How to Use Reddit as a Rental Business Owner

From the outside, Reddit can seem like a haven for anonymity, sarcasm, and weird inside jokes, but it’s actually far from that. Those who use Reddit regularly find it an excellent way to keep track of what’s happening on the internet, participate in open discussions about their interests, get answers from very niche communities, and, of course, share memes.

Reddit is very different from any other form of social media; rather than trying to throw as much as they can at your timeline, it’s more focused on building communities. It can also be excellent for small businesses and big businesses alike, especially when you consider that it’s the 7th most visited site on the internet.

It can be a minefield to navigate if you’re new as there are subreddits for everything from r/minecraft dedicated to the popular game to r/entrepreneur, which focuses on the joys and struggles of starting a business. However, once you get past the surface and understand the basics of the platform, it can be advantageous for marketing your rental business.

The basics of Reddit

Before you get started with Reddit, you need to follow a few rules, terms, and etiquette.

Anonymity is king

It might seem sketchy at first, but being anonymous has its perks within the Reddit community. It allows you to speak and engage freely with others and keeps you honest. Users can see the entire posting and commenting history of other users, and the community polices themselves to gauge how authentic a user really is.

Subreddits

Subreddits are niche communities within Reddit that usually have their own set of rules. They are noted by the URL slug r/subreddit, with the subreddit being replaced with the topic of conversation. There’s one for practically any interest you can think of, from r/crafts to r/small business. So you’ll be able to find a home for your rental business there.

The language of Reddit

As with any social network, there is a glossary of terms related to the site’s actions. However, the most important terms that you will come across regularly are:

• Upvote - A positive vote on a post

• Downvote - A negative vote on a post

• Karma - A score based on the number of upvotes and downvotes you have received that reflects the quality of what you post.

• Mod - Someone who polices a subreddit and makes sure its rules are followed with permissions to ban users and remove posts.

Otherwise, there are a variety of popular internet acronyms like TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read), Repost, OC (Original Content), IRL (in real life), NSFW (Not Safe For Work), and AMA (Ask Me Anything).

Finally, Reddiquette

A combination of Reddit and etiquette, Reddiquette refers to all users’ guidelines when posting on the site. These rules can vary from subreddit to subreddit, but the general one to follow is that you should aim to contribute value and consider community first. So, before you post anything in a new subreddit, be sure to check the rules.

How to use Reddit for rental businesses

Reddit users generally dislike shameless marketing, self-promotion, and basically anything that makes it seem like you’re only on Reddit to promote your own business. However, that doesn’t mean Reddit can’t be beneficial for business owners. You need to be careful about how you post and ensure that you don’t only post about your business.

Here are some ways you get the most out of Reddit as a business owner:

1. Pay for Reddit Ads

Paying to advertise on Reddit is one of the safest ways to market your rental business on Reddit. They allow you to target people based on their subscribed subreddits, which helps you reach some particular niches. One thing to note, though, is that you pay for impressions rather than clicks. You should also consider whether your target audience is likely to be found on Reddit.

2. Customer service and community management

All brands should be monitoring Reddit for mentions of their brand and consider replying to them. There’s a lot of people on Reddit who will share their experiences, ask questions, and generally complain about companies they’ve dealt with. So, it’s essential to keep an eye out for anything to help out and give people the correct information.

3. Post exciting things (that happen to relate to your business)

As previously mentioned, Reddit doesn’t like marketing, but it does like authenticity. For many small business owners, their business is an extension of their life, and it’s okay to share about it in specific contexts. For example, you could come from a small town and have someone visit to rent from you from far away. That could be very interesting to some people.

4. Consider doing an AMA if you have a great story to tell

Doing an AMA (Ask Me Anything) post can help raise the profile of your rental business if you have an interesting story. AMAs are usually associated with celebrities on Reddit, but regular folk with an interesting story often get a lot of engagement when they create a post. This is typically done on r/AMA, where people can learn more about anyone by asking them questions.

5. Use Reddit to hire locally

As with any social network, you can find and hire people for specific tasks. For example, if you’re looking for a talented photographer in your area to shoot some content for your social media, you can probably find them lurking on Reddit sharing their work. Or, you can find someone to write product descriptions on r/copywriting.

6. Conduct market research

Finally, you can use Reddit to conduct market research. Depending on the relevant subreddit, you can ask people for feedback on your website, product offering, and more. Usually, this is best done in subreddits related to starting a business like r/entrepreneur, as it can come across as self-promotion in some other contexts.