Create a hit list of insights for Reddit

Category Research Tools

Read what goes into category research
There is a lot of writing online about what goes into market and category research. Here is a great starting link. Also check out the lecture slides from this unit.
List 5 category insights
Create a list of 5 quick observations for Reddit that explains the current category of online publishing. Experiment with as many of the tools from the first lecture to draw your observations.

These observations should include common things competitors are practicing, emerging technology or fresh uses of technology you see and the different types of players in the category.

See my example of how to use each of the tools and 5 insights here using Oscar Mayer as an example.
Free tools from lecture #1
Here are the tools we covered in the lecture. Experiment with as many as you like.
1. Google Trends: shows trends in how consumers search for things online. Super useful for finding interest and correlations in topics over time, such as flight sales and christmas.
2. Google Insights
3. MixRank: shows exactly where competitors buy ad space and the copy that performs the best across google display network publishers. Super useful for tweaking words, images and sources that increase click-through rates.
4. Peter Kim's Wiki: 1,000+ examples of social media campaigns. Here you'll find examples to inspire creativity.
5. Digital Buzz Blog: provides insights by showing the best in creative camapigns, new technology, social media and research, daily.
6. PSFK: cultural and technology trends and examples of cutting-edge campaigns.
7. Pew Internet: reports on how the internet impacts life - family, work, home, education and health care.
8. Tech Crunch
9. Webby Awards
10. IAB MIxx Awards

Competitive Audit Tools

Read up on social & digital audits
Social and digital audits provide a quick overview of the marketing activities your competitors conduct. Checkout my own digital and social audit in the project section using Oscar Mayer as an example. See my lecture notes attached below.
Find 5 insights on Reddit's competitors
Conduct a social & digital audit on 1 of Reddit's competitors. I'd suggest using Buzzfeed as a competitior.
Tools from lecture #2
Here are the tools we discussed in lecture #2. Use as many that are useful for your audit
1. Compete: tracks website traffic to give approximate monthly hits, referral sources and top keywords from competitor sites.
2. Quantcast: provides demographic data on competitor audiences
3. Open Facebook page analytics: basic location and demographic data on competitors Facebok fans.
4. Open Site Explorer
5. Social Mention: search engine that pulls user-generated content from blogs, comments, bookmarks and events.
6. Google Blog Search: shows blog sources that curate and create content about competitors.

Consumer Research Tools

Read up on developing personas
User personas are written like a fictitious character complete with a name and photo. They highlight the most important tension points and interests of the audience as they relate to the brand. They are not generic, aspirational targets.

When researching user personas look out for specific attributes, needs, consumptions patterns, sources and celebrities they are influenced by and online habits.

Here are some interesting reads on developing user personas.

Bit.ly provides some good questions to ask yourself/your audience

Some examples of user personas
Find 5 insights about Reddit users
Using as many tools as you wish from the third lecture, find insights that would guide the development of persona of a typical Reddit user. This exercise will help you to create a more targeted idea as you will develop an intimate knowledge of your target audience, rather than relying on basic demographic information.
Tools from lecture #3
Free tools from lecture #3

Here are the tools we looked at during the third lecture.
1. Quora: cultural tensions and points of curiosity
2. Ask Reddit: cultural tensions. Great for male insights
3. Topsy: influencers and real time discourse analysis, crafting language
4. Open status search: discourse analysis from Facebook
5. Twitter advanced search: sentiment, tone of what is shared, social pattern
6. Facebook Ad Creator: pool of similar interests

Naming Things Tools

Read up on giving great names to ideas
Here's a good article that goes over some of the things you need to consider when choosing a name. It applies to naming start-ups however the same principles can be taken over to naming, well, anything really. See my lecture notes attached below.
Create a name for your idea
This deviates away slightly from the rest of the unit formats. Pretend in this unit that you are naming a new mobile app that helps Reddit users navigate SubReddits easier.

This app is used on long journeys or commuting. It suggests SubReddits for you. The user inputs how long the journey is and the type of friends they are with, then the app pushes content through. This would give the user ideas for conversation for long journeys while at the same time familiarizing redditors with subreddits.
10 tools to create great names

Measuring success

Create an analytics framework to measure success
These blogs provide are up to date musings about analytics. They are really helpful to consult when setting the KPIs and metrics to best suit a project; making search informed decisions; and getting the best out of Google Analytics.
1. Occam's Razor: Avinash Kausik is a Digital Marketing Evangelist at Google and blogs about marketing, content and measuring frameworks. This one is particularly useful for templates and success frameworks.
2. Luna Metrics: Useful for SEO decisions and what makes a good and lame metrics. Very Google Analytics heavy in this blog's coverage.
3. KISS Metrics: Another one on marketing analytics but this one has some real gems on social media analytics.
4. SEO Moz: This is the holy grail for search-related analytics. Even if you don't dabble much in search marketing this blog is great for explaining the difference in SEO terms so you can speak to search questions confidentially with clients.
5. Reve News: This one is social media and SEM heavy but provides some good readings on mobile and video analysis.
6. Anil Batra's Website Analytics: Readings on behavioral targeting and testing for website optimizations. Has some good 'how to' articles for multivariate testing.
7. Google Benchmarks: industry benchmarks for banner ad engagement and click-through rates.

Erika Emerick

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