Looking to unlock the power of Reddit’s unique platform to boost your brand, build organic strategies, or foster community engagement? We’re bringing together the experts, and they’re going to tell you how to do it.
Don’t miss this exclusive opportunity to receive actionable insights directly from the experts who help shape Reddit’s advertising and marketing landscape.
You’ll get insider tips on how to engage Reddit’s vast and diverse user base, tap into real-time conversations, and leverage the platform’s unique community-driven environment to drive your brand’s growth.
Whether your focus is on organic search, paid campaigns, community engagement, or crafting a winning content strategy, this is a rare chance to ask Reddit insiders whatever you want.
Meet Your Expert Panel:
Moderated by Brent Csutoras – A seasoned expert in digital marketing and Reddit strategy, Brent has spent years helping brands leverage Reddit to achieve tangible success. His strategic guidance will help ensure you get the most from this AMA.
Susan Billingsley – As the leader of Reddit’s global business brand and audience marketing, Susan is responsible for crafting narratives that connect with Reddit’s diverse user base and drive brand loyalty. She’ll share insights into what resonates with Reddit users and how to create compelling brand stories.
Rob Gaige – Rob brings his expertise in turning Reddit’s community conversations into actionable marketing strategies. With his finger on the pulse of consumer trends, he’ll guide you on how to stay ahead of shifts in audience behavior and preferences.
Nishe Modoyan – Overseeing Reddit’s core ads platform, Nishe leads go-to-market strategies with a deep passion for identifying the most effective advertising opportunities for Reddit’s business partners. She’ll offer expert advice on optimizing ad spend and maximizing ROI.
This AMA is designed to be an interactive, no-holds-barred conversation, giving you direct access to the minds behind Reddit’s advertising and marketing strategies. You’ll walk away with real insights for crafting your next campaign, whether it’s organic or paid – insights you can only hear from the experts shaping Reddit itself.
What We’ll Be Covering:
This is a chance to get behind the scenes of Reddit’s advertising and marketing ecosystem and understand how you can make the most of the platform’s vast and engaged user base. Learn how to harness Reddit’s vibrant communities, use advanced targeting options for ads, and capitalize on emerging consumer trends.
This presentation is tailor-made for marketing leaders, digital strategists, and managers who are eager to explore Reddit’s full potential. If you’re tasked with expanding brand reach, fostering community engagement, or driving targeted ad campaigns, we want to hear your questions!
While We Typically Provide Key Takeaways, This Time You Drive the Conversation!
Wondering what you can expect? Here are a few of the burning questions we anticipate answering:
What are the most effective strategies for engaging Reddit’s highly active communities and creating meaningful interactions?
How can I use Reddit Ads to boost brand awareness, generate leads, and drive conversions?
How can insights derived from Reddit’s communities help predict emerging consumer trends and behavior?
What are the best practices for leveraging Reddit’s rich data to enhance and refine my brand strategy?
How do I find the right balance between organic engagement and paid advertising to maximize impact without losing authenticity?
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With hindsight, the previous epoch could be called “The Age of the One-Trick Pony.” It began back in 2002 when Google passed more than a dozen crawlers and directories to become the dominant search engine.
If you learned how to improve a website’s visibility in Google’s natural or unpaid search results, then you could get a respectable job as a search engine optimizer.
Going forward, SEO specialists will need to invest more time in learning four additional disciplines: digital analytics, digital advertising, content marketing, and social media marketing.
SEO managers will also need to demonstrate critical thinking about digital marketing strategy if they ever hope to climb the ladder.
So, where should you begin?
Digital Analytics
You should start by learning more about digital analytics, which is the process of collecting, measuring, analyzing, and interpreting data from digital sources to understand how users interact with online content.
This will help you understand why traditional metrics like “keyword rankings” and “organic pageviews” – which are the top two performance metrics that SEO professionals use to measure success in 2024 – aren’t getting noticed anymore. This means they’re never going to help you get a promotion, let alone a seat at the big table.
“Keyword rankings and pageviews are not necessarily relevant to business goals. They’re the main metrics being disrupted right now, but it’s critical to lean into disruption to discover opportunities and change strategies.”
He used a clickstream panel from Datos to tackle a couple of critical questions:
What typically occurs after Americans and Europeans perform a Google search?
In 2024, what percentage of searches end without any clicks?
As the twin charts below indicate, close to 60% of Google searches result in zero clicks, while slightly more than 40% result in a click.
Image from Sparktoro, September 2024
Of the searches that result in a click, about 25-30% go to platforms that Google owns, including YouTube, Google Images, Google Maps, and Google News. Meanwhile, the other 70% to 75% go to a non-Google-owned, non-Google-ad-paying property.
For every 1,000 Google searches, only 360 clicks in the U.S. and just 374 clicks in Europe go to the open web.
That is why you should use digital analytics to measure the impact of visibility in Google’s natural or unpaid search results on raising brand awareness.
In the late 1980s, I was the director of corporate communications at Lotus Development Corporation and at Ziff-Davis during the 1990s. Back then, I began utilizing surveys to measure the impact of publicity on brand awareness.
Today, you can use a modified version of brand lift surveys to measure this KPI.
Brand lift surveys ask people questions about your brand and products – either before and after your target audience has been exposed to a new campaign or at regular intervals.
The questions can help you understand how your SEO efforts and other cross-channel programs are impacting your brand, including:
Awareness.
Consideration.
Favorability.
Purchase intent.
In other words, learning to use digital analytics to measure, analyze, and interpret data is significantly more valuable to your career than just using the same old web analytics metrics that SEO pros have been collecting and reporting for more than 20 years.
Digital Advertising
Next, I would recommend learning more about digital advertising, which includes pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
Digital ads can appear in many forms, including text, images, audio, and video, and can be found on various platforms, such as search engines, social media, and websites.
You’re probably sharing your keyword research with colleagues in your advertising department or over at your ad agency. But that is just the front end of a longer process – you should learn more about the middle and back end, too.
For example, I had bet dollars to donuts that your colleagues in advertising are busy setting up audiences in Google Analytics 4, which lets them segment users in ways that are important to your business.
By linking your GA4 account to Google Ads, they can remarket to them.
Why does this represent a strategic opportunity for SEO pros?
“People don’t make decisions in a neat, linear fashion.”
Between the moment they realize they need or want something and the moment they make a purchase, a lot happens.
The research also found:
“People look for information about a category’s products and brands, and then weigh all the options.”
They go through two different mental modes in the messy middle: exploration, which is an expansive activity, and evaluation, which is a reductive activity.
It concluded:
“Whatever a person is doing, across a huge array of online sources, such as search engines, social media, and review sites, can be classified into one of these two mental modes.”
So, how do SEO professionals harness this insight?
What if you started building “SEO audiences” in GA4 to help people in the “messy middle” of their purchase journey?
You could then share your SEO audiences with your colleague in advertising, who could then create a remarketing campaign targeted at this specific group of users – and help them complete their purchase journey.
For example, if your SEO program builds an audience of 1,000 users who:
Begin the checkout process, then your colleague could use Google Ads to ask them to make a purchase.
Download a white paper, then your colleague could use Google Ads to ask them to complete a registration form.
Scroll to 90% of a blog post or article, then your colleague could use Google Ads to ask them to subscribe to a newsletter.
SEJ’s State of SEO 2025 says the biggest barrier to SEO success in the last 12 months was “budget and resources.” And that was followed by two other traditional barriers: “Google algorithm updates” and “competition in SERPs.”
But if you dig a little deeper, the fourth item on the list of the biggest barriers to SEO success was “alignment with other departments.”
So, imagine what would happen if the SEO and PPC people started working together to help people in the “messy middle” of their purchase journey?
Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, And SEO
Speaking of alignment with other departments, SEO pros need to learn even more than they already know about content marketing and social media marketing.
Overlapping responsibilities can be a waste of time and frustrating for teams. So, these tend to be the first things that companies and clients trim when they tighten their purse strings.
Ironically, slightly overlapping roles can improve workflow integration. This is because each role’s activities impact the next process in the workflow.
Alignment with other departments isn’t just a way to keep your SEO budget and resources from being cut. It is also a way to overcome other barriers to SEO success, like “Google algorithm updates” and “competition in SERPs.”
The article by Kevin Indig dives into the latest data on AI Overviews (AIO) to understand domain visibility, citation trends, and effective search strategies crucial for SEO success.
What does he notice? The top three most cited domains in AIOs are:
YouTube.com.
Wikipedia.com.
LinkedIn.com.
What does he wonder?
“The fact that two social networks, YouTube and LinkedIn, are in the top three most cited domains raises the question of whether we can influence AIO answers with content on YouTube and LinkedIn more than our own.”
Indig also notes that videos take more effort to produce than LinkedIn answers, but videos might also be more defensible against copycats. So, “AIO-optimization strategies should include social and video content.”
Let us imagine that you are the SEO manager at a Fortune 500 company. What would happen if your chief marketing officer (CMO) decided to create a task force to develop AIO-optimization strategies?
If the task force included managers from the SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing departments, then how likely is it that you would be selected to head up this team?
Since then, SEJ’s State of SEO 2025 confirms that 46.3% of SEO professionals are “content goblins,” a term that the author coined to describe people “willing to eschew rules, morals, and good taste in exchange for eyeballs and mountains of cash.”
Another 25.2% of SEO pros are “alligator wrestlers,” another term coined by The Verge to describe the link spammers who want people to click on “WATCH: 10-foot Gator Prepares to Maul Digital Marketers.”
And 19.6% were confused by these descriptions, which indicates that they don’t get out of their silos very often.
So, how do you avoid the stereotype that SEO pros are hustlers, while simultaneously demonstrating that you have the education, expertise, and experience needed to lead an interdisciplinary team?
But you’d probably improve your chances of getting the new position by also reading:
In other words, the more you know about content marketing and social media marketing, the more likely it is that you will be chosen to head up a task force to develop AIO-optimization strategies.
And working collaboratively with other departments to leverage YouTube, LinkedIn, and cross-channel strategies will also increase your odds of getting promoted in the foreseeable future.
Digital Marketing Strategy
But when you climb the corporate ladder, don’t be surprised if your next job title doesn’t include the term “search engine optimization” or “SEO.”
“Over the last 18 months there has been a marked decline in the job market for senior SEO leadership roles across in-house and agency landscapes, and this trend is persisting.”
And he wondered:
“Maybe companies don’t believe SEO by itself is enough anymore. Job seekers need SEO plus something extra.”
As I mentioned earlier, the era of one-trick ponies is about to end. What comes next can only be described using Words of Estimative Probability (WEP), which are used by intelligence analysts in analytic reports to convey the likelihood of a future event occurring.
So, whether you’re called the VP of marketing, CMO, or chief growth officer (CGO), the challenge will be the same: Create successful digital marketing strategies when your global company or top brand is faced with unexpected opportunities or unanticipated threats in the unforeseeable future.
What are the odds that you can overcome that challenge?
You can increase the likelihood of success by reading case studies and then asking yourself two questions:
What do I notice?
What do I wonder?
I used this approach when I wrote the chapter on digital marketing strategy in the book, “Digital Marketing Fundamentals.” I shared two articles that I had written for Search Engine Journal:
Now, learning lessons from others is a good start, but you can significantly improve your chances of success by borrowing a big idea from my old friend and former colleague, Avinash Kaushik. He wrote an article titled, Stop Exceeding Expectations, Suck Less First.
He said that we should stop trying to “exceed the (often less-than-optimally informed) expectations of Wall Street Analysts” because “this desire to overachieve also comes at a very heavy cost – it drives sub-optimal behavior.”
Instead, he recommended this “as the #1 goal for your company: Suck less, every day.”
How does this incremental approach help a VP of marketing, CMO, or CGO achieve their business objectives?
“More often than not, magnificent success results from executing a business plan that is rooted in a strong understanding of the landscape of possibilities, and a deep self-awareness of business capabilities. These business plans will contain a structured approach…”
Then, he shared the Digital Marketing “Ladder of Awesomeness” below.
Image from Occam’s Razor by Kaushik, September 2024
Next, Kaushik shared the Digital Analytics “Ladder of Awesomeness” below, which outlines the KPIs for each step.
Image from Occam’s Razor by Kaushik, September 2024
Now, your twin ladders of awesomeness might look a little different than his because this is 2024 – not 2013.
And both digital marketing and digital analytics have evolved. But the step-by-step process that Kaushik outlined will help you make the hard choices that are the most relevant for your company or brand when it finds itself in an unexpected, unanticipated, or unforeseeable position.
So, the first step in this new era of SEO is developing digital marketing strategies that help you avoid the pitfalls, seize the opportunities, and climb the ladder of success.
In parallel, the second step should be learning how to measure incrementality, the conversions that would not have occurred without marketing influence.
Oh, it’s also smart to start climbing these twin ladders of awesomeness as quickly as you can.
Why? Because the clock is ticking.
According to Spencer Stuart’s most recent CMO Tenure Study, Fortune 500 CMOs had an average tenure of 4.2 years last year.
However, there are differences between diverse types of companies.
CMOs at B2B companies tend to stay in their roles for an average of 4.5 years; CMOs at B2C companies average 4.0 years; CMOs at the top 100 advertisers hand on to their jobs for just 3.1 years.
In the next couple of years, a significant percentage of CMO jobs are going to open suddenly. How likely is it that you’ll be ready to be interviewed for one of them?
Spencer Stuart also noticed that 34% of Fortune 500 CMOs lead functions in addition to marketing, such as communications. So, the “plus something extra” trend extends from the SEO manager level all the way up to the CMO level.
The Age Of Awesomeness
Take an expanded view of marketing leaders’ growing purview and start climbing the ladder as soon as humanly possible.
The only thing that’s left to do is coin a unique term for the new era we’re entering.
We could call it the “Age of Awesomeness” or the “Epoch of Twin Escalators.” But I’m open to other suggestions.
What have you noticed, and what have you wondered?
Born between 1997 and 2012, Generation Z (Gen Z) is the first generation to have grown up with the internet, social media, and smartphones as part of their everyday lives.
More than just very demure and very mindful, they’re a complex demographic myriad businesses and industries are vying to target – with their own unique set of ideals, values, and interests that vary drastically from older generations.
For social media marketers, effectively reaching Gen Z requires more than injecting buzzwords and phrases into your messaging.
It requires a strategic approach that starts with obtaining a comprehensive understanding of this specific audience.
Unlike previous generations, Gen Z came into the world with the internet already having made a significant impact for both business and consumers alike.
Smartphones were well on their way to becoming a household necessity, with the first iPhone being introduced on June 29, 2007. Myspace was also about to become a phenomenon that would inspire and forever shape the social media technology movement.
Given the breadth of experience Gen Z has with smart devices, technology, and social media, it’s imperative for marketers to tailor their social media strategies to successfully capture and convert potential Gen Z customers.
As marketers, now is the time to uncover what motivates Gen Z and how to capture the largest market segment to improve return on investment, maximize your marketing efforts, and drive more qualified business.
Let’s unpack exactly who this generation is and proven strategies for increasing Gen Z engagement across numerous social media platforms.
Demystifying Gen Z: Who Are They Exactly?
Gen Z comprises a little over one-fifth (20.69%) of the U.S. population.
Gen Z is unique among current generations – not just for the social structure they have come up in, but also for their spending habits, which differ from other generations.
According to Statista, Gen Z isn’t as motivated to purchase a product after seeing an ad on TV, with only about a third of this demographic saying a TV ad has prompted them to make a purchase.
Social media’s influence, however, was proven to be much more profound.
Gen Z And Social Media
Two-thirds of Gen Zers say they’ve been influenced to make a purchase after seeing a social media advertisement.
Additionally, 33% of the Gen Z population is interested in buying from a brand founded by an influencer, a stark contrast from the minuscule 4% of Baby Boomers who expressed interest in doing the same.
Social media is woven into the fabric of their lives.
A 2024 report by Morning Consult found that 54% of Gen Zers favor YouTube over any other social media platform, with 80% spending their time on it. Instagram is another platform after YouTube, with 75% of Gen Zers gravitating towards spending time there. TikTok (69%) and Snapchat (63%) are also popular platforms for Gen Zers.
Furthermore, the same report indicates 35% of Gen Zers spend over 4 hours a day using social media, and only 4% spend less than 1 hour a day.
Knowing that Gen Z spends ample time on social media regularly highlights the need for marketers to focus their attention and efforts on this dominating channel.
This holds especially true for the social channels Gen Z frequents most, which are YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.
Gen Z’s Dual World: Online Convenience Meets In-Person Experience
When it comes to online versus in-person shopping, it’s more of a toss-up.
Gen Z is accustomed to the convenience of online shopping, but they value real-life experiences, as well as the ease of same-day pickup.
A Deloitte study in 2023 also found a 50/50 split between Gen Zers and Millennials who see online interactions as meaningful replacements to in-person experiences, and those who prefer the real thing.
All of this suggests that an omnichannel approach to the customer experience is best for Gen Z, but still poses an interesting conundrum for marketers.
We know where Gen Zers are spending their time and how to reach them, but what does it take to connect with them authentically? And what drives them to log off and shop in person?
Here are six social media best practices to consider when targeting a Gen Z audience.
1. Embrace Partnership With Creators
The concept of the traditional “influencer” – who does sponsorship deals, goes on brand trips, and sells an aspirational lifestyle attainable to their followers through the purchasing of products – dominated the 2010s.
But for Gen Z, that heyday is proving to be behind us. As they become savvier about when and how they’re being sold to, the creator economy is king.
In this new paradigm, authenticity and originality are lauded over aspiration.
TikTok creator Alix Earle jumps to mind as a prime example. Earle has seen rapid fame in just a few short months, surpassing 5 million followers today.
She has all the marks of a traditional influencer – the travel, high-end products, and aspirational lifestyle – but her unpolished and relatable tone is arguably what garnered her a massive audience, and what keeps them around as her lifestyle appears to become less attainable.
When she recommends a product to an audience, it feels organic, like a recommendation from a friend.
As a brand, encouraging, engaging with, and platforming this type of user-generated content (UGC) – where your product might not be the star of a scripted video, but a detail in a larger story – can be very effective with Gen Z.
2. Give The Brand A Persona Online
In addition to outsourcing content to creators with their own audiences, we’re also seeing the emergence of brands becoming influencers in their own right.
Some do this by bringing on a well-known creator to represent their brand’s social presence. For example, Kyle Prue, a TikTok creator with over 1.4 million followers, has become jointly known for the personal finance brand, Fizz.
Stylistically, the content for Fizz is virtually indistinguishable from his personal content – except for the fact that it’s about personal finance.
Others employ a character or a staff member to become the face of the brand online.
The popular language learning app, Duolingo, has amassed over 6.5 million TikTok followers making videos featuring its mascot, the Duolingo owl (and most of these videos have nothing to do with learning a language).
Another example with a different twist is the bag brand, Baboon to the Moon, which leverages a few of its Gen Z team members to make content that often features products prominently but feels snarky and off the cuff – a tone that tends to resonate well with the Gen Z audience.
3. Focus On Engagement Over Follower Count
Gen Z is far less brand loyal than its predecessors.
They’re frequently served content from social media main pages like TikTok’s For You page, Instagram’s Discover tab, and YouTube’s Recommended page.
An eye toward individual post engagement and visibility can be a better indicator of success than follower count by profile.
From a local experience (LX) perspective, this also means that there can be value in creating profiles for local stores to build a more personal connection with those locations.
Showing the location, offers, or events specific to that store and the people who work there could encourage more engagement.
For example, the TikTok profile for a Barnes and Noble location in Canton, Connecticut, has 15,600 followers and nearly 686,000 likes on its posts.
Democratizing content creation in this way can be a great way to generate more overall engagement, especially at the community level, and foster a sense of ownership with your staff.
4. Use Video To Your Advantage
Video marketing is a primary purchase driver for the Gen Z demographic. Not only does this audience like to watch videos, but they can also compel them to take action and purchase a product or service.
The previously cited report from Morning Consult found that over half (53%) of GenZers have purchased an item shown in a review video, and 40% have done the same from haul videos.
“Get Ready With Me (GRWM)” videos also inspire purchasing, with 37% of respondents saying this has led to a purchase as well.
The video purchasing trend aligns closely with the fact that Gen Z prefers to engage with platforms that allow for easy video creation, such as TikTok and Instagram.
When creating videos, it’s important for your business and any influencers you partner with to remain authentic and genuine.
Gen Zers are quick to abandon ship and take their money elsewhere if they feel a brand is being deceitful or if an influencer’s testimonial appears forced.
This is why it’s crucial to partner with influencers within your niche and who already have an understanding of your industry.
It’s beneficial to also examine the influencer’s reach and average post engagement to ensure your dollars are being well spent.
Scripts should also be avoided as this can appear inauthentic. Give influencers or your employees talking points to cover during their video, but stray away from regurgitating a word-for-word speech.
Your videos should be conversational, fun, and valuable for the intended audience.
5. Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Let’s say that you successfully build the authentic connection and positive association necessary to attract a Gen Z buyer.
At the local level, their experience begins when they open a new tab on their computer or switch apps on their photo to search for your brand – and there’s a strong chance that they are turning to Google to do that.
In a 2022 study of local consumer search behavior (Disclosure: I work for Rio SEO), we found that:
47% of Gen Zers said they very frequently use Google Search and Google Maps to find information about businesses in their area.
65% of the most frequently searched information on local business listings is the business address/directions – followed by reviews (56%), hours of operation (54%), and website (54%).
68% of Gen Zers conduct online searches a few times per day.
65% of Gen Zers want to travel 10 miles or less for a business’s products or services.
To progress your Gen Z leads from social media marketing into conversion, managing your LX and optimizing with your Google Business Profile (GBP) is key.
Your GBP should be optimized for mobile and up-to-date, with correct store hours and addresses with GPS directions, as well as quick visibility into in-store inventory, payment options, and other store highlights.
6. Create Short-Form Content
Capturing the attention of a Gen Z audience can be daunting as they prefer quick and short snippets of information. Gen Z isn’t interested in consuming cumbersome videos.
They crave content that’s easy to digest and gets to the point right away.
Businesses should focus on incorporating short-form content into their social media strategy, such as 10-, 30-, and 60-second videos on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.
Each of these formats is designed to entice the viewer in a short timeframe, ensuring they don’t tune out before your message is delivered.
Incorporating current trends can also help capture Gen Z’s attention.
A video from TikTok creator Jools Lebron gained lightning-speed traction when she modeled her “demure” workplace-friendly makeup. She quipped the look was “Very demure. Very mindful.”
The video’s popularity has since skyrocketed, prompting businesses and consumers alike to adopt and insert the phrase into their everyday jargon.
Businesses have since capitalized on the trend, adding the phrase into their own posts and videos to stay current with the Gen Z audience.
Popular, renowned brands such as Netflix, Zillow, and Lyft hired Lebron for marketing campaigns, where she uses her now iconic phrase “very demure, very mindful” in ads for the respective businesses.
While the demure trend may not last much longer before the next viral video steals the spotlight, it’s crucial for businesses to pay close attention to what’s trending to captivate Gen Z’s attention across their most visited social media platforms.
In Conclusion
The key takeaway is this: Gen Z social media marketing requires striking a balance between adaptability of medium and consistency of voice to bring in an engaged audience.
Optimizing online, social media, and local experience will equip brands to convert that audience into customers.
The brands that make both sides a priority will be the best poised to break through to this notoriously elusive generation.
Charm is a U.S.-based data platform providing retailers, sales teams, and investors with in-depth analytics on direct-to-consumer brands. Charm’s staff has collaborated with ex-ByteDance employees to collect publicly available U.S. TikTok Shop data across various categories from its launch in September 2023 to September 2024.
Notably, “Beauty & Personal Care” dominates, generating over $1 billion in revenue. “Womenswear” follows with $621 million, showing that fashion is another leading sector.
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The data also shows an upward trend in U.S. TikTok Shop’s monthly sales from its launch in September 2023 through mid-September 2024, indicating strong early adoption and consistent growth. Revenue peaked in July 2024 at over $600 million.
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In addition, the top five products by revenue on U.S. TikTok Shop reveal a strong consumer interest in health and wellness: “15 Day Cleanse” (gut and colon support) with $39.7 million in revenue, followed by “Multi Collagen Peptides Powder” (anti-aging complex, $26.4 million), “BetterAlt Himalayan Shilajit Resin” (nutritional supplement, $20.3 million), “MultiMineral Sea Moss” (nutritional supplement, $20.1 million), and “GuruNanda Cocomint Pulling Oil” (teeth whitener, $19.4 million).
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Furthermore, prerecorded video was the top sales channel on U.S. TikTok Shop at $2.5 billion.
Reddit is a dynamic social media platform that allows individuals to engage in thousands of existing communities, known as subreddits, or even create their own subreddit if an existing one doesn’t exist or suit their needs.
Users can browse, engage with, or submit content to these subreddits. There’s a voting system that determines the content’s visibility, allowing popular content to rise to the top, while less engaging content moves further down the feed.
Screenshot from Reddit, September 2024
For non-logged-in users, Reddit’s front page displays a curated view of content from various “safe” communities, which is organized by popularity.
Logged-in users see a personalized front page featuring content from their subscribed subreddits, again ranked by popularity.
Reddit’s Unique Position In Social Media
Reddit has played a significant role in shaping internet culture, including:
Influencing meme creation and propagation.
Pioneering crowdfunding initiatives.
Popularizing the AMA (Ask Me Anything) interview format.
Fostering deep, meaningful online discussions.
For marketers, Reddit presents a unique opportunity to connect with potential customers in a space where users actively seek to learn, debate, and engage with topics they’re passionate about.
Reddit’s reach and engagement are impressive:
Reddit’s user base is diverse and valuable, with a growing international presence (over 50% of traffic now originates outside the U.S.).
The platform attracts a well-educated audience with significant purchasing power, making it an attractive target for marketers.
Additionally, the platform’s influence extends beyond its own ecosystem.
In 2024, Google entered a $60 million agreement with Reddit to provide real-time content access and utilize its data in AI model training.
This partnership has increased Reddit’s visibility in search results, with users often appending “reddit” to their queries to access more authentic information.
Screenshot from search for [best electric car suv 2024], Google, September 2024
Navigating Reddit’s Ecosystem
To succeed on Reddit, it’s crucial to understand its unique characteristics and unwritten rules.
Subreddit-Specific Rules
While Reddit has overarching guidelines, each subreddit operates with its own set of rules. These can be highly specific and vary greatly between communities.
Screenshot from Reddit (/r/socialmedia), September 2024
For instance, r/dataisbeautiful, one of Reddit’s most popular subreddits, requires all diagrams to have at least one computer-generated element.
Always review a subreddit’s rules before participating to avoid potential bans.
The Value Of Pseudonymity
Reddit’s culture is built on pseudonymity. Most users, including founders and administrators, operate under usernames that don’t reveal their real-world identities.
Unless you’re managing a branded account for advertising purposes or overseeing a branded subreddit, it’s advisable to use a pseudonym.
For those with branded accounts, maintaining a separate pseudonymous account for general participation is recommended.
Reddit allows multiple accounts per user, provided they’re not used to manipulate the voting system.
Understanding Reddit’s Algorithm
Reddit’s content ranking algorithm uses a logarithmic scale based on upvotes, downvotes, and other engagement factors.
In simple terms, the first 10 votes on a submission carry as much weight as the next 100, which in turn carry as much weight as the next 1,000.
This means that initial engagement is crucial for a submission’s success. However, attempting to manipulate this system is strongly discouraged and can result in severe penalties.
Instead, focus on creating high-quality titles and descriptions, and consider adding thoughtful comments to encourage positive engagement.
Keep in mind that Reddit’s algorithm now also considers factors like comments and overall user interaction.
Becoming An Active Redditor
To truly understand and succeed on Reddit, it’s essential to become an active participant in the community.
Screenshot from Reddit, September 2024
Engage with subreddits aligned with your interests and expertise.
Familiarize yourself with the nuances of each community and contribute to discussions where you can add value.
Learn the Reddit language so that when you engage in each Subreddit, you sound like you belong.
Trust me, there are a lot of Reddit terms and phrases you definitely do not know but should if you want to have success on Reddit. Check out this handy Reddit Lingo Guide.
The Importance Of Commenting
Commenting is a fundamental aspect of Reddit participation. It’s the primary way to connect with other users, demonstrate community involvement, and even help avoid being labeled as a spammer.
To build karma efficiently, monitor the “rising” tab and contribute early to posts gaining traction, as well as participate in lower barriers to entry subreddits, like /r/meme, /r/oddlysatisfying, and /r/aww.
Avoiding The Spam Label
Reddit’s definition of spam is different from other platforms, but it’s clear they take it seriously, and if you’re not careful, you can quickly be labeled as a spammer.
Spam on Reddit isn’t just about posting links or overly promotional content – it’s more nuanced and tied to how you engage with the community.
Let’s break down the major actions that could get you flagged as spam on Reddit:
Exclusively Posting Self-Created Content
Reddit is a place to share and discuss, not just promote your own material.
If all you do is post your own stuff without engaging with others or sharing content from other sources, you’ll quickly be seen as self-serving, which will limit your success on Reddit.
Posting Without Engaging In Comments
This is one of the most common pitfalls. You can’t just drop a link and disappear.
Reddit is all about community interaction, so if you’re not jumping into the conversation around your post or others, you’re missing the point.
Comments are where the magic happens – it’s your chance to build credibility and trust.
Submitting Off-Topic Content To A Subreddit
Each subreddit has its own culture, tone, and rules.
Posting content that doesn’t align with the community’s focus is a quick way to be labeled as a spammer.
Take the time to understand what each subreddit values, and tailor your contributions accordingly.
Excessive Posting In A Single Subreddit
Overposting, even with good content, can make you look like you’re just there to push your agenda. Balance is key.
Spread your contributions across different subreddits, and ensure you add value rather than just trying to gain exposure.
Repeatedly Posting Poorly Received Content
If your posts aren’t resonating with the community, take a step back and reassess.
Maybe your content isn’t the right fit, or perhaps the way you’re presenting it doesn’t match the subreddit’s tone.
Learn from the feedback – or lack of engagement – and adjust your approach.
Cross-Posting Identical Content Across Multiple Subreddits
This feels lazy and reeks of self-promotion.
Redditors are savvy, and they can spot someone who’s trying to game the system a mile away.
If you’re going to share similar content in different subreddits, tailor it to each community to show that you’ve put in the effort to understand their specific interests.
Ultimately, Reddit values authenticity and genuine interaction. Posting is not enough – you need to participate actively.
Treat Reddit like a real-world community, focus on being part of the conversation, and you’ll avoid being seen as a spammer while building credibility and trust.
Identifying Suitable Subreddits
Identifying suitable subreddits is one of the most crucial steps to succeeding on Reddit as a marketer.
While engaging with communities that match your personal interests helps you learn the ropes, you need to go a step further and target subreddits that align with your business goals.
Remember, Reddit isn’t a one-size-fits-all platform, so your strategy has to be intentional and tailored to each community.
Here’s how to be strategic in finding the right subreddits:
Leverage Reddit’s Search Function
Use the “site:domain.com” search parameter to uncover where your content – or your competitors’ – is being discussed.
This helps you identify communities already interested in your industry or niche. It’s a quick way to figure out where conversations are happening about topics related to your business.
Refine Your Search
Once you have an idea of where your content might fit, dig deeper by going into your selected subreddit and searching “site:domain.com” (you will notice the subreddit included in the left of the search box by default).
This lets you analyze how your content performs in specific subreddits, giving you insights into which communities are most receptive.
You’ll quickly see what tone, format, and subject matter work best in each one.
Study The Sidebar Rules
Every subreddit has its own culture and guidelines, and these aren’t suggestions – they’re rules.
Before posting, always check the sidebar to ensure your content aligns with the community’s standards.
Failing to do this is one of the fastest ways to get your content removed or, worse, get banned.
Look For Emerging Subreddits
Established subreddits can be crowded and harder to break into, but newer or smaller subreddits often seek more content and engagement.
They present a fantastic opportunity to gain visibility and influence early on.
Keep an eye on trending or fast-growing communities that align with your niche. This is where you can become a go-to source before your competition even knows they exist.
When you take the time to find the right subreddits and understand their nuances, you’ll be much more effective in reaching your target audience and building genuine connections.
Creating Effective Reddit Content
Creating content that resonates on Reddit requires more than repurposing material from other platforms.
Redditors are discerning and quick to reject anything that feels overly promotional or irrelevant, so it’s crucial to understand the community’s values and engagement style.
Analyze The “TOP” Tab: Check the “TOP” posts in relevant subreddits to see which topics, formats, and tones perform best. This helps you understand what resonates with the community and tailor your content accordingly.
Use The “site:domain.com” Search Technique: Search for posts mentioning your domain or competitors to identify what’s working. Analyze titles, framing, and responses to find successful patterns you can adapt.
Create Reddit-Specific Content: Design content specifically for Reddit, such as AMAs, behind-the-scenes insights, or unique Reddit discounts. Focus on being authentic and valuable to gain traction.
Engage With The Community: Don’t just post and leave – actively participate in the comments. Engaging with users builds credibility and strengthens connections with your audience.
Adapt And Iterate: Regularly review your content’s performance across subreddits and adjust your approach based on feedback to ensure you’re always aligning with what works.
By tailoring your approach to fit the unique culture of Reddit, you’ll create content that not only gets noticed but also builds genuine connections with the community.
Maintaining Integrity On Reddit
Reddit isn’t a place to cut corners or game the system.
Its anti-spam and anti-manipulation systems are advanced and constantly evolving to catch attempts at cheating, using machine learning, domain filtering, and rate limiting.
If caught manipulating the voting system or pushing your content too aggressively, you risk both account and permanent domain bans.
The Reddit community values authenticity, and any attempt to manipulate will quickly backfire, damaging your reputation.
Instead, take a page from TikTok’s approach – engage openly and authentically, even if you face criticism.
If you want a real presence on Reddit, invest the time to understand the platform, respect its culture, and engage genuinely. Follow the rules, be transparent, and avoid tricks.
The long-term rewards far outweigh any short-term gains from gaming the system.
Start Now, Thrive Tomorrow
As Reddit’s influence continues to expand, the smartest move is to dive in now and familiarize yourself with how things work.
Reddit’s dedicated, thriving communities offer a unique chance to connect, but it’s a space that rewards genuine effort. The partnerships with Google and OpenAI show Reddit’s only going to get bigger, so this is your moment to get ahead of the curve.
By getting involved today and respecting its culture, you’ll set yourself up to tap into one of the internet’s most engaged and influential platforms.
Success on Reddit isn’t about shortcuts – it’s about being part of the conversation now, so you’re ready to win tomorrow.
Since 2017 we’ve published five lists of new social networks — 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022, and 2023. Here is our all-new installment for 2024. There are microblogging platforms for text, video, audio, and images. There are decentralized social networks, live-streaming platforms, AI-assisted networks, ad-free apps, and location-based apps to track and meet up with contacts. Some of the platforms are in beta.
Instagram Threads is an app for sharing stories and conversations. Create posts up to 500 characters with the option to include links, photos, carousels, and videos up to five minutes long. Then share to Instagram Stories or direct messages — and control who can reply.
Kick is a live-streaming app similar to Twitch. Users broadcast content in real-time, interacting with followers through chat and other features. To stream on Kick, users create an account and set up streaming software such as OBS Studio or Streamlabs. Kick has an incentive program that compensates creators with revenue per individual stream. Since its launch in early 2024, Kick says it has paid over $17 million to more than 2,000 creators.
Gowalla is a location-based social networking app that tracks users’ actions in the real world. Post updates privately to your network on your location and activities. Send messages, make plans, and leave reactions in direct and group threads. Find interesting places to visit. Gowalla launched in 2007, closed in 2012, and relaunched in March 2023.
Bluesky is a decentralized microblogging platform on the AT Protocol, an open-source toolbox for building social apps that can talk to each other. Bluesky aims to function like the early days of the web when anyone could put up a blog or subscribe to others via an RSS feed.
Jagat is a social network for friends and family. Engage in real-time connections with location sharing and interactive features. Follow real-time locations and share with your network. See activities on a footprint map and from the past 30 days.
Noplace is a colorful social platform of ads and algorithms. Targeted at teens and Gen Zs, it seeks to bring back a fun and organic MySpace-like experience. Gain levels, earn badges, make friends, and use the customizable profile to share your mood and what you’re gaming, streaming, reading, and more.
Airchat is an audio-based social network featuring a push-to-talk, voice-first public messenger that uses AI to generate transcripts. Users have tools to moderate behavior on their content.
Lemon8, owned by TikTok parent ByteDance, is a video and photo-sharing app and blogging platform. The content centers on fashion, makeup, food, travel, gadgets, pets, and related. It provides a variety of templates, filters, stickers, and fonts to help creators. Lemon8 launched in Japan in 2020 and the U.K. and U.S. in 2023.
RTRO is a social networking app that connects brands, creators, and followers in a positive, nontoxic environment. RTRO focuses on connections and communities rather than ads or algorithm-driven content. Users can connect with friends and family or see content from creators and brands in their own space. Discover retro postcards, retro Polaroids, filters, and mixtapes.
Damus is a decentralized social media platform built on Nostr, the open and decentralized social networking protocol. Messages are distributed via decentralized, encrypted relays. Damus users can run their own microblogging platform for friends or a business.
Cara is a social media and portfolio platform that connects artists with clients, fans, and industry peers. Cara filters out generative AI images to find authentic creatives and artwork easily.
Substack Notes, launched in 2023, is a microblogging feature that enables writers and users to post short-form content and share ideas. Notes allows users to recommend anything via posts, quotes, comments, images, and links.
If your target audience is active on a platform, then you should be, too. And if you’re looking to speak to a younger demographic, Snapchat can be a powerful marketing tool for your business.
Snapchat is the fifth largest social media network in the world – but it’s one of the most misunderstood (and underestimated) by marketers.
So, if you’re concerned about missing the boat on this platform, you’re not alone. You’re also not out of touch – you just need a comprehensive guide to get started. And you’re in the right place.
In this updated guide to Snapchat marketing, we’ll provide you with a deep dive into the multimedia messaging platform, explain who’s using it, and give you the strategies you need to add it effectively to your marketing mix.
Why Use Snapchat For Marketing? (Is It Still Relevant?)
Successful marketers focus on grasping every opportunity to reach potential customers – and Snapchat continues to offer unique opportunities.
As of 2024, Snapchat boasts over 406 million active daily users, with more than 80% of them being 34 or younger. The platform reaches 90% of the 13-24-year-old population worldwide and 75% of 13-34-year-olds in over 25 countries.
This makes it an ideal platform for targeting Millennials, Gen Z, and, increasingly, Gen Alpha.
While it might not have the massive user base of Facebook or YouTube, it drives impressive engagement. According to recent data, the average Snapchat user opens the app over 40 times per day and spends about 30+ minutes daily on the platform – which means people interact with their social circles on Snapchat more than any other social network.
Yet, when it comes to marketing, Snapchat is a relatively untapped territory. While every brand seems to have a Facebook and Instagram presence these days, comparatively few have a foothold on Snapchat. And that just means more opportunity for your brand.
The boon of Snapchat is how it’s optimized for authenticity. Given the ephemeral nature of the app and the more unfiltered style of content approach, brands can use the platform to connect with their audience in ways that feel genuine and immediate – which is more valuable than ever.
And, as if all of this wasn’t enough, Snapchat has established itself as a competitive force in the social commerce market. With its augmented reality (AR) shopping experiences, you’re able to build immersive shopping experiences for users through the app – something most other platforms can’t compete with.
By now, it should be crystal clear why Snapchat could be a strong addition to your marketing strategy. So, how do you get started? Let’s break it down.
How Does Snapchat Work? A Brief Overview
If your social media experience is primarily with platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or X (Twitter), Snapchat’s interface may initially feel like a whole new world.
Snapchat’s design is unique – it’s built for spontaneity, exclusivity, and in-the-moment content creation. When you open the app, it goes directly to the camera, making it super easy for you to capture and share videos and photos (called “Snaps”) in just a few seconds.
You can then edit these Snaps using a variety of filters, stickers, and AR Lenses before sending them directly to your chosen friends or adding to your “Story,” which remains viewable for 24 hours. There’s also a newer Spotlight feature, similar to TikTok, for sharing short-form videos with wider audiences.
The app offers a host of other features, including a Snap Map, an AI-powered chatbot, and disappearing direct messages. Long story short: There are a bunch of innovative and creative ways for brands to engage with audiences on Snapchat.
What Brands Are Best Suited To Snapchat Marketing?
Let me be clear: Snapchat isn’t for every brand. There’s a reason why it’s less frequented than some other social media platforms. That said, if your target audience includes younger consumers, it’s absolutely worth considering.
Brands that are best suited to Snapchat are those that present a youthful image and tone and prioritize authenticity, “realness,” and creativity. If your brand image is highly professional or you have red tape around your marketing efforts, you should likely look elsewhere.
Lifestyle brands, fashion labels, beauty products, entertainment companies, and tech startups – these are the kinds of companies that typically see success on the app.
But really, the opportunity exists for any type of brand that is interested in using Snapchat’s tools to create immersive, engaging content that resonates with the platform’s users.
How To Get the Right “Tone Of Voice” For Snapchat
I mentioned tone above – and on Snapchat, tone of voice is a big deal. The platform itself is playful and casual, so you’re not likely to find success using an overly formal or professional tone.
Instead, your brand should focus on having a genuine conversation with users and infusing your content with humor.
Here are some tips for nailing the Snapchat tone of voice:
Keep it light: People go to Snapchat to be entertained. Leave your hard sales pitch at the door.
Prioritize authenticity: It’s a place to show the human side of your brand, whether it’s through user-generated content or behind-the-scenes Snaps.
Engage, engage, engage: Snapchat has a ton of interactive tools for engaging directly with users, like polls, Q&As, and more. Put them to use!
How To Create A Snapchat Strategy For Business
So, you want to create a successful Snapchat strategy. You can just start posting content sporadically, right? Wrong.
You need to start by understanding your brand’s goals and audience, and then determining the type of content that will best help you reach those people on Snapchat specifically. Here are some steps you can take to start building your Snapchat strategy:
Decide what you want to achieve on the platform. Maybe it’s brand awareness, community building, or increasing sales – once you know your goals, you can build your content approach around them.
Know your audience. As with any kind of marketing strategy, this is crucial.
Experiment and be creative. Try your hand with some of Snapchat’s different tools (like Bitmoji, AR Lenses, filters, etc.) to create content that resonates with your audience. Don’t just choose one type of content and settle – you can (and should) experiment with a variety of Snaps, Stories, and Spotlight videos.
Be consistent. All great marketers know that consistency is key – and it’s the same story on Snapchat.
Keep a good balance. Of course, you want to sell your brand to users, but don’t go all in on self-promotional content. Make sure you’re balancing organic, engaging storytelling with talking about yourself.
Learn (and follow) Snapchat best practices. This is a no-brainer. Spend time on the platform to find what works, and see how you can adopt it in your own strategy.
Types Of Content That Work Best On Snapchat
Snapchat is all about driving engagement. What does that look like in action? Here are some examples of content approaches that work particularly well on the platform.
1. Sneak Peeks & Teasers
Launching a new product or service? Snapchat is a great place to drive excitement by giving your audience teasers or sneak peeks at what’s to come.
You might think about dropping hints about the product, sharing a quick glimpse, or some other behind-the-scenes moments to encourage anticipation among your Snapchat followers.
Warner Bros., for example, has used teaser content to promote its upcoming movie releases.
Screenshot from Snapchat.com, August 2024
2. Behind-The-Scenes Content
Speaking of behind-the-scenes, this type of content is tailor-made for Snapchat.
Showing your audience what goes on behind the curtain at your brand is a clever way to create a sense of exclusivity and make people feel like insiders.
3. User-Generated Content (UGC)
You’ve heard about user-generated content – well, Snapchat is a place where UGC really thrives. Consider prompting your followers to create their own Snaps that feature your products or brand, and then share them along with a custom hashtag. Then, you can amplify the strongest ones in your own Stories.
UGC is proven to be a highly effective way to generate social proof, increase brand loyalty, and build a stronger social community.
Javy Coffee is one example of a brand that leveraged UGC by featuring real customer testimonials and stories about how they enjoy the coffee concentrate. This helped the company create relatable ads that resonated with its audience.
Screenshot from Snapchat.com, August 2024
4. Interactive Content
One thing that separates Snapchat from most other social media platforms is its interactivity. And brands have plenty of opportunities to get in on the action!
Try devising interactive moments for your followers, whether it’s a simple poll, a challenge, or a unique AR Lens. These allow users to really get involved and have a fun experience with your brand – and can lead to new UGC for you, as well.
For example, e.l.f. Cosmetics used AR Lenses combined with Bitmoji to allow users to virtually try on makeup, creating a highly interactive experience for its audience.
Screenshot from Snapchat.com, August 2024
5. Exclusive Offers
Want to really impress your Snapchat followers? Reward them. From promo codes to exclusive discounts or early bird access to new products, there is no shortage of ways to treat your audience.
It’s great for them but beneficial for you, too. It gives people a reason to keep engaging with your content and following your brand.
Advertising On Snapchat
While organic content is at the heart of Snapchat, the platform also offers some unique and powerful paid advertising options. The company also rolled out a new ad platform update in August 2024 that provides enhanced analytics, improved targeting, and more.
1. Snapchat Ads
Served to users in between user-generated content, these are full-screen, vertical video ads. They’re not dissimilar to Instagram Stories, and can include interactive elements such as having a user swipe up to visit a website.
The Salvation Army’s Snapchat Ads featured videos depicting real-life stories of individuals impacted by its services, emphasizing themes of hope and transformation. These ads connected emotionally with viewers and included a swipe-up option to learn more or donate, making the content both impactful and actionable.
Screenshot from Snapchat.com, August 2024
2. Sponsored AR Lenses
One of Snapchat’s unique offerings is its custom AR Lenses, which brands can create for users to experience.
You can create Lenses that allow users to virtually “try on” products, for example, put people in a humorous visual setting or even have them play games. At times, they can even respond to users’ movements or the environment around them.
These can be hyper-engaging and drive a lot of interactions – like Volkswagen did when it used an AR Lens to enable people to experience its ID.3 electric vehicle virtually. Using the Lens, people could place a virtual model of the car in their environment, explore its features, and even change the color.
Screenshot from Snapchat.com, August 2024
3. Filters
These are static overlays that you can apply to your Snaps once they’re created – and brands are able to design their own to delight Snapchat users. These are typically non-interactive but are fun visual enhancements that enable people to add some creative flair to their content.
Post Consumer Brands created its own custom Snapchat Filter to promote its Honeycomb cereal – and it was very sweet!
Screenshot from Snapchat.com, August 2024
4. Dynamic Ads
Snapchat’s Dynamic Ads enable brands to automatically create and deliver personalized ads to users based on their behavior and interactions with your company. For example, if a user visits your website and looks at a specific hat, Snapchat might serve them an ad for that product.
If you work for an ecommerce company, these might be particularly interesting to you, as you can automate ad creation based on your product catalog – so you don’t need to lift a finger.
Fashion brand Free People has used Dynamic Ads to automate personalized ads for users, ensuring that those who viewed specific items on its website were later served ads featuring those exact products on Snapchat. It resulted in a 396% increase in demand.
Screenshot from Snapchat.com, August 2024
5. Commercials
These are non-skippable Snapchat video ads that usually appear within the platform’s premium content, like Snap Originals.
They’re short – three to six seconds for a Standard Commercial and up to 180 seconds for an Extended Play Commercial (though users can skip after the first 6 seconds) – and are optimized for high visibility.
They typically focus more on storytelling than some of the other ads on the network.
Let’s Get Snapping!
Yes, Snapchat is still an effective marketing platform for reaching younger audiences – but you must be mindful about your strategy and approach.
With its unique blend of high engagement, unique creative tools, and loyal audience, Snapchat offers brands a variety of ways to connect with their target consumers.
Hopefully, this guide has given you the insights and inspiration you need to build a successful Snapchat marketing strategy in 2024.
Now, it’s time to put these ideas into action and start Snapping your way to success.
“Ask an Expert” is an occasional feature where we pose questions to seasoned ecommerce pros. For this installment, we’ve turned to Charles Nicholls, a serial SaaS ecommerce entrepreneur, most recently of SimplicityDX, a customer acquisition platform, and a Practical Ecommerce contributor.
He addresses the viability of selling on TikTok Shops.
Practical Ecommerce: Should merchants consider TikTok Shop despite the political uncertainties?
Charles Nicholls: When evaluating TikTok Shop, merchants should first decide whether to sell on social channels at all.
Charles Nicholls
Social platforms such as TikTok Shop, Instagram Shop, and others function similarly to marketplaces such as Amazon, but they come with trade-offs. They act as the merchant of record, controlling customer data, the sales process, and returns. The channels can generate significant sales volume, but often at the expense of margins and relationships. Unlike direct sales from an ecommerce site, selling on social platforms limits the ability to know and engage with customers for repeat sales.
Social commerce is becoming increasingly influential. For many brands, social media is now the starting point for over half of sales. Yet measuring its impact remains challenging. Traditional tools such as Google Analytics 4 often underestimate social media’s influence. Only customer surveys typically reveal the actual effect.
Merchants usually approach social commerce in one of two ways, both centered on the start of the buying journey. The key decision is where the sale occurs. If the business model relies on long-term customer relationships and repeat sales, directing traffic to the ecommerce site is essential. Conversely, if it’s gaining market share, brand visibility, and volume sales, then selling on social platforms could help.
TikTok Shop offers unique opportunities and challenges. The algorithm prioritizes viral, engaging content, favoring skilled creators who can rapidly drive product awareness and sales among their followers. Hence merchants contemplating TikTok should factor in working with those influencers.
TikTok shoppers are highly price-sensitive and respond to discounts and impulse buys. Thus sellers with low-cost entry-level products, such as beauty, can build a brand on that platform.
Yet a critical component is consumer preference. Upwards of 75% of online shoppers prefer purchasing directly from brands rather than through influencers or marketplaces. Consumers value brands’ authenticity and trust.
Should merchants sell on TikTok Shop? The decision boils down to priorities. The benefits are visibility and sales volume. The downsides are lower margins and diminished customer relationships.
Plus, they’re easy to create if you have a plan and the right tips. Lucky for you, we have all the tips you need right here in this article.
Let’s get started.
Start With A Story
When designing an Instagram carousel, starting with a clear theme or story is crucial in helping you select images or videos that create a cohesive post.
Like any social media content, think about the message you want to convey and the content you want to showcase.
What content would resonate with your followers and align with your brand message? This could be a theme based on your industry, your brand values, or a particular aspect of your products or services.
For instance, if you’re a food blogger, you could create an Instagram carousel featuring a step-by-step recipe, with the first image being a shot of the finished dish.
Then, follow it up with images of each ingredient and each step in the cooking process. This way, your carousel tells a story while providing followers with value.
You can also showcase your products or services in action.
For example, if you run a fitness brand, create a carousel of exercises or workout routines featuring your products – like this apartment and travel-friendly workout routine from fitness influencer Kayla Itsines.
A fashion brand, on the other hand, might create a carousel showcasing different ways to style a particular item of clothing.
Another effective carousel format is to share behind-the-scenes content or personal stories, such as photos of your team at work, personal stories about your brand journey, or the inspiration behind your products.
Whatever you choose, the key is to pick a theme or story that is both relevant to your brand and interesting to your audience.
Content Order
The order in which you display your content is crucial to creating an effective Instagram carousel.
The first image or video is typically the most important, as it will set the tone for your content, capture your audience’s attention, and encourage them to swipe through the rest of the carousel.
It’s typically the first frame that people see (though occasionally, they may see the second frame first – so bear that in mind when creating your content).
Use subsequent images or videos to tell a story or provide additional context.
How you do this will depend on your carousel’s goal. What is the one thing you want a follower to “leave” with?
No matter what type of content order you choose, it should create a logical flow between slides, making it natural for audiences to swipe through.
Here are some examples of common Instagram carousel structures:
Narrative Structure
What It Is: The images are arranged logically to tell a story or share a message.
When To Use It: This method can be particularly effective for product launches or brand campaigns where you want to build excitement and engagement around a specific theme. It’s great for explaining specific concepts or breaking down stories linearly. This is why list style carousels are so popular.
Why You Use It: Narratives and stories get followers emotionally engaged in the content.
What It Is: The images have no specific narrative or message.
When To Use It: This structure is ideal for showcasing various products or services or sharing behind-the-scenes content that doesn’t necessarily follow a specific sequence.
Why You Use It: Not only can a random structure be fun, but curiosity and spontaneity can be extremely helpful, particularly if you want to build up some buzz around an event.
Still trying to figure out how to present your images? Consider the visual appeal of the images and how they will look when viewed as a group.
You can alternate between different image types, such as close-ups and wide shots, or use consistent color schemes or filters to create a cohesive look and feel.
An engaging Instagram carousel starts with aesthetically appealing, eye-catching, high-quality images or videos. These will help grab your audience’s attention and encourage them to swipe through the entire carousel.
It’s important to choose visuals that have exceptional clarity and decent resolution, though you should also bear in mind that recent trends show audiences value authenticity over perfection.
Here’s an example of a carousel from Airbnb that leverages beautiful imagery to pique the attention of audiences.
You should also consider using consistent color schemes or filters. This will help create a cohesive sense of visual unity across the entire carousel and make sure your brand is present in the content.
In short, you want the carousel to feel like an experience, not just a collection of pictures.
Your Instagram carousel plan should also include the type of visuals you want to showcase in it.
Will you only have product images and videos? Would lifestyle shots, behind-the-scenes footage, or user-generated content (UGC) be more effective?
Another option is to mix up the type of content in each carousel to keep things interesting and varied.
You could alternate between videos and images and try out different approaches, but the key here is to choose visuals that align with your brand message and resonate with your audience.
Once you’ve selected your content, you can think more about the composition of the carousel itself and how you’ll order it. You might want to experiment with different layouts, such as grids or collages, to create a unique and striking post.
Finally, keep the context of your post in mind. Instagram users scroll quickly through their feeds, so you’ll need bold, bright colors or to incorporate text or graphics that interrupt this habit and stop them long enough to swipe and consume the content.
Text Overlays, Captions, And Music
Text, captions, and now even music are important aspects of creating engaging and effective Instagram carousel content.
These components work together to convey your message, build excitement around your products or services, and encourage your audience to take action.
Captions
First, keep your captions concise and engaging. You want to capture attention quickly and communicate your message efficiently, so use short, punchy sentences and clear language. If it makes sense, include some emojis to catch people’s eye.
Second, consider the tone of your captions and how they align with your brand identity.
If your brand is playful and lighthearted, your captions should be the same: fun, humorous language. Use an informative and educational tone if your brand is more serious or professional.
Third, use your captions to contextualize the story or experience you present in your images. This will help bring your audience along for the journey and encourage them to engage with your brand.
Finally, include a call to action (CTA) to increase engagement and drive more traffic to your website or other digital channels.
This could be as simple as encouraging your audience to swipe through the carousel, asking them a question, or prompting them to visit your website for more information.
Text Overlays
Your use of text goes beyond captions. Text overlays can be highly effective in adding context and additional information and can enhance the visual impact of your carousels.
Here are a few tips:
Choose a legible and visually pleasing font that matches your brand aesthetic. Remember that users will be viewing it on small mobile screens.
Keep your text concise and to the point. Instagram users scroll quickly through their feeds, so your text needs to be easy to digest and understand.
Only include essential information and ensure that each overlay only has one job. For example, to provide more information about a product or provide context to a narrative.
Ensure that overlay text doesn’t obscure important parts of your images and is visually balanced with the other elements in your carousel.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking of text overlays as extra ad space, however. Use them strategically to add value to your content.
For example, you may want to use text overlays to provide additional context or details about your products or services or a CTA that encourages your audience to engage with your brand.
Music
A newer feature to the platform, adding music to Instagram carousels has become a dynamic way to enhance engagement with your content.
We know that music can evoke emotions, set the tone, and add another layer of storytelling to your content. However, it bears mentioning that business accounts are typically more restricted in the songs that they can use.
Here are a few tips for effectively adding music to your carousels:
Choose music that aligns with the theme or message of the content within your carousel.
Leverage music that reflects your brand’s personality and tone.
Where possible, utilize music that can enhance the narrative of your carousel.
If you’re (legally) able to, engage your audience by including songs that are trending or popular.
By thoughtfully integrating elements like text, captions, and music, you can take your Instagram carousels to a whole new level and significantly enhance their performance and engagement.
Design Instagram Carousels With Mobile In Mind
Instagram is primarily a mobile app, so you must prep and design your content for mobile users.
If you’re designing an Instagram carousel featuring a long infographic, for example, break it down into several slides so that it’s easier for your audience to view on a mobile screen. You might also need to use larger text or adjust the font size.
But it’s more than that.
You should consider the quality of the images you’re using and how they will appear to a mobile viewer. Make sure that the resolution and specs fit with Instagram’s guidelines and that the details of the image will be viewable on mobile.
You may even want to consider arrows, buttons, ribbons, or other elements that run off the right side of the image to push users from one image to the next.
Conclusion
Once you’ve posted your Instagram carousel, engage with your followers by prompting them to like, comment, or share your post.
Encourage them to leave comments or questions about the product they see or the story you’ve presented.
Just remember to respond to these comments promptly and continue the conversation by answering questions or addressing concerns.
And if you follow the tips we’ve provided for you here, there will be many of them!
Even if you’re a new or experienced business owner, you can’t ignore the impact of social media on your business. It’s great for marketing, brand awareness, and SEO. But it’s quite a hassle to keep track of your social media accounts, website, blog, and your product(s). To save you time and money, we’ll be looking at what benefits your SEO the most: an organic social media strategy or using social media ads?
First, what is an organic social media strategy? Well, it’s the opposite of using social media ads—something you have to pay for. An organic strategy means you use free/unpaid methods of creating and sharing content on social media platforms to build an engaged audience.
In other words, you regularly post high-quality content on your social media accounts. Plus, another important part of an organic strategy is engaging with your audience through, for example, comments.
Long-term benefits
There are a lot of long-term benefits from having an organic strategy. If you post consistently for a long time, you’ll usually get sustained engagement and traffic from your posts. Which, in turn, can lead to higher search engine rankings.
Authenticity and engagement
Another benefit is the authenticity of your content—which is becoming increasingly more important nowadays. People want to know if they can trust your brand. By regularly posting authentic content and engaging with your audience, you’ll be able to boost your brand reputation and indirectly boost your SEO.
So how does engagement boost your SEO? Well, likes, shares, and comments can influence your SEO by signaling that your content is relevant and popular. Plus, now that Google shows social media content in their search results more often, it can only be a good thing to have great engagement metrics.
The disadvantages of organic social media
It takes some time
To see the benefits of an organic social media strategy, you have to post consistently over a long period of time. This can also be a disadvantage, however. Sometimes you want to launch a new brand or product, and you don’t want to post about it for months before you catch people’s attention.
Even though you do get results with an organic strategy, it can take months to see significant results. So you need to have patience!
Consistency is important
It’s a key component, in fact. For an effective organic strategy, you need to continuously and consistently put in the effort to maintain your brand’s visibility and engagement. This means you need to stay on top of your feed and regularly brainstorm what might be interesting content for your audience. Which does take time and effort.
What are social media ads?
Social media ads are pretty straightforward. They’re paid advertisements that you can run on social media platforms like Meta (which includes Facebook and Instagram), X and YouTube. It’s also good to know that there are various advertisement types, such as display ads, video ads, sponsored posts, etc. Depending on your goal and audience, you choose one of these.
Example of display ad
As we just mentioned, social media ads are paid advertisements. The costs, however, can vary, depending on your audience, the type of ad, and the duration of your campaign. That’s why some campaigns might be more expensive than others!
Example of sponsored post
The SEO advantages of paid social media
Quick results
As opposed to an organic strategy, ads can generate immediate traffic and engagement to your site. This could indirectly improve your SEO because your engagement metrics will increase.
Plus, if you’re promoting high-quality content, then people are more likely to share it, like it, and link to it. Which is all very valuable for your SEO.
Reach your target audience
Ads also make it relatively easy to reach your target audience. When you set up an ad, you can fill in precise information that will allow you to reach people from a certain demographic, with certain interests and behaviors.
If those people like the content you’ve boosted, they might even follow your account. That would be the ideal situation, since they will now also see your organic posts.
The disadvantages of paid social media
Costs
This is a no-brainer since it’s in the name, but it’s still worth mentioning. Paying for ads can get quite expensive. Especially if this is your social media strategy, and you don’t have an organic strategy.
If that’s the case, you’ll have to continuously invest in social media ads to maintain your brand’s visibility.
Short-term impact
Ads only run for a limited time. If your campaign is over and your ad isn’t promoted anymore, then your traffic and engagement from that ad will drop. In other words, there are no lasting SEO benefits from paid ads.
Ad fatigue
Yep, it’s a thing! Seeing an ad too often can desensitize people. In other words: people get bored from seeing the same ad and they stop paying attention. Which means your ad will become less effective. Have you ever seen a TV ad so many times that you get tired of it? It’s the same thing. Ad fatigue.
Overall impact on SEO: organic versus paid
We’ve talked about the SEO advantages to both strategies, but let’s briefly summarize.
Having an organic social media strategy means you regularly post high-quality content, which can lead to more backlinks and improved brand visibility. It might even improve your engagement metrics!
Using paid ads will not directly influence your SEO ranking. However, ads can drive significant traffic to your site, which in turn can improve metrics like pages per session.
Which strategy is better?
As always, the answer fully depends on your goals and how much you’re willing to invest into your social media strategy, be it time or money or both. To maximize the impact of your social media on your SEO however, we would recommend using both strategies.
Why? Because you can use ads to boost new or high-value content to reach your target audience. Once the initial buzz of an ad has died down, you can keep people interested with your organic posts.
Tip: utilize analytics
Most social media platforms offer you insight into the performance of your organic and paid posts. Use this to check which posts are resonating with your audience and which aren’t. If you combine this data with your website’s analytics, you’ll be able to easily adjust your strategy, so you can focus on what works best.
Conclusion
Both organic and paid strategies have their advantages. An organic social media strategy will result in slow and steady growth with lasting benefits for your business. However, this will take a lot of time before you see any results. On the other hand, using paid ads will give you quick results and allows you to target the exact audience that you want to reach. But paid ads can get expensive, so they might be more useful for immediate traffic boosts or announcing a new product or service to your audience.
That’s why it might be in your best interest to combine both, so you’ll have the benefits of building a connection with your audience while also boosting your growth with paid ads.
Sabrina is the Social Media Specialist at Yoast. She’s responsible for creating and curating engaging content to enhance Yoasts’ brand presence across various social platforms.
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