Reddit Best Practices
Reddit is a news and discussion-based social networking platform. UC Davis uses Reddit to discuss university information in a casual and easily accessible setting and to answer questions from the UC Davis community.
Listen up.
Reddit is an amazing tool for social listening. Keep up with forums (“subreddits”) to gain insight into the lives of your audience members. The subreddit r/UCDavis is a good place to start your listening habit.
Gradually ramp up your strategy.
Begin with low-barrier actions such as upvoting, downvoting and commenting in different interest sections and communities to build your credibility. Weigh in as an expert on your unit and its resources. As you start to become a part of the Reddit ecosystem, you can start sharing your own original content for others to weigh in on.
Honesty is the best policy.
Since this platform is information-based, transparency is key in having your audience members trust you. Respond to questions with accurate information about your unit, and correct misinformation (kindly and respectfully) when you see it. Communicate like a person, not a bot. This will help humanize your brand and help your messages to translate in a more genuine way.
Embrace the idiosyncrasies.
Every subreddit forum has its own unique set of rules. Take time to get to know the rules in the forums that are most relevant to you. These rules can be found in the sidebar of the subreddit you are in. For example, some popular acronyms that have originated on Reddit are:
- TIL - Today I Learned
- TL;DR - Too Long; Didn’t Read
- ELI5 - Explain Like I’m 5
User flair.
Each subreddit community has its own version of “flair” to indicate details or credibility of the account holder such as “Masters in Psychology” in r/science or "animal science major" in r/UCDavis. Flair gets approved by the subreddit moderators (mods).
Prompt conversation.
Given the nature of this platform, people are always chiming in on post threads. Why not incorporate call-outs directly into your social plan? Use guiding prompts or questions to invite your audience to share experiences related to your unit or UC Davis and get meaningful discussions going.
Reddit Accessibility Best Practices
When posting on Reddit, key accessibility areas to consider are: graphics, image and video description, video captioning and post copy.
Image Accessibility
Graphics: General guidelines
Alt Text: no option available
Image Description: General guidelines
- There is no alt text option for posting images on Reddit, so consider writing an image description in the text of your post or add it as a comment afterward.
Video Accessibility
Captioning: General guidelines
- Reddit does not allow for closed or auto-generated captions, so when you post a video in a Reddit channel, make sure it has burned-in (open) captions.
Video description: General guidelines
- Consider writing a video description in the text of your post, or add it as a comment afterwards.
Post copy: General guidelines