Reddit gets cited by AI more than major news sites - is anyone else optimizing their social strategy for this?

Been doing Reddit marketing for 5 years. The AI angle is a game-changer.

Why Reddit dominates AI citations:

1. Authentic discussions - AI can synthesize multiple perspectives
2. Structured Q&A format - Easy for AI to extract answers
3. Community validation - Upvotes signal quality information
4. Real experiences - Not marketing speak

What we’ve changed:

We now have dedicated team members participating in relevant subreddits - NOT to shill our product, but to genuinely help and be part of discussions.

The results:

• Our founder’s Reddit comments get cited in ChatGPT responses
• Industry subreddits where we’re active drive brand visibility
• Product mentions in recommendation threads appear in AI answers

Critical warning: Reddit hates self-promotion. Get banned and you lose this channel forever. Authenticity is non-negotiable.

Small business owner here. This thread is gold.

Our experience:

We’re a pizza place in North Vancouver. When people ask AI “best pizza in North Van,” we started showing up after focusing on:

1. Geo-tagging everything - Location on every post
2. Encouraging customer tags - “Tag us in your pizza pics!”
3. Local hashtags - #NorthVan #NorthVancouverEats
4. Reddit presence - Active in r/vancouver food threads

The thing that really worked:

We got featured in a local blog’s “Top 10 Pizza Spots” list. That post got shared on Reddit. Now AI cites that thread when people ask about local pizza.

The formula: Social engagement → Local content creation → Reddit discussion → AI citations

It’s a pipeline, not a one-time thing.

Let me break down the mechanics:

How AI systems use social media:

The key insight:

AI doesn’t just index your content - it indexes what people say ABOUT you.

User-generated content mentioning your brand creates a distributed trust signal. When 50 people on Reddit recommend your product, AI aggregates that into a recommendation.

Practical application:

• Encourage reviews and discussions (authentically)
• Participate in relevant communities
• Create content that answers questions people ask AI

I specialize in social listening. Here’s the new layer we’re adding:

Traditional social listening:

• Brand mentions
• Sentiment analysis
• Share of voice

AI-aware social listening:

• Which mentions get cited in AI?
• What conversations drive AI recommendations?
• How is AI describing our brand?

Tools we use:

• Am I Cited for AI citation tracking
• Traditional social listening tools for volume
• Manual prompt testing across platforms

The gap we found:

High social mentions ≠ high AI citations

Some brands with massive social presence barely appear in AI responses. Others with smaller but more topically relevant discussions dominate AI answers.

Quality and relevance beat volume.

YouTube angle here - often overlooked for AI visibility.

What I’ve noticed:

My tutorial videos get cited in AI responses, especially for “how to” queries. Google AI Overviews particularly loves YouTube content.

What makes videos citable:

• Clear titles that match query patterns
• Timestamps/chapters (AI can reference specific sections)
• Transcript availability
• Comprehensive descriptions

My stats:

• 2.5M subscribers
• ~20% of relevant AI queries about my topics cite my videos
• Perplexity links directly to specific video timestamps

The underrated play:

Create YouTube content that answers common questions in your industry. Even if views are low, AI will find and cite it.

Managing online communities across platforms. The AI visibility thing is changing my job.

What I now prioritize:

1. Quality discussions over activity metrics

   • Deep threads > lots of shallow posts
   • Substantive answers > quick reactions

2. Question-answer formatting

   • Encourage community members to answer in complete thoughts
   • Structure FAQs and resources clearly

3. Cross-platform consistency

   • Same messaging across Reddit, Discord, LinkedIn
   • AI sees patterns across platforms

The authenticity problem:

You can’t fake community engagement for AI. Systems detect manufactured discussions. The only way is genuine participation.

We shifted from “post and pray” to “engage and educate.” AI rewards the second approach.

Influencer marketing perspective:

The old ROI: Reach and engagement The new ROI: AI visibility and citation

We’re now evaluating influencers partly on whether their content gets picked up by AI systems.

What we look for:

• Do they create educational content?
• Are they active in communities AI indexes?
• Is their content structured for AI extraction?

Case study:

Micro-influencer (50K followers) on Reddit who genuinely uses our product. Her recommendations get cited in AI responses for product queries.

Macro-influencer (2M followers) on Instagram only. Zero AI visibility.

The Reddit micro-influencer delivers more AI-attributed traffic than the Instagram macro-influencer.

Engagement ≠ AI influence.

I work at the intersection of SEO and social. Here’s the unified framework:

The AI visibility ecosystem:

Website → Social Media → Third-party Content → AI Systems
    ↓          ↓              ↓                   ↓
 On-site    Community      Reviews/Press     AI Responses
  SEO       Engagement      Coverage         to Users

All paths lead to AI now.

Your website content, social presence, and third-party mentions all feed AI systems. They triangulate information from multiple sources.

The optimization priority:

1. Ensure consistency across all channels
2. Create content that answers real questions
3. Encourage authentic third-party discussions
4. Monitor how AI synthesizes everything

Am I Cited helps track the final output. But the inputs come from everywhere.

Incredible insights from everyone. Here’s my synthesis:

The new social media AI playbook:

Platform priorities:

1. Reddit - Authentic community participation (highest AI citation rate)
2. LinkedIn - B2B thought leadership and company info
3. YouTube - Tutorial and educational content
4. Others - Lower AI visibility but still valuable for engagement

Content that gets cited:

• Authentic discussions and recommendations
• Educational content that answers questions
• User-generated content mentioning your brand
• Structured company information

What doesn’t work:

• Self-promotional posts
• Manufactured engagement
• Shallow content
• Inconsistent brand messaging

Action items for our team:

1. Reddit strategy - genuine participation in relevant subreddits
2. LinkedIn optimization - treat company page like a landing page
3. UGC program - encourage customers to share and tag
4. AI monitoring - set up tracking for citation patterns

The 6.6% Reddit citation rate from Perplexity is too significant to ignore. Social media is now an AI visibility channel, not just engagement.