Case Study:Reddit ViralityBRENNEN SCHLUETER

My redditing background

I have been a registered redditor for almost 2 years, after being a “lurker” (someone who neither posts, votes, or comments) for 6 months

In these two years I have learned the way the community works; their attitudes, norms, values, and lingo.

I have accrued 2,605 karma points across many posts.I have succeeded in becoming apart of the community, with plenty of failed posts; a learning experience.

Defining the community

Like most large social media sites, Reddit is a international community of many different people with many different fields of “expertise”.

Google’s double click ad planner states the median U.S. Reddit user is male (72%), 25–34 years of age, has college education. The analysis also shows that many of the top ten audience interests are in the tech field, suggesting a computer savvy demographic.

What does that tell us?

Redditors are generally little nerdy and mostly articulate. People that will take the time to nit-pick almost any content you submit (I have been criticized many times). But on the other hand, they are also some of the most helpful people you will never actually meet (unless you go to a meet-up, which having witnessed some, are the nerdiest thing you will come across).

Walker Texas Power Rangers! (my original content)

“Welcome to Reddit, the site where everything’s made up and the points don’t [necessarily] matter.”

•Not all of it is made up and the points matter only slightly.•Reddit is based on a system of “sub-reddits” signified by “/r/” as in: reddit.com/r/funny•These sub-reddits are pages dedicated specifically to a topic and has rules for the content allowed to be posted.• Ex: /r/funny allows only funny content, while/r/worldnews is strictly for international news

The holy karma

•Reddit content is driven by a communal voting system dubbed “karma”. The basis of the system is an “upvote” for things that are good, “downvote” for thing that are not. •Posts then have karma that is the difference between upvotes and downvotes.•Posts with higher karma is the more popular posts.Example: A post with 10 upvotes and 7 downvotes has a karma of 3.

Users are then credited with 3 karma points, however there are signs that for higher amounts of karma received, there is a formula to determine users karma. It is not always 1:1.

Traits of success

I have observed successful viral posts on reddit have these similarities:• Timing• Relevance of content• Engrain / Enter content cycle• Lots of luck (most important)

Timing is key

•Timing has a large part in the submission of new original content. •Submissions on Reddit have a small window to be picked out of a subreddit’s “New” postings and become “hot” also known as the “Front Page”.•From there, a post receiving many upvotes may be be included on not only the subreddit’s front page, but the sites main front page as well.

Ensuring opportunity to see

Along with timing comes choosing the appropriate subreddit to postFor this content, /r/funny was the obvious choice•5 million daily impressions•Monthly unique visitors is 2-8 million•609,308 unique visitors per day•At least 25,000 uniques an hour.

Capturing an international audience

Being an international social media hub, it is pivotal to post at a time when efficient to capture this large audience.

Ex: posting at night to capture the high volume United states users and allowing lower volume international users to see during the day.

Reddit is heating upBelow is a heat map of international users

Its like an episode of 24•Once content is noticed, it can take less than 24 hours to be on the front page or after 24 hours the post has disappeared into the depths of reddit archives.•With the large volume of users and posts per day, even hour, new content has a limited frame to connect with the target audience, receive upvotes, and get larger amount of impressions on the hollowed front page.•Being on the front page is not only seen an honor, but a major accomplishment to the everyday redditor.

Title is pivotal

The title of the post is the attention grabber. It must gather curiosity of the user to click into and be exposed to the content.

The title of my post was:“It’s morphin’ time” –Walker

Front page or bust! No matter what it takes!

•New add-on applications for browsers such as Firefox and Chrome have become very popular for many online communities. – AdBlock plus, stumbleupon, etc.•Reddit is no different. The add-on “reddit enhancement suite” or RES, allows faster browsing for redditors.•They can open all the image files on a single page and become exposed to every one.•This means if the content reaches the frontpage, users with this feature will see it even if they don’t choose too.

It has to be relevant

•Content, aforementioned, is highly criticized.The target audience wants a strong visual with a basic message, while intuitive and complex enough to not look completely stupid.•Puns accomplish this goal easily.Also anything with cats and/or Emma Watson.However that content is also known as the classic cliché.•Content trends are relevant for a period of time. Ex: Superstorm Sandy Posts

Infuse, engrain, and become one with the reddit community.

•If the content is good enough, the community will embrace it.•“Reposts” (Unoriginal content) are both loved and hated in the community. •Redditors who have not seen the post before give it an upvote, while the veterans downvote and let the world know it is a repost.•If someone reposts more than once, and the community will check, they are seen as “karma-whoring”•Successful posts become reposts, and then eventually memes through the cycle.

To create a Meme: the highest honor

To become a meme means a deep connection between the content and the community. It has become a facet of the identity of the community and can not be separated.

Such content as “rick rolled”, “forever alone”, and “ridiculously photogenic guy” are examples of meme’s.

Google them if you don’t know.

3rd party sites and their affect. There isnt even a party at all.

•If the post does not meet all requirements, but has the content, third party sites will force it in.•Something unique is happening with the content of reddit, 3rd party sites are picking up the popular entries, and posting them on their sites. This includes other social media sharing as well.

The Content Cycle

Some of weasels

These sites such as: 9gag, weknowmemes.com, membase.com, memegenerator.net, and an ungodly amount of copycat sites, create a cycle of getting the content reposted on reddit, and then back into other social media. It is never ending.

“Ok, I have a content cycle. How bad is it doc?”

Not bad at all really.For the original content poster, it is like spreading your meme like a virus.For the reddit community, it is their worst nightmare.

However, those few affected by the “content cycle” are heavily addicted to the site and even their cries of “REPOST!” will be silenced by a funny picture of a baby with a mustache.

Determining true reach

With this idea of content cycling, it is difficult to calculate the true reach and impressions.

However, some tools give us an idea to how many people saw the content.

Imgur, and reddit unite.

A popular image hosting site is imgur.com.This site allows for users to upload content to their servers and then share the link. Imgur offers link views as well.

This also shows us the difference between the voting members of reddit and the lurkers.

Results• Created Oct. 29• Due to hurricane sandy and power outages for a large amount of east coast population, submitted 7:53 PM CST, November 4 to maximize audience size internationally.

Not great, (or even the best) on the first try, but lets see an example of how the content cycle works to new posts…

Mini Case study: “I’m late.. For business!”

An example of this cycle working to the content posters advantage is a piece of content I created in January this year.

“I guess he’s ‘inline’ for a promotion.” – reddit user “idodds”

The original post did not do great.

But without reposting my own content, this happened…

“And on the 4th day, the lord said…

Let there be upvotes.”

Without my knowledge, another user saw my post elsewhere, reposted it, and the content soared to the front page.

All because the natural order was left alone

Even though my account did not receive any credit for the posting, the image flew around the internet.

Through the social site Stumble Upon alone, it raked up 547k views.Imagine the reposts to other sites…

Around the world in 5 daysBy the time a work week was through, this was the scene on Google.

Engraining the meme: meme generator status

It is said that when you are on a meme generator site, and people are taking your idea, creating their own messages, and reposting it, the content has truly become engrained in the community.

The text that proves it.

After a few more weeks, I received this text message from a friend who had no idea I created the meme, and was just passing it along to me.

This text is indicative of the reach the content cycle has.

Results

By following the criteria set above, the content has gained:•830,000 views from Reddit…•540,000 views through Stumble Upon…

The content has gained 1,370,000 measurable impressions it has more importantly become a meme of the community and cannot be separated from the definition.

There is a moral to every story…

Content drives,Timing is the law,The content cycle is the car, the road, and ultimately is in control.

You cannot force success in this community.With observance to these qualities, content will find a way in front of your audience. It is a self aware organism that is impacted by more external forces it would like to admit.

See you at PDX.BRENNEN SCHLUETERBRENNENSCHLUETER.COMBRENNEN.SCHLUETER@GMAIL.COM