How to use Reddit: The complete 2025 guide for marketers

Reddit can connect you with highly specific, interest-driven audiences, making it a powerful platform for targeted marketing. But redditors are quick to spot anything that feels like traditional advertising, so success here requires a different approach.

To win redditors’ trust, lead with transparency, value and a clear understanding of Reddit culture. The community-led platform offers significant potential for your social media marketing strategy, especially with 9.72 million daily users.

Here’s how to use Reddit to grow your audience and tie your efforts to meaningful business outcomes.

What is Reddit?

Reddit is a social platform with a network of communities where users engage and post on specific topics. Like a forum, users can join a community based on a specific topic—such as “coffee shops”—and share their ideas and experiences.

The Reddit community thrives on user-generated content that prioritizes authenticity, transparency and in-depth exploration of subjects. Brands that prioritize genuine interactions over traditional marketing can build relationships that drive powerful engagement.

If you’re new to Reddit, you’ll come across new terms:

• Subreddit: A specific community focused on a topic and referenced with an “r/,” like “r/marketing”
• Redditor: A Reddit user
• Upvote and downvote: How users approve or disapprove of a post or comment (by clicking on the arrows), behaving almost as likes or dislikes
• Flair: A tag users can add to a post or their username to show their expertise or role, like “Social media” in r/marketing; not all communities use them
• OP (original poster): The user who started the thread
• AMA (ask me anything): A Q&A session where a user answers questions from a Reddit community (like an astronaut on r/NASA)

Is Reddit free to use?

Reddit is free to browse, post and comment. The company recently added more free features, like Reddit Answers, which functions like a large language model (LLM) that pulls answers from user-generated content.

The platform also offers a paid version, Reddit Premium, which removes ads and adds perks such as avatar gear, premium icons and a premium lounge.

And while most subscriptions remain free, CEO Steve Huffman mentioned adding paywall options to specific subreddits. Social media managers and marketers could use these exclusive communities to target passionate, paying audiences.

Where can I access Reddit?

You can access and sign up for Reddit right on its website: Reddit.com. The platform also has easy-to-use apps for mobile phones and tablets. To access a community, visit and join a specific subreddit.

Why should marketers and brands use Reddit?

Reddit is the 5th most visited social media network website in the world and the 2nd most visited in the US. It’s a platform that marketers and social media managers shouldn’t ignore, especially with its dedicated, passionate user base.

Source: similarweb

Marketing strategists are beginning to understand how Reddit is influencing buyers by changing the way decisions are made. Marketers who have previously avoided Reddit should start to capitalize on the power found within this community.

Social media marketers and managers can tap into Reddit’s audience makeup for targeted, authentic campaigns:

• Young audience appeal: 44% of Reddit users are between 18 and 29 years old.
• Strong regional presences: 49.59% of Reddit’s daily users are based in the US and the UK, India and Canada follow for large bases.
• Diverse user base: 21% of US user ethnicities are white, 14% are black, 23% are Hispanic and 36% are Asian.
• High SEO visibility and discoverability potential: 2 million websites link to Reddit pages.

Because Reddit attracts active users across ages, regions and interests, it’s especially valuable for:

• Massive reach and targeted communities: Tap into millions of active users and segment them by niche topics and interests.
• Authentic engagement: Interact in real discussions and learn about your brand or industry with unfiltered opinions. A Sonos rep, for example, responded to a user about product improvements with a funny meme based on a Moana song, saying “what can I say except you’re welcome.”
• Trendspotting: Use Reddit—where viral trends often spark—to get a pulse on hot conversations.
• Sentiment analysis: Adopt tools like Sprout Social’s Social Listening to examine Reddit discussions and assess public sentiment on your brand, pain points and key trends. Here’s how Purple, the mattress brand, spotted a complaint about their product in r/Mattress:

Source: Reddit

Create a Reddit account in 4 easy steps

Ready to dive in? Here’s how to set up your Reddit account, as a brand or a user.

1. Create your account

Visit the Reddit website. Click Log in at the top right of the browser to start an account. Then click Sign Up. Once you have an account, you can easily get the Reddit app for your Android or iOS mobile device.

2. Choose your username

Pick a name that aligns with your brand identity. Make sure to focus on authenticity, so don’t make it too promotional. Here’s how you can start:

• For your brand, create a username that includes the brand name, such as “[Brand Name].”
• For specific team members, so they can interact as themselves for a personal experience, create a username like “[Brand Name][First Name].”

For example:

• u/SproutSocial
• u/SproutSocialJohn

You can use this graphic as a template to create your accounts, like this: Source: X

Pro tip: In the image above, notice there’s also a “/u/” which refers to creating a new subreddit just for your brand. Creating a brand subreddit makes it easy to build your community with your own rules and experience.

3. Optimize your profile

Add your profile picture, banner, brief bio and other details to make your user account effective and authentic. Use the same visuals, tone and key messaging as your other social platforms to maintain brand consistency.

Sprout’s Asset Library makes it easy to provide consistent brand visuals to use on Reddit and your other social media networks. Easily organize your assets so your team can maintain consistent profiles and post like this:

Source: Sprout Social

4. Customize your preferences

Tailor your settings for your social media team to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience on Reddit. For example, make sure to filter out NSFW content, also known as “not safe for work,” which excludes violent, highly offensive and inappropriate content from your feeds.

Along with NSFW settings, you can also adjust views, such as enabling Dark Mode or limiting ads from specific industries and topics, including alcohol, religion and gambling.

Pro tip for new users: If you have very specific questions, engage with redditors on r/LlearnTtoRreddit (for the Reddit basics like posting), r/Hhelp (for tech support) and r/NnoSstupidQquestions (for general, no-pressure questions on any topic). This is also a way to jump right into Reddit.

How to find the right Reddit communities (or subreddits)

Finding the right subreddits helps you tap into Reddit’s focused communities. Use these tips to monitor mentions, engage authentically and uncover campaign opportunities.

Search for and join subreddits

The easiest way to find subreddits is by using the search bar. If you’re running a social for a local restaurant, you can search your city and province/state to find relevant communities. For example, if you’re in Miami, it’s worth looking up subreddits in your area, such as r/Miami, r/SouthFlorida and r/Florida.

Pro tip: You can ask questions or search in r/FfindAaRreddit to engage with other users to find a target community.

Find topic threads

One less obvious way to find the relevant subreddits is to filter searches by “comments” and “posts.” Instead of searching subreddits themselves, you’ll find specific conversations that link you to active communities.

Source: Reddit

For example, for a Miami restaurant, there are groups like r/Cruise, where a significant segment of travelers who dock in Miami discuss food. Alternatively, you could find relevant users on r/Brightline, the new bullet train connecting Miami to the rest of the state, to engage in conversations with hungry travelers seeking places to eat.

Source: Reddit

After finding relevant conversations, it’s important to engage meaningfully to build trust and relationships. Sprout’s Listening tool can help by flagging threads that mention your brand or an industry keyword so you can join the conversation at the right moment. It also provides Reddit sentiment analysis so you know what users think about your brand across Reddit’s thousands of active subreddits. This gives you an opportunity to jump into conversations and engage with users, plus it informs your brand about its product, marketing and audience pain points.

Subscribe, save or reply

Subscribe to subreddits to view new content and monitor trends right on your home page. Plus, subscribing helps you stay informed about the communities you want to invest in, allowing you to authentically add value and respond naturally when you see a post you can contribute to.

When you’ve interacted with a post, you can use tools like !RemindMe (a reminder bot that sets notifications for post updates).

Upvote or downvote content

The Reddit social management process involves interacting with the platform like a user. When you engage like a regular redditor, you build authentic engagement. Part of that process involves up- and down-voting. These votes help encourage user interactions and also signal quality to Reddit, resulting in a more valuable discussion.

Many redditors like to lurk, which is a group of users who browse and rarely comment or post. Voting is often their way of engaging.

Send a DM

Direct messages help you start private conversations. This is a great opportunity to provide individual value to users, such as helping them through a challenging point or providing a resource. It’s also an effective way to connect with an influencer for marketing purposes or a moderator to expand your reach on Reddit and plan campaigns, such as an AMA.

Make sure you’re following anti-spam rules so you don’t get banned on Reddit or in a subreddit community. In general, think of your DMs as conversations, never a place to sell or pressure someone to try your product.

What to post on Reddit (and what not to)

Using a specific content format and style for a specific reason can increase your chances of successful engagement, spreading awareness and gaining interest. Here are some effective content types:

AMAs

Ask Me Anything posts engage communities by answering questions in real time. The best AMAs offer a fresh perspective or exclusive access your audience can’t get anywhere else, like this:

Source: Reddit

While there is a dedicated community called r/AMA, the most effective opportunities will be in niche, topic-based subreddits. Adidas, for example, hosted an AMA on the r/RunningShoeGeeks subreddit.

Source: Reddit

Here’s another AMA from Bar Keepers Friend in r/IamA, a subreddit that emphasizes the mundane things:

Source: Reddit

Behind-the-scenes looks

One unique way to spark genuine conversations and add value to users is by giving them a peek behind the curtain. For example, you can showcase a factory that produces a product or demonstrate the work your team does at the office. The key is to ensure it presents a perspective that users haven’t experienced before.

One example is how Major League Baseball (MLB) posted in r/baseball to launch its campaign. It gave an MLB photographer a disposable camera to take vintage photos of players, offering a unique behind-the-scenes experience. It generated 1.1k upvotes and 116 comments.

Source: Reddit

Data and infographics

Sharing useful data or visual resources can be a powerful way to give value away and earn trust. If you have helpful information, like a fitness wearable brand sharing products to a fitness crowd, you can provide educational value while also building your reputation. Just make sure it’s not a promotional post.

Exclusive offers

If the subreddit allows it, share exclusive deals, giveaways and other saving opportunities for users. Just make sure it’s original to the subreddit and you aren’t posting the deal in too many communities (users catch on to these details, and they may flag you for spam).

Source: Reddit

What not to post on Reddit

Even though Reddit offers flexibility in what you share, a few types of content could lead to backlash or bans within a Reddit community. Avoid these types of posts:

• Obvious cross-posting: Redditors value community-first content, including in subreddits. Avoid repeating the same message in multiple places. Instead, tailor each post to the community’s interests and language.
• AI-written content: Use AI to support your strategy and content, but don’t replace your voice. Reddit’s communities value human, authentic insights, so any sign of AI will get you downvotes.
• Overly promotional content: Too much ad-speak is not only against most subreddit rules, but it could even get you banned. Learn what’s allowed and plug in your brand through organic conversations.
• Links with no context: Link and article posts do well on Reddit, but not if there’s no lead-in or text to go along with it. Add context so users know why they’ll benefit from the resource. Write like you’re having a conversation with a friend, not selling to a customer.
• Too many posts: Reddit communities are sensitive to spam. Get a feel for how many posts a subreddit gets a day and match that energy, whether that means a post every other day or weekly. A good rule of thumb is to comment regularly to build relationships and only post when you have something valuable to share.

How to build trust on Reddit

Reddit users can spot inauthentic behavior in a heartbeat. To earn and keep users’ trust, you need to show up like a real participant, not a marketer with an agenda.

Understand subreddit culture

Each subreddit has its own unique etiquette and standards. Make sure to learn the rules and familiarize yourself with the audience by reviewing top posts and comments before posting (find rules in the sidebar). There are also foundational Reddit rules that apply to all subreddits, such as a ban on doxxing, which is when someone reveals personal information about another person that can reveal their identity. Here’s what the rules look like in r/MakeupAddiction, a subreddit that’s a perfect fit for beauty brands:

Source: Reddit

Use the right flairs

Not every subreddit will have a flair option, but if it does, be sure to use it. Flairs can add context and authenticity to your account. There are two types of flairs:

1. User flair: Appears next to your profile name and shares more about your background or role
2. Post flair: Labels your post based on content type

Here’s an example of a post flair (“Gear Pictures”) for r/Fishing_Gear, a community where a fishing apparel brand could connect with its audience.

Source: Reddit

Share value (not spam)

When you post or reply, avoid doing so in a promotional way. Redditors spot self-advertising miles away. It’s also banned in most communities. Instead, put your audience first. Examples:

• A user asks a question ➡️ you offer a helpful answer first, and only then suggest your product if it truly adds value
• Users post about the same pain point in a subreddit ➡️ you host an AMA highlighting that exact problem
• After spending time on a subreddit, you notice consistent themes ➡️ you post a free guide or resource that targets your niche audience

By earning more credibility over time, you’ll be able to naturally talk about your product more often.

Stay on topic

Sometimes, social media marketers or community managers may have their goals in mind, but they forget what the actual post is about. When they leave a comment, it feels off-target. Users will notice it and may downvote the comment or respond negatively, which damages your karma and trust.

The best rule of thumb is always to engage with value-first practices. Even if you don’t directly give your brand a shoutout, users will recognize your username over time as you build your reputation. Review your subreddits’ rules for specific topics and content formats that are no-gos.

Use data-driven insights

You don’t need to build your strategy from scratch. Reddit social listening helps you track and analyze mentions for your brand, industry and relevant keywords.

Tools like Sprout’s Listening use AI to find key customer and competitor insights. You can find out where your audience talks about you, for example, and identify the subreddits they frequent. Sprout’s listening and reporting features inform your social strategies and help you prove ROI to stakeholders.

Collaborate with others

As you build relationships within subreddits, you’ll likely encounter power users or influencers in specific niches. By engaging with these key users and sending DMs, you can boost your reach and credibility. You’ll experience indirect benefits, such as upvotes, comments and shares from that user when they recognize you in the subreddit. You can also host interviews with the person or, if they are a moderator, subreddit-sponsored events within the community.

Moderate who can contact you

As a social media professional, you don’t want to close the door on conversations. Adjust your message settings to control who can message you. Start by opening access to most users. Then make sure you block anyone who causes your team trouble, such as those who troll.

Build “karma” by nurturing each relationship

If user credibility on Reddit were a currency, it would be karma points. Reddit calculates karma based on details like upvotes, downvotes and the comments you receive.

The more karma you have, the more users trust your account. They can view your karma score and see your post and comment history in the same place. This track record adds transparency and authenticity to your username.

How it works: Reddit ads explained

Reddit offers various advertising promotion options for multiple goals. These ads are extremely valuable if you’re a Reddit marketer because you can reach a highly targeted niche based on topics in its 100,000 active communities. Types of Reddit ads include:

• Promoted posts in subreddit feeds
• Display ads in traditional banner format
• Video ads featuring engaging video content
• Carousel ads showcasing many products or features as a slideshow
• Conversation placement ads appearing organically in discussion threads

Here’s a promoted ad that shows up in subreddit feeds:

Source: Reddit

To increase your chances for a successful Reddit ad campaign, make sure to include these best practices:

• Stay native: Make sure your ads align with Reddit’s style, tone and culture. Repurposing content from other social networks is fine, but make sure you rebuild the ad to be Reddit-first.
• Target precisely: Use subreddit targeting to reach highly niche, relevant audiences. For example, a running shoe company may be better off in r/MarathonRunning and r/AdvancedRunning than a general subreddit like r/Shoes.
• Engage authentically: Respond to comments within your ad as well as within the organic posts in the target subreddit to build credibility and support your promotional campaign.

Turn Reddit conversations into marketing strategies with Sprout

Reddit offers unique opportunities to build authentic relationships and gain brand and industry insights. But to grow on Reddit, you need to know your users and tap into redditors’ pain points, conversations and thoughts about your brand. Social listening gives you the ability to spot opportunities to engage and improve your Reddit marketing strategy.

Sprout’s Listening tracks brand sentiment to uncover pain points across Reddit communities, giving you the data you need to tailor your message to resonate.

Get the demo to see how Sprout’s Listening turns Reddit conversations into real marketing momentum.