Keywords & Subreddits

Choosing the right keywords and subreddits is crucial for effective brand monitoring. This guide helps you optimize your setup for accurate results and fewer false positives.

Understanding Keywords

Keywords are the terms we search for across Reddit. When someone posts or comments containing your keyword, we capture and analyze that mention.

Primary Keyword

Your primary keyword is the main term we search for. This should be:

  • Your brand name as customers would type it
  • Specific enough to avoid false positives
  • The most common way your brand is referenced

Secondary Keywords

Add secondary keywords to capture variations:

  • Product names: Individual products if different from brand name
  • Abbreviations: Common shorthand your customers use
  • Misspellings: Frequent typos of your brand name
  • Alternative names: Nicknames or informal references

Choosing Effective Keywords

Be Specific

Bad Keyword Better Keyword Why
Blue Blue Software "Blue" matches thousands of unrelated posts
Wave Wave Accounting "Wave" is too common
AI Jasper AI "AI" matches almost everything tech-related

Consider Context

Think about how customers actually talk about your brand:

  • Do they use the full name or abbreviation?
  • Is your brand often confused with another?
  • Are there regional variations?

Pro tip: Search Reddit manually for your keyword before adding it. This helps you see what kind of results you'll get and whether the keyword is too broad.

Keyword Examples by Industry

SaaS Company: "Notion"

Keywords: Notion, Notion app, Notion.so, NotionHQ

E-commerce: "Warby Parker"

Keywords: Warby Parker, WarbyParker, Warby

Local Business: "Joe's Pizza NYC"

Keywords: Joe's Pizza NYC, Joes Pizza New York, Joe's Pizza Carmine

Managing Subreddits

By default, we search across all of Reddit. You can optionally limit monitoring to specific subreddits if you want to focus on particular communities.

When to Add Specific Subreddits

  • Industry focus: Only monitor subreddits relevant to your industry
  • Reduce noise: Exclude irrelevant communities
  • Competitor tracking: Monitor specific competitor communities

Finding Relevant Subreddits

  1. Search Reddit for your brand and see which subreddits appear
  2. Look at where your competitors are mentioned
  3. Find industry-specific subreddits (r/SaaS, r/ecommerce, etc.)
  4. Check subreddit sidebars for related communities

Recommendation: Start with broad monitoring (all subreddits), then refine based on what data you see. You might discover communities you didn't know existed!

Managing Your Keywords

Adding Keywords

  1. Go to Settings
  2. Scroll to the "Keywords" section
  3. Enter your new keyword and click "Add"
  4. The keyword will be active immediately

Removing Keywords

If a keyword is generating too many false positives:

  1. Go to Settings
  2. Find the keyword in the list
  3. Click the delete icon next to it

Note: Deleting a keyword removes it from future searches but does not delete historical data collected using that keyword.

Troubleshooting

Too Many Irrelevant Results?

  • Make your keyword more specific
  • Check the relevance scores - low relevance posts are likely false positives
  • Consider limiting to specific subreddits

Not Enough Results?

  • Add more keyword variations
  • Include common misspellings
  • Add product names separately from brand name
  • Your brand might just not be discussed much on Reddit yet

Need help?

Contact us at [email protected] and we'll help optimize your keyword setup.

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