Why Reddit Reputation Management is Necessary but So Hard

Reddit is all over the search results. How do we handle that?

“The home page” for millions of people, Reddit has always been a huge challenge for marketers and business owners.

With Google surfacing it for just about any brand-driven query, Reddit has become a necessary evil for any reputation management task.

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We all know that most people are now likely to search Google for a company’s reviews before buying anything. Guess what, Reddit packs are all over these SERPs:

Old-school reputation professionals would tell you: All you need is to become a better company, improve your customer support, and you will fix the underlying issue.

Well, guess what, it doesn’t work for Reddit. While this old-school fundamental recommendation is definitely good for just about any other reputation management problem (“get better instead of shutting up unhappy customers”), Reddit is different.

Reddit is a notorious place for people who just like to post negative comments or participate in contradictory threads. I’ve seen lots of negative comments on Reddit from people who flatly admit they have never dealt with the company, but they chose to check its return policies and didn’t like them. Or they never bought, but they are sure it is a scam. Or they never heard of a company but now that they checked the website or other comments, they have an opinion.

Reddit requires no purchase or identity verification. With its huge organic search visibility, it makes it easy for competitors to attack any brand.

If you are searching for any brand on Reddit, you will have a hard time finding any positive threads there.

It’s not you. It’s every brand.

And it’s not only big brands either. Imagine paying for Instagram and Facebook ads, and then having your customers discuss you on Reddit instead of converting (and then having it all rank for your name):

Whether you invest in branding or not, Reddit is a problem for any business.

So, what to do?

First of all, there’s no single right answer for every situation. All cases, businesses, reviews, subreddits are different.

We have been doing Reddit for over a decade and we never recommend any solutions before we talk to a client and research thoroughly.

Reddit should be taken with extreme care because it can backfire!

But let’s see what you definitely should NOT do:

Don’t hire freelancers to post positive reviews about your business

This is the most common mistake I see businesses do! Of course there are lots of services promising to fix your Reddit reputation and even promote your business on Reddit.

Never. Ever. Buy those.

You risk your brand being ruined by those as these are always obvious.

Remember: Reddit is manually moderated. Fake reviews and accounts are always caught there.

There’s no algorithm to manipulate there. You will be called out by real people. And you will never get rid of that digital footprint (and yes, it will rank).

Talk to multiple consultants. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Do your research.

I have a free 15-minute call on my site you can use, and I’ll share my honest opinion about your situation and how it can be improved.

Don’t get aggressive and defensive when replying to Reddit’s content

As a brand, you can, of course, set up an official account and address some of those comments. In many cases, it is even advisable.

But always consult with someone before creating that official response. Too many brands come off as too aggressive trying to reply to negative comments and it always makes those threads go viral (and more visible in search).

Think twice, thrice, and more before posting on Reddit, and talk to someone with experience.

Don’t be fake

In many cases, when we help clients with Reddit reputation management, there are lots of things to fix on the site and in brand management. It is almost always about creating more detailed brand knowledge content, adding FAQs, adjusting order status emails, etc.

That fundamental advice - fix yourself first - is still true. Don’t try to fake reviews, hire fake accounts, etc., to try and quickly hide those bad reviews.

Reddit reputation management is a slow process. Don’t rush it unless you want to ruin your brand. And hire someone who knows what they are doing.