“To explore
strange new worlds,
To seek out new life and new civilizations,
To boldly go where no content has gone before…”
Any Star Trek fans here? Even if you’ve never seen a single episode, the opening words can teach us something about creating content. To write content like you never have before, you must do what’s strange and unfamiliar. You have to explore new frontiers with boldness.
We’re not talking about space, but something just as mysterious to some: Reddit.
To create content the right way (that is, creating content your audience actually wants to read), you must go where the people go. Reddit, “the front page of the internet,” collects over 430 million active monthly users, more than Twitter and Pinterest. Chances are, some of those are your people who are freely sharing insights into the type of content they want to see most.
A Quick Primer on Reddit
For those unfamiliar with the website, Reddit is a massive collection of forums submitted by people around the globe. Everything from news to questions to opinions lives there.
How Does Reddit Work?
Each different forum or community on Reddit is called a subreddit. It’s easy to sift through the many subreddits using the search feature (which we’ll dig deeper into in a moment).
Individual posts are either upvoted or downvoted by Reddit users to move it further into popularity or down the forum totem pole.
Users who find subreddits they enjoy reading can also subscribe to them, so they don’t miss a beat. Those subreddits are then displayed on their Reddit home page for quick viewing.
How to Use Reddit to Find New Content Ideas for Your Business
Now that you know the basics of Reddit, it’s time to discuss what you came here for: using Reddit for content creation. Yes, you can also use Reddit as a marketing outreach tool. But that’s a conversation for another day.
Here, we’re talking about how to find ideas on Reddit that you can then use to create new blog posts, website pages, lead magnets and more. Open a brainstorming document on your desktop or pull out a piece of paper and pencil because it’s time to dive in.
Discover New Subreddits & Posts
First things first, we’re going to use the trusty search bar to find subreddits and posts that are relevant to your business. Consider the services you offer. For example, we would type “website copywriting” or “web content creation” into the search bar.
In the search results, you’ll see top communities, known as subreddits. You’ll also see top posts pulled from those subreddits. Sort the posts and then click on those that appear at the top to see what’s garnering the most attention from Reddit users in your niche.
Practice Your Listening Skills
As you dive into posts and subreddits, it’s time to practice your listening skills. Take time to look for questions you can answer and problems you can solve. Read comments from other users. For example, are users posting about their struggle with something relevant to your business? Or, are they asking for help on a topic you know a lot about?
Add your ideas to your brainstorming document. Soon, you’ll have several you can use to create various types of content.
Don’t Forget to Share Your Content With the Community
Once you’ve created content that’s directly tied to something you found on Reddit, remember to go back to Reddit and share your content. This can be as simple as sharing a link to your content on the original Reddit post that gave you the idea. After all, this is about serving those who need you most.
Fresh Out of Web Content Ideas? We Can Help.
Online communities such as Reddit can help you generate many new content ideas for your business. If you’re still struggling, we can help! Just send our team a message to get started.
