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What you need to know before trying to validate your MVP on Reddit

Used appropriately, Reddit is a great place to find validation (or any kind of validation really!).

I originally joined Reddit because I wanted a place to share music I'd made, but it quickly became clear that the platform is heavily policed for self-promotion. It felt like If I posted anything where success might personally benefit me, it was either automatically removed or, at best, met with overwhelming apathy. The platform also limits cross-posting ("you're doing that too much") so it's difficult to hedge your bets when choosing your audience.

One day I found out that the self-promotion wasn't the problem. What is spam in one subreddit is gold in another (usually more niche) subreddit. If you are solving somebody's problem, they don't care that you're promoting yourself. In fact they are thrilled to have a direct line to the creator.

Here are a few tips for navigating Reddit.

TLDR: As with any digital product in 2022, you need to niche-down to find an audience who love what you're sharing. Posting content that is too general, or posting in a subreddit that is too general, will result in apathy (or removal).

This post is a follow-up to this comment. Examples are from my reddit posts.

1. Post with no agenda

But it's not too hard to get engagement if you don't have an agenda. For example, these posts got more upvotes than I usually manage.


Octopus Prime
These sorts of posts are not much good if you're trying to sell something but they'll give you a bit of karma.

2. Tell people you made something

Many posts that get upvotes are somebody saying "I drew this". It's better to say "I made this thing, what do you all think?" than to broadcast "New video from [creator] is [dubious superlative]"

3. Post to a more specific subreddit

Posting in a more specific subreddit can bring in more upvotes. Here you can see that I got 1 upvote (my own) in r/synthesizers (220k members) but I got 23 in r/synthdiy (34.7k members).

The more general a subreddit, the more likely it is that your post will be filtered out and never seen by the people who would find it interesting.

4. Choose more specific subject-matter

The more specific your content, the more people are likely to care. Going with the synthesizer example again, people might like synths in general, but they love a particular synth. Here are some examples of when I made content about specific synths.

This post about Mutable Instruments Plaits was a tutorial that very few people will ever actually follow, but it was one of my more successful videos.
Plaits
My Deluge post only got a handful of upvotes but I got a long message from somebody who was very interested in the project telling me about some SDK documentation I hadn't discovered, how to get established on the official product forum, and some Discord server suggestions.
Deluge

That post was essentially advertising a paid product. I've sold about $60 worth of apps in a couple of weeks as a result of this one video. It's a very specific tool but that means I can charge more for it.

5. It all comes down to love

This post in r/musicproduction did well because, again, I spoke about something very specific that some people really love.
Amiga

As an aside, one of my most successful TikTok posts was a "tutorial" for a 30-year-old Amiga tracker OctaMED. Essentially pointless and obsolete, but it evokes great love (via nostalgia I guess).

6. Reddit for product validation

You never really know what will hit, or why. I made a lot of content to promote my (now shelved) Changes app but nothing ever particularly hit.
Changes
This was all before I realised the importance of niching-down. I'd made a general app for general happiness so it should have come as no surprise that love was never on the cards.

If you want to validate a product, make sure you can find a reasonably-sized but specific-enough subreddit where you can share your progress.

In summary

People don't mind you promoting your product in the right place. It's all about context. The same post can be extremely off-topic on one subreddit and the most useful thing in the world in another subreddit.

And if you make something too general, good luck finding somewhere to post about it!

  1. 6

    Great points! I'd probably add that how you write a post matters too.
    Don't always use formal/descriptive language. Being relatable and expressing emotions can get you a long way.

  2. 2

    Great post. Thanks!! I've also learned to not create an account with your stupid product/startup name. I just use my personal account...feels more real

    1. 1

      Yes, definitely - it's really a place for individuals, not "brands".

  3. 2

    I've had no success at all with Reddit so this helpful - thank you 🙏

  4. 1

    Thanks for the post. We are starting our own journey of validating our product and I've been posting on multiple subreddits.

  5. 1

    I want to ask how to find customers on reddit and my website for your digital products
    Here is my site. https://whatonsaletoday.com/. Your suggestions are highly appreciated. Once again thankx for such a great post. It helped a lot for beginner like me.

  6. 1

    Hey thanks for these great remarks. Can you tell something about posting long-form vs. short-form content on reddit - which is more interesting for redditors?
    As far as I see most content on reddit is rather short-form.
    However my most successful entry so far is veeeery long-form with regards to most other posts on reddit. I'm not sure what to make of it.

    1. 2

      It really is case-by-case! Depends on what you're posting!

      What I would say is that while it's tempting with longer-form content to link off-site to your own blog, you'll probably get better engagement if you make it native to Reddit - either through text posts or video uploads.

  7. 1

    never tried reddit before for product promotion made right. but I'll give a shot

  8. 1

    Great points. Reddit is tricky but can be really powerful as you show.

  9. 1

    Give it out for free, run trial periods, build a mailing list etc

  10. 1

    I want to ask how to find customers on reddit for your digital products

  11. 1

    I'm going to start using Reddit in addition to other platforms to validate my idea and your post came at the right time, thank you!

  12. 1

    Thank you for the insight! I've not yet been a big contributor in Reddit, but see it as an important platform for, as you said, a direct line with people of similar interests. Will definitely keep what you've said in mind.

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