Tasting success on YouTube requires a dedicated, engaged audience, and Reddit is a key platform that can help you form one. Many YouTubers create Reddit communities for a variety of reasons. While it’s a place for their support base to discuss the channel and post memes or videos, it’s also a great way to understand how your audience feels about your channel and the direction you’re taking it in.
There are several positives to creating a community on Reddit specifically for your channel. So, if you’re interested, here’s how to make a subreddit:
Create your subreddit
Come up with a great name
To start, after you make a Reddit account, click on the ‘Create your own subreddit’ on the homepage. Then come up with your community name (it should be related to your channel or even be your channel name). The name needs to be 20 characters or less, but that’s likely long enough if you just wanted to use the title of your YouTube channel. If you have a more direct purpose for your subreddit, then name it with that purpose in mind. For example, if your channel name is “Game Inquirer,” and you want to make a subreddit for people to suggest games for you to review, you could name your subreddit r/GameInquirerReviews. It lets your audience know this community’s purpose is for reviewing submissions.
Also, be sure to pick a primary topic that relates to your subreddit. This will help people that may be interested in your brand of content more easily find your subreddit.
Set your community type to public
If you want anyone from your community or new community member to be able access your subreddit, be sure to set it to public. You can also choose other options – “Restricted” and “Private.” These settings restrict who can see your subreddit. It works better for a personal subreddit, but it gives you the option of being as inclusive as you want if you’re making a subreddit for your YouTube community.
Write a strong description
This is where you would describe your subreddit. You want to keep it short and sweet, as well as in line with your brand. This will appear alongside your subreddit name in Google and social media descriptions, so be sure to put some thought into what you write. It could very well be the first impression you leave on some potential viewers.
Recruit mods
Depending on the size of your community, you may need moderators to make sure all posts inside of your subreddit fall in line with your community rules. There are a few things you want to consider before letting people be your moderators.
First, consider how active they are on Reddit. You want to make sure the person in question is on the platform quite often and knows how to navigate the site. There’s going to be plenty of content posted to your subreddit, and you want to make sure your moderators are going to be there to check everything. Also, be sure to get moderators who have to fill in different shifts. Considering all of the time zones, it’s always daytime for someone in the world. You want to make sure you have moderators checking over everything posted around the clock, so have a few different moderators that can cover different time zones.
Sometimes it’s a good idea to make an active community member a mod, but not always. Some fans can have their own idea of what’s acceptable and what actions align with your brand. You want to make sure your mods share beliefs that fit in who you are and uphold the rules that have been established in your community. Know their motivation for being a mod as well. Some people will want to be mods because they like the idea of having power. You want to avoid giving these people the power because they could potentially abuse it and cause issues in your community.
Only give mod privileges to people you can trust. If you are unsure if you can trust someone to be a mod, it might be best to look for someone else to fill the role.
Advertise your subreddit
Remind your audience to check out your subreddit in your videos
Once you have your subreddit set up, you should let your audience know about it. Also, always remind your audience about its existence. Remind them in the videos you upload to your channel that they can sub to your subreddit. Often times, people don’t know you have a subreddit, so they’ll check it out if they use Reddit. It’s also possible you have new audience members that aren’t aware you have a subreddit and will check it out when you shout it out.
Make content out of your subreddit
One of the benefits creators get out of having a subreddit is that they’re able to make content out of the things posted to their community. It makes for good content because you’re directly interacting with the community and their posts. They literally help you make the content, so they have a place on your channel. Additionally, it shows you’re taking the time to see what they have to say. It can be fun, it can be inspirational and it can be constructive. Regardless, it’s you listening to what your audience has to say, and that will boost engagement.
Making a connection through your subreddit
Creating a subreddit for your YouTube channel will help you connect with your audience and grow your community. Follow the suggestions in this guide to start your subreddit and start building your community.
Featured image courtesy: Reddit
