Reddit increasingly sees itself as a customer advisor
Consumers are increasingly abandoning traditional search engines when researching products and using community-based websites such as Reddit instead. At least that's the view of the website operators, who have launched a corresponding investigation.
As part of the study, 1,000 social media users were surveyed for seven product groups - laptops, televisions, cars, refrigerators, credit cards, make-up and movie tickets. 47% are dissatisfied with Google and co. because they cannot find relevant, helpful answers when researching products.
Better recommendations
"As a result, many users are turning to Reddit for better, context-specific recommendations," writes the provider, who is pleased that 71 percent of respondents say Reddit is the best social media platform to find quick and specific answers to their questions.
The study shows how important Reddit is in the purchasing process, from discovering products to making decisions. Ads on Reddit contribute to more conversations about brands. For every 1,000 ad views on Reddit, advertisers received around two organic posts with an average of 3,500 views.
The study also showed that 23 percent of recommendations on Reddit led to a "redirect". This means that users start to consider brands they hadn't considered before. These redirects usually occur when users ask for help, for example when they want advice on products that better suit their needs.
Expert:inside cut out
It almost goes without saying that Reddit considers the recommendations given on its homepage to be more trustworthy than many other forms of advice. Reportedly, 42 percent of social media users value Reddit recommendations more than other sources, including influencer-sponsored posts, brand advertisements and even some expert reviews.
However, Reddit admits that its recommendations rank behind expert review sites (17 percent) and consumer review sites (15 percent) in terms of influence. As a platform that promotes itself as a solution to consumer frustrations, Reddit is naturally interested in portraying its influence in a positive light. However, experts are of the opinion that Reddit's statements at least tend to be true. (pte/swi)
