Reddit- A Popularity Contest?

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Reddit, launched in 2005, is a unique social bookmarking website created by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. According to Wikipedia “”Reddit was named by Ohanian while browsing the University of Virginia‘s Alderman Library.^[7] It is short for “read it,” and is generally pronounced in the past perfect tense, as in “I have read it””. Like any other social media website, it needs a username and a password to register before you can post links so that they can appear prominently on the Reddit homepage. Like other social media networks, users are encouraged to vote on the links, stories, and news that they think has relevance to themselves and society.

It uses karma as a barometer for grading user accounts. This works in a way that when users vote for a site, points are given as rewards for submitting interesting sites.

It is very similar with Stumbleupon and Twitter in a way that it is very great tool in driving traffic to your website. This allows the users to create their own vast readership base. Reddit helps your website create a buzz for yourself and the product that you are selling at the same time.

Like any social bookmarking media it has its own pros and cons.

Pros:

1. One of the top social news website.

Ø Many users have tried subscribing to the site and attested that it has one of the nest online services on the world wide web

2. Ease of use

Ø Because of the site’s easy-to-use bookmarking tools and simple voting system, users are more active and they can accomplish more than what they can compared to other sites in a relatively short period of time.

3. And according to some users, the site has a security measure against spamming.

4. Other features that makes Reddit advantageous

Ø Down voting

Ø Deleting stories

Ø URL-only duplicate check

Ø Recommended

Ø What’s Hot Now?

Ø Comments. It helps build exposure for your site. It will help also in building your network. Notice that whenever you make a comment, may it be on MySpace or yelp, others will post a comment too.

Ø Karma Stats. A user can increase his or her karma stats by submitting useful links and voting regularly and frequently.

Ø User base. Many users have diverse tastes making the community so eclectic.

Cons:

1. Very simple web layout

Ø As I’ve said before in my past articles, our website is a reflection of who we are. True there’s nothing wrong with simplicity but we have to market ourselves and the products we sell in a way that gives us an edge over the competition.

There are so many factors involved in building brand awareness and self-marketing, like repeat visitors, subscribers, etc. But even having a strong online marketing tool like Reddit on hand will be useless if you don’t know how to control the exposure that it will give your site and work it to your advantage.

External Links:

Why Reddit is More Politically Powerful than Other Social Media Websites