquette (or “Rediquette”). Those factors make it worth your while to spend your time exploring the site and finding out about how things are done and how the whole thing is organized before plunging in. If you’re willing to do that, a Reddit link to your videos is a great investment of time.

Here are some other recommendations for increasing your exposure on Reddit.

• Participate. Reddit has active communities on topics that matter to your business or organization. Find these communities and get involved.
• Consider running an “Ask Me Anything” if you have expertise on a particular topic.
• Build goodwill by sharing useful content. Don’t only be self-promotional. Instead, try to find the user base that really wants and needs your product or service. Then work with them to share.
• Build karma. More on that topic below.

Karma; or How Not to End Up on r/HailCorporate

Now, let’s reiterate this key takeaway one more time. The best way to be successful on Reddit is to provide pertinent information in communities and threads that are looking for that info. This allows you to build up “karma,” which is what you get when people upvote your posts.

In general, you’ll get the best results if your posts are clear and to the point. Marketing doesn’t go down well on Reddit, so it’s best to be informational. Think “we launched a new product and here are it’s features” rather than “let us explain to you how we can solve your problems.”

You don’t want to end up on /r/HailCorporate, where Redditors document native ad failures:

/r/HailCorporate is to document times when people act as unwitting advertisers for a product [example A] as well as to document what appear to legitimate adverts via [native advertising].

Why You Should Use Professional Video Hosting

When sharing videos online, businesses and professionals should use a professional online video hosting platform, rather than free sites like YouTube. That’s doubly true with Reddit where clumsy attempts are marketing can backfire.  It’s better to maintain a professional perspective and approach.

Here are some of the major advantages of using a professional video hosting platform like Dacast:

1. White Label: brand all videos with your logo and colors. Improve SEO by directing all traffic towards your website.
2. Full Content Control: retain all rights to your videos. Bypass common workplace content blocking. And secure content with features like password protection, AES encryption, and referrer restrictions.
3. Monetization: insert custom ads into your videos in just a few clicks. Or use a paywall to monetize via subscriptions or pay-per-view.

Conclusion

And there you have it! In this post, we’ve covered how to host a video on Reddit. We’ve also discussed why a professional video hosting platform is the best approach for serious broadcasters.

Do you need a video platform to host and organize your professional video content? Here at Dacast, we offer video hosting and live streaming services for professionals of all types. From Enterprises to SMB to churches and community groups, our video platform is powerful and flexible.

Dacast is a fully white-label platform with built-in monetization tools Your content can be displayed cleanly on landing pages of your own design, and various security options are available. We hope you’ll consider the Dacast platform if you’re not already streaming with us.

Are you ready to learn more about Dacast and to test our live streaming and VOD performance via the Akamai CDN? If so, just click the link below to sign up for our 14-day free trial (no credit card required). We’ll have you streaming in a matter of minutes.

Finally, for exclusive offers and regular tips on how to stream live video, you can also join our LinkedIn group. As always, thanks for reading, and good luck!