Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

By and large, ecommerce marketers are well aware that sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest can be used to generate leads.

But what about community sites like Reddit and Quora?Despite their ubiquity, e-commerce marketers across the industry don’t realize that Reddit and Quora can be absolute gold mines for finding leads and prospects.

"We get more conversions from Quora, but get more leads and traffic from Reddit. And, our conversion rate from Quora is higher than organic search or social media." - Brad Ervin, founder of Hippie Butter

If you’re not familiar with either service, both are information and content-sharing platforms that anyone can join....

Earlier this year, Hack PR had a problem. The unorthodox public relations firm had snapped up a new client, a deep-pocketed entrepreneur with political ambitions. Unfortunately, nobody really knew who he was, and the campaign it launched for him failed to convert into any real coverage save for a couple of pieces in the Huffington Post and The Washington Times. They needed another idea.

So, in their words, they hustled.There’s an old Internet joke that says politicians should wear the logos of their donors, much like Nascar drivers wear the logos of their sponsors. Taking inspiration from that, Hack PR pitched the idea to its client that it try and make it law through a California ballot initiative.

But unfortunately, this didn’t pan out either. It wasn’t for lack of trying. The firm took the provocative step of printing a full-sized cutout of everyone in the California Legislature, adorned with the logos of Chevron and AT&T, and other prolific donors. These were left at the steps of the Sacramento State Capital building for all to see. But as before, nada.

Then....

I originally wrote this material as a guide for the Appszoom content team to get started with reddit.

I’m already a redditor in my spare time (read: all the time), so it’s blindingly obvious to me that there’s huge potential to meaningfully connect with tons of people, really quickly. This is exactly what any decent business wants to do, too. A match made in heaven.

Only, reddit hates marketing.

Examples of marketing fails on reddit abound (see more: r/hailcorporate, plus this in-depth opinion article). If reddit decides your brand is full o’ Scheiße, it can be a huge stain on your reputation....