You Can't Game Reddit, So Start With Your Experts

Hi, it's Chris.

Last Tuesday in Loop Marketing and AEO, an attendee asked how to start a Reddit strategy for AEO from scratch. Casey Hawkins started with something worth remembering:

"The good thing about Reddit is you don't have to come up with the topics yourselves. They're already there."

People are already asking the questions. The challenge is getting the people who know the answers into those conversations.

Casey walked through how marketing can help: identify your experts, find relevant threads, and bring the right person into the conversation. My emphasis was on how we show up. Be helpful. Answer the question. Don’t turn it into a pitch.

That’s where I’d start.

Why You Can’t Plan This Like Other Channels

Casey described Reddit as "much more reactionary." You’re responding to questions people are already asking, rather than deciding what you want to publish and hoping it starts a conversation.

"There's no way to game Reddit, period."

I’ve been on the receiving end of that pushback. Even when a link answers the question, people may challenge whether you’re there to help or promote yourself. You need to be ready for the conversation, not just drop the link.

"If you've got the answer to the question and it's on your website, you will win over time, because you actually have the answer to the question."

Measuring how that participation connects to AEO and business is still hard. We didn’t leave the session with a proven formula for that. We did have a practical place to start: "just show up and be helpful."

Step One: Name Your Experts

Casey gave us a useful question: "If you were hosting a webinar, who internally would you have speak at that webinar?"

Start with those people. Often they’re delivering the solutions. Sometimes they’re on the sales team, talking with people about the problem every day. The bigger the organization, the harder it can be to name who should answer.

Then ask them. Don’t decide they won’t participate before you’ve had the conversation.

"I would just be careful not to make assumptions about what people are or are not willing to do," especially when the old ways aren’t working as well as they used to.

Think about an in-person event. If someone asked a question and your expert was standing beside you, you’d bring them into the conversation. Reddit asks us to build that habit in a different place.

Step Two: Let Marketing Watch the Threads

Your experts don’t have to spend their day watching Reddit. Casey described how marketing can help:

"You find a thread that is relevant. You Slack that to whoever would be best to speak to that," and that person writes the reply.

"You're not asking them to monitor Reddit constantly."

Find the conversation. Help the person with the expertise get into it. Once they’ve started, they may want to check in themselves. Answering a question you know how to answer can be enjoyable.

Marketing can contribute directly, too. I suggested sharing "links to subject matter expertise content like videos" when they answer the question being asked. The same principle applies: "avoid self-promotion at all costs," and be ready for pushback if your answer reads like a pitch.

If Your Experts Won’t Post Yet

Casey offered another way to begin: use Reddit to find the questions people are asking, then build answers in a format your organization is already comfortable with.

"If it works better for your organization today to build out blogs on that from the marketing side, that's a fine baby step."

She thought I’d disagree. I didn’t.

"It's super, super hard. No ifs, ands or buts about that."

Getting people comfortable showing up in a new place takes work. A blog post answering a real question gives you somewhere to start. Bring the answer back to the thread and listen to the response. If it doesn’t add enough value, people will tell you.

And if your experts are willing to answer those questions on video, do that. Let people hear the expertise directly. Marketing has something useful to share, and AI has something to find.

Make It Easier to Bring the Right Person In

Seeing a relevant question is only useful if we can do something with it. That’s a conversation for the marketing and sales leaders, not just another email sequence.

"Hey, you know how if this were at an event, I would just bring you over?"

Agree on which questions call for that introduction, and how marketing will help the person answering.

"Do we agree that this keyword or this phrase or this question is a high indicator of likely success? If yes, let's not let the systems get in our way."

Give them the context, links and tools to participate. Learn from what happens. The point is to support the conversation, not send someone into an unfamiliar place alone.

Be specific when you ask AI for help, too. Tell it you’re working on Reddit participation. Otherwise, it can steer you back toward an email campaign.

Casey said late in the discussion, "I didn't expect to talk about Reddit today, actually. So, I'm happy you asked the question."

So am I.

The session summary and takeaways are open to everyone: https://www.hubsessed.io/office-hours/loop-marketing-and-aeo/2026-10-20 . The replay is for signed-in subscribers.

Try This Before the Next Session

Start with a real question someone is already asking.

1. Find a relevant Reddit conversation about a problem your team knows how to solve.

2. Identify who could give a useful answer. Casey’s webinar question is a good place to start.

3. Share the thread with that person and ask how they’d respond. Help them get comfortable participating.

4. If posting there is too much for now, start with an answer on your site or on video. Bring it into the conversation when it genuinely helps.

5. Pay attention to the response. Questions and pushback can show you what to explain better next time.

You don’t have to figure out the entire strategy before you participate.

Updates from last week worth your attention

Breeze can do more from Slack

Breeze in Slack can now update records, enroll them in workflows and log calls from a thread, with a confirmation card for bulk actions. This update is live across all tiers.

Joshua Oakes flagged an important unknown: the update doesn’t explicitly explain permissions. His expectation is that existing user permissions apply, but that’s an interpretation, not a confirmed detail.

Before using it for bulk reassignments or workflow enrollment, make your territory and ownership rules clear in Breeze’s context.

https://anotherorangemorning.com/hubspot-updates/use-breeze-assistant-in-slack-to-update-records

Clean up saved views without guessing

HubSpot is rolling out usage visibility, bulk deletion and self-service restoration for saved CRM views across all hubs and tiers. It’s live, but rolling out slowly; the portal on the show didn’t have it yet.

You can see when a view was last used and restore a deleted view within 90 days. Find it under Object Settings > Index Customization.

Joshua described a portal with more than two hundred deal views, only around twenty of which were used. That’s a good reason to look. But usage tracking only began March 24, 2026, so check what “No data” means before treating it as “nobody uses this.”

https://anotherorangemorning.com/hubspot-updates/bulk-delete-and-restore-for-crm-index-views

Try HubSpot’s video recording before adding another tool

Video recording is live for Content and Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise. You can record and insert personalized videos or screen recordings in CRM email, Help Desk and Conversations. The videos and transcripts go into HubSpot’s video library.

That crosses team boundaries. The availability is in Content and Marketing Hub, while some of the people using it may work in sales or service. Have that conversation before assuming everyone has what they need.

Zach Hussion suggested it might be enough to replace a separate recording tool. The share pages were also redesigned this month, with a title, chapters and a searchable transcript alongside the player.

Test that experience before you cancel anything.

https://anotherorangemorning.com/hubspot-updates/video-recording-in-crm-help-desk-and-conversations

Last week brought 53 updates, with 41 added on October 21. These three are a starting point, not the whole list.

We work through the updates live on Another Orange Morning. You can explore the rest here: https://anotherorangemorning.com/hubspot-updates

- Chris