Introduction
Reddit is a user-generated community site whose mission is: “to help people discover places where they can be their true selves, and empower our community to flourish”. Global Voices is one of these undiscovered places, and Reddit is a very good example to help to uncover it to netizens around the world.
It is recommended for editors to create an account at Reddit.com, as several successful spikes in traffic came from there. Successfully engaging with Reddit is also a rewarding experience to the editors themselves as they become micro-celebrities at Reddit, and consequently elsewhere.
There are two types of submissions to Reddit, submitting links (which we will focus on) and submitting text (which is reserved for non-posts stuff in our case).
So, here is a checklist for posting to Reddit:
Vocabulary
- Flair is the closest thing to “category” in a GV post.
- Subreddit is a community in Reddit
- Karma total upvotes you get for links and comments you submit in Reddit
DOs
- It is recommended that you engage (comment) first, until your “Karma” reaches 100, before submitting links. This will make banning you for posting GV posts (spamming) way less likely.
- In the beginning, submit your best post, then go forward and submit each one after publishing
- Subscribe to your GV specialty subreddits. That means countries your authors cover in your region, and topics you write about. (Examples: Egypt, Venezuela, ISIS, Syra’s war)
- Only post GV links to subreddits you participate in, as when comments come, your input will establish and showcase your presence.
- When you submit GV links, always choose “suggested title” after pasting the link, and remove the “Global Voices” part so it is not easy for quick onlookers that you are “spamming”.
- Always “flair” whenever this option is available. Subreddits, where flair is available, will delete your submission if it is not flaired within an interval of time. The flairing appears just under the title after it is published, then choose which topic the flair will be. Example:
- Go to #Reddit on Slack and check out the submitted GV links, subscribe to their subreddits. You can also get your own notifications for Reddit submitted GV links using this IFTTT recipe.
DONTs
- Don't post GV links right away.
- Don't feed the trolls (there are A LOT of trolls on Reddit).
- Don't create the account in your name if you feel it is uncomfortable.