Brands turn to Reddit as AI makes it impossible to ignore
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Most communication teams have long avoided Reddit's corner of the internet, but AI scraping methods are changing that.
Why it matters: Reddit is not just a place to find communities that are already talking about your company, brand or products. It's also a key information source for large language models.
What they're saying: The fragmented media landscape has made it more difficult to find and reach the audiences that matter most, but Reddit can be a sounding board and a ripe place for engagement, Reddit chief communications officer Adam Collins says.
- "There's over 100 million people on Reddit every day, and much of the conversation that happens in our communities is about companies or it's about commerce in one way or another," Collins tells Axios.
- "They are natural, organic conversations that are happening between real people about, you know, what's the right pair of running shoes to get, or, what restaurant are you going to, or whatever. It's a really unique place, because the most engaged audiences are already on Reddit talking about your business and your brands. So for comms people, that's a tailor-made opportunity."
Reality check: As with any online community, a brand or spokesperson can't just parachute in and expect to see positive results. Each subreddit — or niche community — has its own rules and personalities.
- "The companies who do it really well are focused on engagement and always adding value for the users," says Collins.
- Reddit has also launched a free suite of tools, called Reddit Pro, which companies, brands and public figures can use to better understand what's being discussed on the platform, how to comment and engage with users, and tips for driving organic conversations.
State of play: Sonos, GM, Spotify, Fidelity and Wayfair have all shown up to correct the record, respond to customer inquiries, or appeal to key decision-makers and influencers within their market.
Between the lines: In the age of AI, what happens on Reddit doesn't stay on Reddit.
- The platform has struck licensing deals with OpenAI and Google, so its content regularly appears in LLM outputs and AI-generated search summaries.
- A recent report from search analytics company Ahrefs showed Reddit appearing in 5.5% of Google's AI Overviews responses, the most of any source, the Wall Street Journal reported.
- Brands and news publications are responding by creating accounts on the platform as a means of feeding the AI-powered chatbots.
By the numbers: Marketing platform Profound analyzed over 1 billion citations across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, DeepSeek, Grok and Meta AI between Sept. 14 and Oct. 14, and found that Reddit is the second most-cited platform behind YouTube.
- Reddit is the most cited website by Perplexity (6.3%) and the second most cited by Google AI Overviews (2.3%) and ChatGPT (1.2%), per the data.
Yes, but: Reddit stock plunged this month after a different report showed ChatGPT was citing the platform less.
- According to Profound's analysis, ChatGPT is citing Reddit only slightly less (1.2%) than it was in June of this year (1.8%).
Plus, an extensive report from Muck Rack found that Claude is more likely to pull from academic, federal and technical sources, while ChatGPT is more likely to cite mainstream publications like Reuters, AP, Financial Times, Time and Axios.
- Gemini pulls from news sources but also regularly cites Wikipedia, Coursera, Quora and Google's own platforms like YouTube, per the report.
What to watch: Reddit recently launched ad tools that pull insights from its more than 22 billion posts and comments to help marketing teams identify where best to place paid content.
- "It's become a bigger space for digital advertising," Collins says. "And one fact that I think is particularly compelling is that the ads that perform the best on Reddit are from companies who are also active on Reddit from an organic standpoint."
Thought bubble from Axios media reporter Kerry Flynn: Reddit is one of the internet's rare spaces in which authenticity still drives both community and influence. Plus, the company understands the power of its platform for LLMs.
- At last month's Tatari conference, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman summed it up with two slides: "Today's Reddit conversations are tomorrow's search results" and "No matter how good AI gets, people will always want to hear from other people."
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