How to find subreddits for your business (that AI also cites)

Most companies pick subreddits by size. They find the biggest community with their category in the name, post there, and get ignored or removed. The communities that actually work are usually smaller, more specific, and full of people talking about the problem you solve rather than your category.

There’s a second reason to choose carefully now. Reddit threads are heavily cited by AI assistants: Reddit was the most-cited domain in Profound’s analysis of AI citations. The right community reaches buyers twice, once when they read the thread and again when an AI tool quotes it.

Source 1: Google, with site:reddit.com

Google is often better than Reddit’s own search for finding the threads buyers actually land on. Try these patterns, replacing the brackets:

site:reddit.com best [category] for [audience]
site:reddit.com [competitor] alternative
site:reddit.com [competitor] vs [competitor]
site:reddit.com how do you [task your product does]
site:reddit.com [problem you solve] recommendation
site:reddit.com [your category] worth it

For each useful thread, note the community it’s in, how old it is and how many comments it has. Threads that rank in Google keep getting read for years, which makes their communities worth joining. Pay special attention to threads from the last year with dozens of comments: they show a community that’s active, trusted by Google and full of people discussing exactly what you sell.

Source 2: Reddit’s own search

1. Search for your problem keywords, not your product name: “invoice reminders”, “client onboarding”, “inventory spreadsheet”.
2. Switch the results to Communities to see which communities match.
3. Switch back to Posts, sort by Top and set the time to Past year. Note which communities the popular posts come from.
4. Repeat with your competitors’ names and with the job titles of the people who buy from you.

Source 3: where your competitors are discussed

Search for each competitor’s name on Reddit and in Google with site:reddit.com. Where people complain about, compare or recommend them is exactly where they’d discuss you. Note the questions people ask: “does anyone use [competitor] for [use case]?” tells you both the community and the content you need.

Source 4: threads that AI already cites

This is the step most teams skip, and the most valuable one now. Ask ChatGPT (with search on), Perplexity and Google AI Mode the questions your buyers ask. Open every Reddit link in the sources.

• Note the community and the thread.
• Note what the top comments recommend.
• Note whether you’re mentioned, and whether you could add something useful.

Communities that keep appearing in AI sources are high priority. In comparison-style questions, AI engines in a University of Toronto study took most of their citations from independent sources rather than brand sites, and Reddit is one of the largest independent sources there is.

Source 5: role and industry communities

Your buyers don’t only gather around your category. They gather around their jobs and industries. A company selling scheduling software to dental clinics will find more buyers in communities for dentists and practice managers than in a community about scheduling software.

Source 6: Reddit’s Explore page

Reddit’s Explore Communities page suggests communities by topic, by trends and by similarity to communities you already follow. Once you’ve joined a few good ones, check Explore for related communities you’ve missed. Also look at each community’s sidebar: many list related communities, which is often the fastest way to find smaller, more specific ones.

Questions to ask yourself about each community

Scores are useful, but a quick gut check catches things a spreadsheet misses. For each community near the top of your list, answer these honestly:

• Could someone on our team answer a question here today, from real experience, without mentioning our product?
• Would we read this community even if we had nothing to sell?
• Do the people here have the problem we solve, or just an interest in the topic?
• If our product came up naturally in a thread, would the community see it as helpful or as an intrusion?
• Is there someone on our team who will show up here every week for the next six months?

If the answer to the first or last question is no, move the community down the list, however well it scores. Reddit rewards consistent, knowledgeable participation, and communities notice quickly when someone only appears to promote.

It also helps to write one sentence per community describing what you’ll contribute there: “answer setup questions about integrations”, “share benchmarks from our customer data”, “help new freelancers price their work”. That sentence keeps your team’s comments focused and useful, and it’s a good test of whether the community is a real fit.

Score and choose

You’ll end up with 20 to 40 candidates. Score each from 1 to 3 on five things:

Start with the five to ten highest scores, and assign each one an owner straight away. A score of 12 or more out of 15 is a strong community; under 8, skip it for now.

How to tell if a community is healthy

Before a community goes on your list, spend ten minutes checking whether it’s a good place to spend time. Signs of a healthy community:

• Questions get answered. Open five recent question posts. Most should have useful replies within a day.
• Moderators are active. Look for pinned posts from the last few months, recent rule updates or moderator comments.
• The mix is right. A good business community has a steady flow of real questions, not just news links and memes.
• Spam is under control. If the new feed is full of obvious promotion, either the moderators have given up or the members have left.
• People are kind to newcomers. Communities that mock beginner questions won’t welcome your answers either.

Go one level deeper: pick threads, not just communities

Inside each community, a small number of threads do most of the work. Old threads that rank in Google and appear in AI sources keep getting read for years. When you find one in your research, it’s worth contributing to even if it’s months old, as long as the community allows comments on older posts and you add something new.

1. List the threads from sources 1 and 4 that rank in Google or appear in AI answers.
2. Read the top comments and note what’s missing or outdated, such as old prices or tools that no longer exist.
3. Write one comment that fills the gap, with specifics and disclosure if you mention your product.
4. Check back after a week for replies, and answer them.

One well-placed comment on a thread that AI keeps citing can matter more than a dozen comments on new posts that disappear in a day.

Who should own each community

Match communities to the people best placed to help there. Technical communities suit engineers. Role communities suit people who did that job. Industry communities suit customer-facing staff who hear customers’ problems every day. Give each person no more than two or three communities, so they can show up regularly and become a recognised name rather than a passing account.

Before you post anything

1. Read the rules, sidebar, wiki and pinned posts for each community. Note anything about self-promotion, links and account requirements.
2. Read a week of posts to learn the tone and what gets upvoted.
3. Comment before you post. Many communities filter new or low-karma accounts. Our warm-up plan covers this.
4. Participate as a real person, as Reddit’s rules ask, and disclose when you mention your product.

The rules vary a lot between communities. Our guide to Reddit self-promotion rules explains how to read them.

A worked example

Say you sell a tool that helps freelance designers send proposals and contracts. A size-first approach would pick the biggest design community and the biggest freelancing one. A buyer-first search turns up more:

• Google searches for “site:reddit.com proposal software freelancers” surface threads in freelancing, graphic design and web design communities.
• Searching competitors’ names shows the same tools compared in communities for designers and small agencies.
• Asking Perplexity “how should freelance designers handle contracts?” cites two threads, one in a freelance community and one in a design business community.
• The design business community’s sidebar lists three smaller related communities, including one for agency owners.

After scoring, the top five are a mix of mid-sized and small communities, two of which appear in AI sources. The biggest general design community scores low on buyer questions and rules, so it waits.

Keep the list fresh

Communities change. Moderators change rules, activity rises and falls, new communities appear. Once a month, check that each community on your list is still active, re-run your AI prompts to see which threads are cited now, and add any new communities you’ve come across. Drop communities where nothing you’ve posted has been useful after a couple of months. It’s better to be a familiar, trusted name in five communities than an occasional visitor in twenty. Note why you dropped each one, so nobody on the team adds it back later without knowing what happened there.

Common mistakes

• Searching your product name instead of the problem. Buyers who haven’t heard of you describe the problem.
• Ignoring role communities. Many buyers never visit category communities.
• Skipping the AI check. Cited threads are where one comment can reach the most people.
• Not recording the rules. You’ll forget which community bans links.
• Never revisiting the list. A community that was great last year may have changed.

Once you have your list, our Reddit marketing for SaaS playbook shows what to do in those communities week by week.