How to Use Your Reddit Presence to Get Picked Up by AI

While much of the focus of AI advice I see is related to how to craft the best prompts for AI, I don’t see enough suggestions for how to get your content picked up by AI. I began this topic with a blog post recently that recommends 10 Ways to Get Your Content to Show Up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Other LLMs. Today I want to focus on one of these tactics specifically — Reddit.

Like many online communities, Reddit has a lot of users (with a lot of opinions — Haha). But did you know Reddit is currently the #1 source for answers that LLMs pull from? That’s because very often people ask a question on Reddit, and receive great answers! And remember, AI’s goal is to provide the best answer.

MapBox – 11.3%
Open Street Map – 11.3%
Instagram – 10.9%
Mapquest – 9.8%
Walmart – 9.3%
eBay – 7.7%
LinkedIn – 5.9%

* Source: (Reddit) u/SeaworthinessEasy122‘s post in the subreddit r/coolguides

CAVEAT: Consider this a “long game” approach — much like organic SEO – that focuses on building organic social rather than quick and easy tactics. There are three core areas to watch across all of your channels, but even within Reddit you can track results to monitor progress. See the Metrics section below.

• Audience Growth — Follows are a vote of confidence; people see value and opt-in for more.
• Content Visibility — Impressions are access to new prospects.
• Content Resonance — Engagements pressure-test relevance; reactions, comments, and shares reflect the moment content actually became valuable.

How to Boost Your Reddit Street Cred and Get Picked Up by AI as a Result

Step 1: Create Your User Account

I recommend including your business name or a variation.

Step 2: Set Up Your Profile

• Add a short bio — only 200 characters.
  • Can include bit.ly links to website and/or newsletter signup.
  • BUT there is no hyperlink — only the text of the URL will display.
• Update your banner (JPG or PNG, 500K max).
• Add avatar images.
• Change your display name (if you want it different from your username).
• Add your social links.

Step 3:- Start Engaging!

• Think about value-add posts you can add to various subreddits focused on your area of expertise. Create concept overviews — lists, reviews, tools, checklists instead of individual topics.
• Ask a question that is relevant to your business. Something got you stumped? Do you want to get insights from others doing the same work?
• Join all relevant subreddits to start seeing messages in your feed and identify posts you can add relevant comments to and engage in conversation.
• There may be other not-so-obvious/targeted subreddits that could still be a good fit because people might be asking relevant questions in these broader subreddits. Examples: area city subreddits, broad subreddits for your industry.
• You don’t always have to mention your business — people will look at our profile regardless. But it is helpful to mention why you are an expert.

Tips for Using Reddit

• Reddit is great for thought leadership. Your goal should be to showcase your expertise and provide the best answer.
• Sometimes people will ask about your industry in general, but not always your city or state. While you could answer just your state, I’d recommend answering all relevant questions to boost comment count and potential for AI pickup.
• We could apply the same strategy to BlueSky or other social down the road, but right now Bing and Reddit are the core sources for AI answer results.
• IMPORTANT: Responses should be timely. You may not need to reply every day, but I’d recommend checking the feed at least once a day to see what questions are being asked and whether your business could add value with a comment.

Key Takeaways

• IMPORTANT: We want to be helpful, not sales-y.
• We highlight specific things about our business, but frame them as things to consider — not direct callouts for us. This is soft selling.
• We recommend our competitors. I know that seems weird, but AI is all about collaboration. We don’t have to name all of them — just a couple we think would be a good fit based on the poster’s question.
• Redditors are also quick to spot disingenuous comments. You want to engage with others, not just pimp your business.
• While the same question may come up often, I’d recommend rephrasing your answer a little, changing the order of things or eliminating a couple key points, and/or adding others, so your answers are not always exactly the same — as all that sameness will look like bot behavior.

Metrics

While this strategy is more guerilla marketing in nature, there should still be some noticeable activity if it’s working. We can also setup up real tracking to be more thorough.

Easy Ways to Track Success

• Replies to your comment(s) / posts.
• Direct Messages in Reddit.
• Upvotes/downvotes on your comment(s) / posts.
• Check AI tools periodically to see if you’re getting picked up.
  • In addition to standard AI tools like Chat GPT/Perplexity, there is a new Answers section on Reddit in Beta — reddit.com/answers/ — that will be interesting to watch.
  • This will use AI to auto-populate answers from posts and comments across Reddit.
  • There doesn’t appear to be a way to actually answer a question directly, but this would be a good metric — i.e. check periodically to see if any of your answers get picked up for new questions.

Less Obvious, or It Could Be ‘Easy’ With Simple Tracking In Place

• Create a separate sign up form/page(s) to make this an ‘easy to track’ link from Reddit that won’t get confused with regular pages on the website.
• Website visitor uptick — could create GA tracking link on website URL used in bit.ly (and other bio links) to make this ‘easy to track.’
• Newsletter Signups — could create a separate sign up form to make this ‘easy to track.’
• Be sure to ask prospects how they heard about you.

How I can help

If you need help identifying and implementing your AI content strategy, let’s connect. I am your go-to marketing expert and can help you navigate the complexities of AI, how to leverage it, and when to augment it. When you hire one — instead of a separate marketer, designer, writer, and project manager — the savings add up!