Despite its IPO, increasing prominence in search results and plans for international expansion, Reddit is still somewhat overlooked by most marketers, despite what it can offer brands.

With a growing, loyal audience of a reported 82m DAU contributing to over 100,000 active communities, Reddit represents a significant opportunity for brands to engage with fans. Sports fans are particularly active on the platform, with 30.3m visitors across sports.

Search Engine Journal’s article highlights how deals with Google and OpenAI make Reddit a powerful platform for combining search and social. With utility both for visitors who are seeking purchase advice from peers (78% of users find Reddit a trustworthy source for purchase decisions), as well as those who want to participate and take a more active role in communities.

This means that brands themselves can engage with these communities in order to build deeper connections with the people who are most ingrained in their respective sports/hobbies. With other platforms like Instagram looking at ways to foster deeper connections between users and the content they consume, Reddit is already ahead of the curve.

Reddit provides brands with social listening opportunities, as they can gain insights into opinions around themselves, or their industry. The forum aspect of the platform means that users will ask others for advice, and the responses can give brands a strong perspective of what potential/current users of their products think. Is there something that the industry is missing that the brand can provide? Is there an aspect of the brand’s service that needs to be improved?

78% of Reddit users who use the platform for product research say that Reddit is trustworthy, as a place for unbiased review sharing. This means that social listening will for the most part be more accurate as brands can gain genuine insight.

What does this mean for sports brands?

For sports brands in particular, Reddit offers countless options for involvement in discussions around the sports relevant to your brand. There are thousands of subreddits related to events, teams, leagues and more. You can see from the daily megathreads from the Olympics and Paralympics to see how engaged these sports fans are.

And while it has traditionally focused on North America and English language content, Reddit now claims that over 50% of traffic comes from international users. This figure will likely rise given the current testing of sitewide French language translations, and the desire to expand this to other languages.

Perhaps most importantly, it is where brands can reach users who aren’t on other social media platforms. 32% are inactive on Facebook, 37% on Instagram, 41% on TikTok, and 53% on X. The opportunity that this engaged audience, which may not be possible to engage with through other channels, presents is worth the consideration of any brand looking to connect and build community.

While it doesn’t have the glamour and vanity metrics of TikTok and Instagram, marketers shouldn’t overlook Reddit.

It is increasingly important for brand discovery and consideration, and has always been a place for communities to share opinions and advice that brands can use to improve their offering.