Editor’s note: We sat down with Gabriel Sands, Head of News & Lifestyle Partnerships at Reddit, to learn how businesses can tap into Reddit’s communities, earn trust, and turn conversations into growth. This conversation is part of an exciting new series on our blog, so stay tuned for more thought leadership from top executives…
“Reddit is for everyone, and everyone is on Reddit, brands included,” wise words from Gabriel Sands, Head of News & Lifestyle Partnerships at Reddit.
With 100,000+ communities and 116+ million daily active uniques, Reddit is where real people form communities, get answers, share ideas, discuss life, and offer advice.
The site influences everything, from humour to cultural trends, buying decisions, and so much more. And according to the experts, it’s the ultimate platform for brands to foster meaningful connections with their audiences –whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur, new small business owner, bootstrapping startup, or literally NASA.
Sands has been on Reddit’s team for seven years, and has seen the exponential growth it can provide businesses — that is, when it’s done right.
We spoke with Sands to chat about:
- Why Reddit works for brands
- How to get started on the platform
- The best ways to build community on Reddit
Because, in 2025, Reddit users (“redditors”) champion authenticity — consumers want to support businesses they can depend on. “It’s more important than ever to show up on Reddit to reach and build trust with your audiences,” says Sands. “No matter what, users will continue to come to Reddit for community, unique content, and unique perspectives.”
TL;DR: Read this Q&A for tips on how to use Reddit for brand awareness and community-building, straight from the source (case studies and success stories included).
Key Takeaways
- Reddit is a vibrant, growing social media platform full of users that are subscribed to specific niche communities (and potential customers for brands).
- Reddit conversations drive decisions. The opportunity for brands lies in being present and participating where these essential, trusted conversations are happening.
- Because of this influence, businesses can use Reddit to reach their target audience in an organic, genuine way.
- Authenticity is key on Reddit, and your Reddit marketing strategy will be different than any other platform: the key is to provide support, value and answers, and trust that the rapport you build will set you apart from other brands.
- Social listening is essential on Reddit, and tools like Reddit Pro will ensure you don’t miss out on any opportunities to join a conversation related to your brand.
The Reddit opportunity for brands
What makes Reddit different from other social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok?
Gabriel Sands: Reddit is structured very differently than most other social platforms.
Platforms are generally oriented around a profile product. People follow the profile, people post to their profile, and your home feed is filled with posts from the accounts that you followed — as well as some algorithmically placed recommendations.
On Reddit, the orientation is entirely around interest-based communities. These communities are moderated by various self-selecting, human volunteer moderators so it’s not a free-for-all: the communities have rules. The moderators set those rules and enforce them. That’s how we’re able to maintain order at scale.
What makes Reddit users different from other social media users?
Gabriel Sands: Redditors operate off of pseudonymous usernames, so they’re generally much more inclined to share transparently and say how they really feel.
This makes Reddit uniquely valuable for businesses and brands because there aren’t a ton of other places these days where you’re going to get a focus group like that.
Source: r/makeupaddiction
Why should brands include Reddit in their social media strategy in 2025?
Gabriel Sands: Reddit’s where people come to get answers and make decisions. Every second, over a hundred people are adding “Reddit” to a Google search.
Plus, 88% of social media users are turning to Reddit to research and validate their purchases.
Source: Google
So, Reddit is a critical stop on the path to purchase. That is one of the many ways in which we’re different and why we think it’s really important for brands to be active on the platform in some way, shape, or form.
How does Reddit content show up in search results and AI answers?
Gabriel Sands: Reddit is the number one most-cited source for LLMs [large language models], including Google AI Overviews. From May 2024 to May 2025, there were over 30 billion clicks on Reddit posts in Google.
Why does that matter for brands?
Gabriel Sands: Today’s conversations on Reddit inform tomorrow’s search results. The opportunity for brands lies in being present and participating where these essential, trusted conversations are happening.
Source: Google
How to get started on Reddit as a brand
What’s the best way for brands to find relevant subreddits or Reddit communities to join?
Gabriel Sands: Our recommendation for brands is simple: test and learn.
Don’t expect to have a perfect batting average, but do expect to interact with folks, build relationships, and listen to what people are saying to you. And if people are telling you, “You know what, this isn’t really a place where we want you to engage,” that’s totally fine, make note of that. Find other communities where that’s not going to be the case.
The good news is that there are so many communities that we have found that brands are generally very accepted within the Reddit ecosystem. The unique value that they can provide is really being felt.
What is the most important thing for businesses on Reddit to know?
Gabriel Sands: How a brand approaches a community on Reddit requires a lot of authenticity, and demonstrating the value that you can add as a brand to this space.
A lot of it is as simple as being a human — being authentic and transparent. Position yourself as a valuable resource rather than just another brand, and seek to really educate and inform users. For many, this can be a real mindset shift (because with a more profile-oriented platform, this isn’t quite as important).
What should businesses avoid when using Reddit?
Gabriel Sands: Some communities will not be as receptive to brands being there. It could be the nature of the community; perhaps people are discussing very sensitive topics.
For example, a community like r/personalfinance wants to be a community of users for users, without too much outside influence. Different mods will have different rules and expectations for how their communities run.
Source: r/personafinance
What advice do you have for businesses getting started on Reddit?
Gabriel Sands: Remember the human aspect. It’s very important and easy (in some ways)because we’re all humans. But it’s just a matter of thinking about the audience and what their experience of interacting with you is going to be like.
When you’re interacting on Reddit, if you can sign off a comment with your name, or speak in the first person, that goes a long way. It’s a different way of communicating that feels more personal from a brand.
How brands can build authentic engagement
How can brands build authentic engagement on Reddit without being too promotional?
Gabriel Sands: You want to be “naturally” commercial. 40% of posts on Reddit are commercial in nature, but you don’t want to be heavy-handed in that approach; don’t just tell people to “Buy my product.”
We find that the brands that are most successful on Reddit are the ones that are taking a community-first approach and are really trying to add value to the community.
Can you share an example of this community-first approach?
Gabriel Sands: A really good one is u/KeithFromSonos. He is a Sonos employee, and there’s a very active Sonos community on Reddit.
Keith spotted a Redditor asking a question about a product — it was missing a protective part. Keith was able to go to the Sonos lab team, confirm compatibility, and then arrange to send a replacement part to that user. It turned a simple question from a user into really good customer service.
Keith from Sonos communicates in a very personable, conversational tone — speaking like I am speaking to you, not in corporate babble. I think that allows users to internalize and accept the brand’s presence on the platform.
Source: r/Sonos
It also demonstrates that having the brand present in the fan community can actually be very beneficial for users’ experiences.
Source: r/Sonos
How can a brand tell if it is coming across authentically on Reddit?
Gabriel Sands: The community is going to give feedback almost immediately. If they’re not picking up what you’re putting down, they’re going to let you know.
Should employees participate on Reddit as individuals, or only through an official brand account?
Gabriel Sands: There’s not going to be a universally right or wrong way to do it. Ultimately, a lot of these decisions need to be made on a brand level. But anything that errs on the side of authenticity will go a long way.
Back in the day, the original news publisher that really saw success on Reddit was The Washington Post, and that effort was being led by Gene Park. A large part of why it was successful was that he was positioning the account as “Gene from The Washington Post.”
Source: r/letsplay
At the time, it was completely unexpected for a brand to show up in a community-run space, and I think people were really taken by that. u/KeithfromSonos is a present-day example of that.
But I don’t think that is the only way to do it. There’s NASA, for example: they are NASA, it’s not “Keith from NASA.” But that hasn’t stopped them from engaging in an authentic way and winning hearts and minds.
Source: r/askreddit
This top comment has NASA jumping in, and obviously, it’s hilarious. Talk about surprise and delight. In this case, we don’t know who the person behind the curtain is. They simply had good timing and said something humorous.
Measuring and scaling
What should brands look at to know how their Reddit engagement is resonating?
Gabriel Sands: Sentiment is particularly important to go off of in the early days, because you’re trying to appeal to communities. You want them to accept your presence in their spaces and validate that.
What metrics can measure sentiment on Reddit?
Gabriel Sands: We provide “Percentage upvoted” as one of the metrics. That’s going to show you the percentage of people who upvoted your contribution versus downvoted it. That can be a perfect way to gauge sentiment and see what the temperature of the room is.
We also provide metrics on the number of views and shares on the post. These are good metrics to remember, particularly when you’re looking to gauge relative performance. How did this post do relative to other posts that I’ve made in the past?
What should brands know about measuring performance on Reddit?
Gabriel Sands: You need to put a bit of context into it. For example, if you’re a news organization and you’re posting a piece that is critical of Taylor Swift in the Taylor Swift subreddit, you’re probably going to get more heavily downvoted.
That’s people who love Taylor Swift; they don’t want anyone talking badly about their number one person. It doesn’t mean that the reporting itself was bad or that they don’t like the brand. But the content wasn’t a fit for the community. That’s always going to be important context to keep in mind.
Why is social listening important for brands on Reddit?
Gabriel Sands: Reddit is a really decentralized platform. We have over 100,000 active communities. Some communities that are overtly tied to your brand and an intuitive place to look. But there are going to be many discussions that are going to be happening in communities that you may not expect, or didn’t even realize existed.
When you’re able to look for contextually relevant mentions of your brand — or of keywords that are related to your brand — in a simple, easy-to-read feed, that makes it a lot easier for you as a brand to show up in the right place, in the right way, at the right time.
What tools can brands use to measure their success on Reddit?
Gabriel Sands: Reddit Pro is our free-to-use resources for businesses. They can track keywords, track mentions of their brand, and see performance when they’re actively participating on Reddit.
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