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<h2>Some things you probably already knew about the weed smoking community</h2>

There are a lot of things we can learn from social media. Most of the time, nobody pays attention to some of the biggest trends until it's too late. Cannabis is an obvious example of this. It was taboo and forbidden to talk about because it was illegal. It existed in the shadows until it didn’t. Now it's mainstream, spoken about openly, and enjoying legalization across 21 states in the US.&nbsp; Now, there exists a place on the internet, a magical place, called r/trees. For those who don’t know, it’s “The go-to subreddit for anything and everything cannabis. From MMJ to munchies, from nugs to news, and everything in between! The casual cannabis community.”&nbsp;It is also home of the ents (the name of tree-like mythical beings from the Lord of the Rings). Using CulturePulse’s <a href="https://www.culturepulse.ai/lexicon/digital-twin" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">digital twin</a> technology, Pythia, we wanted to provide a better understanding of this community of over 1.7M+ redditors. So that’s what we did. The first thing that we were interested in was what kind of themes do people on r/trees like to talk about? What we found was that, overwhelmingly, they like to talk about things they do in their spare time. What we didn’t expect was how overwhelming that was.

Effectively, what we see here is that the number one thing that people on r/trees are discussing is their free time. The second most important thing they’re discussing? Work, and then achievements. This is fascinating because, on the one hand, it confirms what you’d expect about the online stoner, but on the other hand, the prevalence of work themes and achievements seems to be out of character.

From there, we can also look at what the focus is on most posts: past, present, or future. What we see is that, overwhelmingly, r/trees lives in the present moment; known effects of cannabis on memory notwithstanding, this focus on the present isn’t necessarily a given. While there is a lot of discussion on the past, likely due to the sharing of personal stories (common in online communities like subreddits), there isn’t a lot of focus on the future. This isn’t just inherently interesting, it's also interesting because, as many political initiatives look toward a future where cannabis is legal, the role of online subcommunities such as r/trees, which could be mobilized to great impact, seems to be overlooked.

One of the other things we can get from Pythia is what kind of linguistic tendencies can be found in the posts. Generally, you don’t see terms of negation (like “not”, “never”, etc.) as often as you see terms of Assention, or assenting (“okay”, “yes”, “I agree”, etc.). You also see a large amount of quantified and numerical talk; at first, this may seem unexpected for a group not associated with science on the outside to have a linguistic signature not so different from a chemist. Then you can consider how often posts discussing a specific level of THC or a specific measure of grams or ounces would trigger Pythia’s key dictionaries. Effectively, what we’re seeing isn’t the signature of a group of delinquents and deadbeats. What we’re finding is the signature of a generally agreeable group of people having rather measured discussions about current affairs (personal though they may be), that they’re engaging in during their own time.

Montage of marijuana leaves on a field of green

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Seeing the Forest for r/trees

Consider this: Twitter is a monoculture; Facebook is two monocultures arguing; and Reddit has culture. Each major social media platform has a personality of its own. Now, discuss!

<h2>Each social media platform has a distinct personality</h2> Seriously, though, people come from all corners of the earth and the internet to meet on social media and share their experiences, express their opinions, reconnect with old friends, stay connected with new ones, and more. And, yes, more frequently than not, people argue, disagree, and hate on each other — no matter the social media platform — because that's what we do. We're only human, after all. What sets Reddit apart from platforms like Facebook and Twitter is its personality type. While you could say that Facebook's and Twitter's respective personalities frequently "are going through some stuff right now" or "having an off day," Reddit and Redditors have already arrived and are comfortable in their own skin because of how it's structured and who its users are. How so? Let's look at the data on Reddit’s personality.

<h2>Reddit by numbers</h2> First, the standard stuff. What we see regarding agreeableness and neuroticism is normal from what we see elsewhere on social media. We often see low agreeableness. It's rare even to see positive agreeableness in CulturePulse studies. There are even very few subreddits with net positivity and agreeableness. With neuroticism, you also often see net negativity consistently across social media. So far, Reddit is on par with the other major platforms for this kind of sentiment analysis. However, Reddit really stands out with the orders-of-magnitude-higher-level extroversion over the other positive traits of openness and conscientiousness, meaning Redditors are willing to engage with others and meet people where they are from a personality standpoint. Furthermore, despite the high levels of negativity and neuroticism, Reddit's high level of conscientiousness creates an even-handed and mathematically balanced sense of community across the platform. What's also interesting is the low level of openness. Because Reddit is a system of subreddits, users can directly find their community and tribe or even create one. Reddit users are most likely open in their real lives and would already feel at home in a subreddit because the platform fosters a sense of comfort and safety within its chosen communities. You don’t need to worry about what people will say, type, or think if you’re wearing your pajamas while cursing the darkness. Or lighting a candle.

<h2>Take a step back and enjoy the space that’s Reddit</h2> Sure. Reddit might not be your cuppa. But have you ever checked out r/popular and wondered where all that cool, wild, crazy, and heartwarming stuff came from? It came from open-minded, conscientious, and extroverted people with a certain amount of negative agreeableness and neuroticism who have a safe place for you to hang out if you’re ever interested.

Blog titie: Reddit has a personality? Yes, it does!

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Reddit Has a Personality? Yes, It Does!

Why do people in r/parenting have such a strong dislike for babies? One of our partner agencies found out with CulturePulse. This particular agency partner had a client that wanted to run paid advertising to sell baby products to the Reddit r/parenting community. While this kind of client request that targets parents isn’t common for our agency partner, it’s not uncommon either.

<h2>Reddit is the platform advertisers want to crack</h2> With Reddit’s 52M daily active users, 430M monthly visitors, and 130K communities, advertisers want to convert their target audience. Still, they often struggle to see a positive return on ad spend because of their inability to create resonant messaging. So, how do you connect with your target audience? Especially for baby products on r/parenting when you’re unaware of the community’s sentiments or insights?

<h2>Take the plunge with an r/parenting deep dive via CulturePulse</h2> Our agency partner used CulturePulse to gain community insights and learn about existing positive and negative sentiments present in r/parenting. After doing due diligence on babies, parenting, sleep, and everything else, our agency partner, looked at the topic modal (see above) for r/parenting in CulturePulse and discovered an interesting trend: negative sentiment about babies and the year! Perish the thought, but there it is. Next, our agency partner dug deeper to learn what all the fuss was about. Because once you know what’s important to your audience, you can make your messaging resonate with them.Dear reader, we discovered that parents are tired. Whether dealing with a one-month old or a one-year old, parents out there and their children are sleep-deprived in r/parenting and they’re talking about it. It seems like once kids pass that year mark and are sleeping well, positive sentiment abounds.

We also can see in the Market Audience Analysis that r/parenting users are most likely to be product buyers, which is one hundred percent higher than other predictive behaviors.

Now that we know what’s most on the minds of r/parenting users, we can use it to make sure our messages resonate by measuring their <a href="https://www.culturepulse.ai/lexicon/resonance-score" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Resonance Scores</a> in a CulturePulse r/parenting <a href="https://www.culturepulse.ai/lexicon/digital-twin" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">digital twin</a> before we go live.&nbsp; <h2>What ads scored highest?</h2> Before our agency partner used CulturePulse to gain insight into the r/parenting community, they wrote a sample ad. After doing the deep dive, they wrote another one taking into consideration the insights they learned. They wrote lots, actually, but A below is something the partner agency wrote before they had Topic, Market, and Community analysis. B is what they wrote after. Admittedly, 20 isn’t bad. However, this partner agency never goes live with anything under 15. But, with the community analysis in hand, this agency was able to speak to the negativity and scored a 26, which is the highest Resonance Score they’ve ever achieved using a CulturePulse digital twin.

<h2>Now, it’s your turn</h2> For your next Reddit advertising campaign, don’t guess what messages will resonate within your targeted community. Know which messages will. CulturePulse is the only place where you can measure twice and publish once. Tweak your messaging as much as you want before you publish to your real audience. You can even get started for <a href="https://app.culturepulse.ai/auth/register" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">free</a>.

Topics with the highest sentiment in r/parenting

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Parenting Pains on r/parenting

In today's flourishing social media landscape, it can be challenging to understand where to engage your audience. Because of the vast array of social media platforms, you have almost unlimited choices where you can post messages. Therefore, it's crucial to understand that not all social media platforms are the same, especially the algorithms under their respective hoods. Different platforms resonate with different demographics: TikTok and Instagram are more popular with younger buyers, while Facebook is more popular with an older audience.

<h2>Algorithms, rankings, and social media, oh my!</h2> However, the differences between platforms are considerably more than the general demographics of their user base. The algorithms that underlie each platform can seriously affect how your marketing messages are amplified. For example, we learned in 2021 that Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram AI algorithms are fueled by aspects of negative emotion, like outrage or anxiety; responding with a negative emoji was weighted more than responding with a like. Consider Reddit, one of the largest and fastest-growing platforms for businesses, with 52M daily active users. For users who want to engage on Reddit, Reddit uses the "<a href="https://medium.com/hacking-and-gonzo/how-reddit-ranking-algorithms-work-ef111e33d0d9" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">hot algorithm</a>," which is based on different machine learning principles than Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram but ranks on particular aspects of engagement. The differences between platforms don't stop with their algorithms; platform structure varies too. For example, Twitter is very much an open forum: user tweets are essentially microblogs for any other user to see and read. On Facebook, user posts are typically seen by friends or people looking for you, not by people with whom you share no connection.

<h2>Reddit segments its audiences for you</h2> Why is there so much opportunity for advertisers on Reddit? Reddit's most valuable asset isn't the individual user; it's the communities. Within Reddit are several thousand active user communities called subreddits. Each subreddit is somatically organized based on a common interest. Because of this, you can directly advertise to a market that shares a common interest in your brand or product without relying on microtargeting like you would on Facebook. Reddit's users have already cell selected their community. You don't have to seek them out the same way you would on Twitter or Facebook. Another advantage of Reddit’s segmentation is CulturePulse’s ability to create <a href="https://www.culturepulse.ai/lexicon/multi-agent-ai" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">Multi-Agent AI</a> (MAAI) <a href="https://www.culturepulse.ai/lexicon/digital-twin" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">digital twins</a> of subreddits with psychologically realistic capabilities and beliefs. This allows for safely testing messaging against the twinned target audience before publishing, helping you keep your market, brand, and conversation on your side.

<h2>TikTok you don't stop. Or do you?</h2>&nbsp;Another growing platform is TikTok. And the kids and just about everyone else love it. TikTok is a social media platform owned and invested in by the Chinese government, and its algorithms and data protection are unknown and, when they are known, highly suspect. In the summer of 2022, it became clear that the Chinese government was accessing international user data from users outside of China, including Americans and, it appears, Europeans. What's more, we don't know exactly how the algorithms work inside TikTok. However, we do know that TikTok is different for those in China than it is for users in the rest of the world. This suggests that the algorithms are different depending on the geolocation of TikTok's actual users. While this creates different security and suspicious patterns within the platform itself, it's difficult to advertise on TikTok.&nbsp;Its core algorithms show increased engagement on specific geopolitical concepts and trends concepts and trends that aren't related to user engagement the way they would be on other platforms. Going viral on TikTok doesn't happen the way it would on Twitter, Facebook, or Reddit.

<h2>Align your brand to the right platform — including the new ones</h2> From a branding perspective, you need to decide whether or not your brand aligns with the values of the platform that you're using. For example, consider Truth Social, the social media platform owned by former President Donald Trump. For many brands, particularly those with more social justice or left-wing values, advertising on True Social will be counterintuitive: it's not their market or the platform where their message will be amplified. Conversely, a conservative company advertising on a platform like Twitter could face a great many obstacles. Twitter's user base is extremely frustrated because of the content moderation processes that they feel go against the conservative value system. Because of this, many conservative users don't engage, and if they do, it's mostly trolling (more on trolling later).

<h2>The appeal of new platforms like Minds</h2> There are other lesser-known platforms that you can advertise on, too. Think of these as the wild west of social media. Many new platforms like Minds, GETTR, Truth Social, and others do not have paid, targeted advertising tools. Traction has to come the old-fashioned way, organically, because the tools you would use for Facebook or Twitter don't exist.&nbsp; Minds, one of the newer platforms, has the most advanced advertising tool called Boost. Boosting a post is the same as adding algorithmic reach. However, Boost promotes your content on other active network channels instead of organic reach to your subscribers and followers. What's equally interesting is that you can pay for a Boost with Mind's native cryptocurrency — an erc20 Ethereum token — or cash.&nbsp; The founder(s) of these non-mainstream social media platforms, like Minds, wanted to promote free speech and debate in an open online society, something not offered by large, mainstream platforms. Also, many of these alternative sites only deplatform and ban users if users engage in illegal conduct on the platform itself. Because of this, free speech sites like Minds are popular alternatives for users banned from Twitter or Facebook.&nbsp; Because of this, from a branding and advertising perspective, these newer social media services can act as double-edged swords. On the one hand, you need to keep an eye out for unwelcome people you don't want associating with your brand. On the other hand, these newer platforms have extremely loyal user bases that engage with just about any content. So naturally, you need to beware of what you put out there and where. If you engage your audience unfamiliarly, you could open your brand — and yourself — to ridicule and trolls.

<h2>What about trolls?</h2> Trolls are problematic on any platform. While many platforms actively try to get rid of trolls, the difference between a bot troll, a troll controlled by a central actor solely there to sew chaos, and a troll who saw an opportunity to make a joke, is difficult to discern. Regardless, focusing on the signal is paramount instead of getting distracted by the noise. Trolls are relatively few and far between. Most people use social media to stay in touch with friends and family, interact with brands and individuals, and sometimes gain personal notoriety for their thoughts and posts. Because of this, you can ignore trolls unless they take over your conversation. In this case, you need to be proactive and understand the key concerns, values, and culture behind your market and engage on that level. This is essential to ensure your conversation and your market are on your side, no matter your platform of choice.

<h2>So, what platform is right for your brand?</h2> Ultimately, it’s your decision what platform you choose to showcase your brand, but now you have more info to help you make the best choice. If you decide to market on Reddit, measure twice and publish once with a digital twin after you <a href="https://app.culturepulse.ai/auth/register" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">create a free account</a> on CulturePulse. Are you looking for a deeper dive into something other than Reddit? We can help with that, too. Let us know what you need at <a href="https://culturepulsebackend.azurewebsites.net/admin/content-manager/collectionType/api::page.page/hello@culturepulse.ai" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">hello@culturepulse.ai</a>. *Photo credit goes to https://makeawebsitehub.com via <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">(CC BY 2.0)</a> No changes were made.

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Seeing the Forest for r/trees

Justin E. Lane

Some things you probably already knew about the weed smoking community

Reddit Has a Personality? Yes, It Does!

Parenting Pains on r/parenting

Which Social Media Platform Is Right for Your Brand?

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