Marketers increasingly turn to Reddit to spot up-and-coming trends before they go viral.
Often dubbed the "front page of the internet," Reddit is where new ideas and conversations bubble up before hitting mainstream social networks. In fact, many issues or trends surface on Reddit first, then spread across Facebook, X, TikTok, and beyond.
With over 52 million daily active users and 130,000+ active communities (known as subreddits) on virtually every topic, Reddit offers an untapped goldmine of consumer insights that other platforms can’t match. If you haven't signed up already, now's the time.
This guide explores what makes Reddit trends special versus other social sites and how you can use that to your advantage.
We’ll also examine how Brandwatch Consumer Research and Brandwatch Social Media Management can help you monitor Reddit for trends. By the end, you'll be well-versed in Reddit communities and know how to use them to discover what people are talking about in your industry.
In this guide:
Reddit trends vs. other social media trends
What makes a trend on Reddit different from one on X or Instagram? The short answer: Reddit’s community upvote system.
On Reddit, users submit posts to topic-specific communities called subreddits, and other users vote those posts up or down. Posts with enough upvotes rise to the top of subreddit feeds and even the Reddit front page, exposing them to a huge audience.
This democratic voting mechanism means content that the community finds truly valuable gains visibility, while anything that people hate gets buried by downvotes. The result is a user-curated feed of what real people find interesting or important.
Trends literally emerge from the upvote system.
Reddit is also known for its in-depth discussions. Users dive into niche interests and share honest opinions, stories, and feedback. This makes for rich context beyond just trending topics.
You get a fuller picture of why something is trending, not just that it’s trending.
How to monitor Reddit trends
To keep up with Reddit's fast-moving discussions, you need to monitor the platform for topics of interest. Given the sheer volume of content (literally billions of comments and posts across Reddit), manually checking subreddits isn’t going to cut it.
This is where social listening and media monitoring tools come in. These platforms help filter the noise, track important trends, and extract insights from Reddit data without breaking a sweat.
Your tools act like a Reddit radar. They surface trending conversations and insights that you can easily analyze. Instead of scrolling endlessly on Reddit, you get actionable data at your fingertips.
For example, you could discover that a scandal within your industry is going viral on Reddit and quickly brief your team before it goes mainstream.
Using consumer research tools
You may not know this, but you can use Reddit for product and consumer research. A tool like Brandwatch Consumer Research has social listening and analytics capabilities, which means you can monitor trends within a wider context of your industry.
Brandwatch has full Reddit integration, so you can search Reddit’s entire data bank of conversations to see what’s bubbling up.
It covers all public (safe-for-work) subreddits with comprehensive coverage, updating as new posts and comments appear. You won’t miss emerging discussions, even in niche communities.
This is crucial for understanding your customers and developing new products. Businesses strive for clarity when making strategic decisions, and being able to spot and understand trends on Reddit is part of the journey.
A tool like Brandwatch even reveals how a trend evolved since you can access historical Reddit data from 2011. That means you can look at patterns over years – great for seeing seasonality or the progression of a long-term topic.
Reddit-specific filters also let you slice and dice Reddit data by metrics like upvote score, number of subreddit subscribers, votes, and user karma. For example, your approach might include a filter to find posts with more than 1000 upvotes in tech subreddits to quickly identify hot topics. These filters give a quick overview of what content is resonating on Reddit.
Beyond keywords, Brandwatch groups Reddit authors by interests or demographics (using pre-built segments like generational groups). This helps you understand who is driving a trend. Are Gen Z users in r/beautytrend talking about a product, or are they millennials discussing their routines in r/SkincareAddiction? Knowing the audience behind a trend informs how you respond.
You can also set up alerts for spikes in Reddit mentions of your brand or product. If a post about your company suddenly starts climbing the ranks, you’ll know right away.
Monitoring Reddit as part of a wider social management plan
Reddit may be where trends emerge, but you can’t treat it in isolation from other social media accounts. After all, people have 5.54 social media accounts on average. Someone posting on Reddit is almost certainly engaged on other channels, too.
If you’re a marketer who is managing social media day-to-day, Brandwatch Social Media Management is the sort of tool you need to oversee Reddit and other platforms.
It includes the Listen feature, which tracks mentions and trends in real-time across Reddit, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and more.
You can keep tabs on the conversations on Reddit – as well as more traditional social media platforms – while managing your social media workflow.
This tool doesn’t just dump raw mentions on you – it captures useful metadata like subreddit name, upvote count, and author karma for each mention. That helps you identify which mentions are gaining traction.
For example, if someone mentions your product on a small subreddit and it’s quickly racking up upvotes, Listen will show that trend so you can jump in or inform your team.
Because Listen is part of the Social Media Management suite, you can easily take action on up-and-coming trends. For instance, if a Reddit thread is blowing up, you might use the same platform to draft an official response or plan a quick post addressing the topic on your other channels. Having Reddit intel right alongside your publishing and engagement tools makes it easy to react in the moment.
In short, the Listen feature keeps you at the forefront of Reddit discussions without leaving your social media dashboard. It’s like having an ear to the ground in every relevant subreddit, alerting you when there’s something you should know.
Together, Brandwatch Consumer Research and Social Media Management give you a one-two punch: deep research-level analysis of Reddit trends and hands-on monitoring to engage in real-time.
Turning Reddit insights into strategy
So, you know what's trending on Reddit – now what? The real power of this platform lies in how you apply those insights to your marketing strategy.
Turning insights into strategy is ultimately about closing the loop: listen to what Reddit is telling you, then act on it across your business – whether it’s product improvements, marketing tweaks, or customer engagement.
Remember, every trend or viral post on Reddit is driven by real people with real motivations and emotions. If you can understand those, you can craft strategies that truly resonate.
Inform product development and innovation
Reddit can act as a massive, always-on focus group for your products and industry.
For example, a spike in discussions about sustainable packaging in a skincare subreddit might inspire your cosmetics brand to prioritize eco-friendly packaging.
The key is to gather the why behind trends. Redditors often explain in detail why they love or hate something. Those reasons are gold – they tell you what consumers value and what you need to improve. Use that intel to tweak product features or develop new offerings that meet real needs expressed by the community.
Refine marketing messages and content
By observing how people talk on Reddit, you can align your messaging with the customer’s voice. The language and pain points that trend on Reddit can inform your campaigns.
Suppose a particular meme is doing the rounds. In that case, you might consider playfully incorporating it (if appropriate) in your social content – it shows your audience that you’re paying attention and speaking their language.
Essentially, use Reddit as a reality check for your marketing – it keeps you grounded in real conversations rather than marketing bubble jargon.
Identify emerging trends early
Catching a trend early can be a great way to position your brand as a leader.
For example, if you notice an uptick in Reddit users talking about a certain gaming accessory, a retailer might stock up on it or create content around it before it becomes the next big thing.
Keeping tabs on emerging Reddit trends helps you stay ahead of competitors and meet your audience’s interests in a timely way.
Inspire content and campaign ideas
Reddit is a treasure trove of free content ideas. The stories users share, the questions they ask, the things they geek out about – all of these can spark new content for your marketing channels.
If you see multiple Reddit threads asking how to do something related to your product, boom – that’s a blog post or tutorial video you should create (and once you do, you could even go back and share it in those threads if allowed).
Regularly mine Reddit for those organic ideas. It ensures your marketing stays relevant and engages people on topics they genuinely care about.
Stay ahead with Reddit and Brandwatch
Reddit can seem like a wild world, but it's incredibly rewarding for marketers willing to listen and participate authentically.
By keeping an eye on Reddit trends, you can access unfiltered consumer opinions, emerging themes in your industry, and candid feedback that can sharpen your strategy.
Brandwatch Consumer Research and the Listen module in Brandwatch Social Media Management make this process easier – helping you monitor Reddit in real-time and find out what's trending.
Combine those tools with some clever marketing strategies and you’ll be well on your way to turning Reddit buzz into business results.
Ready to put Reddit insights to work for your brand? Learn more about Brandwatch’s Reddit listening capabilities and request a demo to see how these tools can help you stay ahead of the curve.
You’ll not only keep up with the trends – you might even start setting them. Good luck, and happy Redditing!
