Introduction

Reddit is home to over 100,000 communities where users can engage in discussions, share content, and connect around their interests. Ranked among the world’s most popular sites, it boasts hundreds of millions of monthly active users.

Redditors use the platform for various purposes, including seeking advice, sharing opinions, and making recommendations on specific topics, products, and brands.

One of Reddit’s unique features is that users can participate in the community even without actively engaging with others. Silent users can still influence others by sharing what they’ve discovered outside the platform. A recent study shows that Reddit users are more likely to recommend brands and products they love across key verticals compared to users of other platforms.

Key Insights from This Guide:

• Trust in People: Consumers increasingly rely on online communities for authentic perspectives on the products they buy. From discovery to purchase, they trust real people’s honest opinions and recommendations.
• Influence of Focused Communities: Reddit communities often focus on specific topics and cultures, leading to more nuanced and valuable conversations about brands and products. Niche communities tend to have higher engagement and influence when it comes to product opinions and purchases.
• Building Advocacy by Adding Value: Positive brand perception within a community can lead to advocacy and recommendations. Marketers should create campaigns that add value to the community’s expressed needs. Engaging on Reddit through Promoted Posts, AMAs, and MegaPosts can help guide conversations toward the messages and outcomes your brand desires.
• Engage in Ongoing Conversations: Conversations about your brand are happening daily on Reddit. Now is the perfect time to start engaging and gaining valuable insights about your brand.

This guide takes a deep dive into five popular subreddits to uncover what people are recommending and what marketers can learn from these recommendations.

How to analyze subreddit recommendations like a pro

We selected five subreddits, covering a broad range of industries:

• r/BuyItForLife (1.5m subscribers)
• r/SkincareAddiction (1.8m subscribers)
• r/Gadgets (21.3m subscribers)
• r/DIY (22.4m subscribers)
• r/GiftIdeas (375k subscribers)

We then built a query to track people seeking or sharing recommendations and advice on these subreddits between April 1, 2022, and April 1, 2023.

Our analysis revealed 93,000 mentions shared during this period, an 11% increase compared to the previous year, with nearly 48,000 unique authors contributing—a 15% increase. The high volume of mentions and unique authors indicates that people are actively seeking and sharing advice on these subreddits, with many engaging in multiple conversations about the topics at hand.

Measuring Engagement: Subscribers vs. Mentions

We compared online activity related to sharing and requesting recommendations across the five selected subreddits. While r/SkinCareAddiction has a smaller subscriber base compared to r/DIY and r/Gadgets, it accounted for 62.6% of advice-related mentions across all five subreddits.

Understanding Audience Demographics: Generations

Using Brandwatch’s Ready To Use Social Panels for Reddit, we analyzed the audience makeup of those discussing recommendations in each subreddit from April 1, 2022, to April 1, 2023.

While millennials dominated the advice-related conversations across all five subreddits, we found interesting generational differences:

• r/DIY had the highest percentage of baby boomer recommendations (6.7% of mentions).
• r/Gadgets had the highest percentage of Gen X mentions.
• r/SkinCareAddiction and r/GiftIdeas saw strong engagement from Gen Z and Gen Y.

Lessons for Marketers:

• Focused Communities Are Influential: Topic-specific communities have a significant impact on purchase decisions. Even smaller, niche subreddits can generate substantial recommendations. The more focused a community, the more trusted it is for making recommendations.
• Power of Generation-Centric Messaging: By understanding generational engagement patterns, brands can craft messages and strategies that resonate with their target audience, driving better results.

• Introduction
• How to analyze subreddit recommendations like a pro
• What are people recommending?
  • r/SkincareAddiction
  • r/Gadgets
  • r/DIY 
• r/Giftideas
• Final thoughts
• Experience the social suite of the future

Pricing: 

• Free