I will be discussing the audience, design and use of writing associated with the Reddit platform. I chose to take the lead on creating a Subreddit (“Sub”) for the organization, as I have been using Reddit and posting content on it for six years. Reddit’s size and scope can be very daunting, and employs a consideration of audience, design, and writing structure. Reddit’s has established audience for practically any subject matter, and it can be difficult to find people who are interested in your Sub amidst such a large population of users. However, Reddit thrives on the principle that if a Sub is engaging and well crafted, interested people will find it. NICE’s target audience is fairly wide, including adults and adolescents who are interested in the refugee crisis.
In terms of design, Reddit is very user friendly. A Subreddit can be customized to the administrator’s content. I chose to create the initial design by installing an appropriate version of the NICE logo as the Sub’s cover photo. I titled the Sub “NiceNashville,” and put the organization’s mission statement as the main bio. When a user (Redditor) searches for the Sub, they will get a clear idea of it’s (NICE’s) purpose. A short “about” section within the Sub provides further description and a link to NICE’s official website. Most Subreddit’s allow Redditors to post links and text posts directly into the Sub’s feed. Given that NICE is a government-funded organization, I designed the Sub to restrict non-administrators from posting. I have sent information to Kathy and my other group members so that they can become administrators. The Subreddit design toolbar allows the administrator(s) to use coding to create a custom design for the Subreddit, which I think could be a great opportunity for further development.
Writing structure and delivery are the most crucial aspects of having a successful and popular Sub. Reddit is known as “The Front Page of the Internet,” and its users are some of the most informed people on the Web. Therefore, if information is inaccurate or poorly presented in any way, Redditors will not support it. I chose to get the ball rolling for the Sub by posting a concise, organized welcome post to further assist users in getting acquainted with it. This introductory post can be pinned to the top of the Sub for the benefit of new subscribers. User analytics featured on the Sub show us how many users are on the Sub at any given time, as well as the current number of “readers,” or subscribers, the Sub has. The other post I created was a direct link to the page where users can purchase tickets to NICE’s upcoming “One World One Dream,” event. Simple posts that feature an accurate thumbnail and link directly to an informative source page are often the most used and “upvoted” (the equivalent to a “like” on Facebook) across all of Reddit.
I have provided examples of the content I created below:
