Reddit is a social news aggregation site where users can post links and discuss various topics. It has grown to become a large online community with top subreddits including funny, pics, announcements and AskReddit. Users can gain karma points for popular posts and comments. LinkedIn is a professional networking site used to maintain business contacts and find jobs. Users create profiles similar to resumes and can join groups to expand their professional network. Both sites allow users to vote on content to determine visibility.

2. REDDIT – “THE FRONT PAGE OF THE INTERNET”
- Founded as a Social News Aggregator, but has grown to become a
massive online community sharing links and stories of all kinds
- Users post links of cool, interesting, funny, important things found on the
web
- Examples: images, news, videos, music, blog posts, creative works, etc.
- Users can also create “self-posts” for discussion with the reddit
community
- Very active commenting
- “Sub-Reddits” are streams of content grouped under a specific theme
- Top 10 Subreddits (by number of subscribers): funny, pics,
announcements, blog, AskReddit, worldnews, gaming, todayilearned,
politics and WTF

3. REDDIT – HOW TO GET STARTED
- Use either as a registered user or as a “lurker” (non-registered)
- Registering is free. You do not need an email or another social account
to register
- You will be defaulted to seeing the top sub-reddits on the homepage
- Only registered users can subscribe to sub-reddits and vote on posts,
but anyone can see all posts
- You do not have an official profile on reddit – you can be totally
anonymous
- Click on posts that interest you

4. REDDIT – VOTING & KARMA
- Reddit is the only social site that gives you karma!
- Users get karma for creating posts or comments based on reddit’s
voting system
- Based on reddit etiquette (“reddiquette”), you should upvote comments
that add value to the and downvote comments that don’t add value to
the conversation conversation (but in reality, people upvote what they
like, agree with, or think is funny)
- Content/Posts get promoted to the top of the page (gaining more
visibility) by getting upvotes
- There are two kinds of karma: link karma (for posting links) and
comment karma (for just replying in comments). Link karma is
considered more valuable

5. WHAT MAKES REDDIT UNIQUE
- ability to mobilize a large and actively engaged community to achieve
goals, such as donating money or raise awareness about issues
- Reddit is a community unto itself. Users are called “Redditors” and
have their own culture, values, history, and even Reddit “Celebrities”
- AMA subreddit – Ask Me Anything has become a hub for live celebrity
interviews
Some cool things:
- Largest Secret Santa gift exchange
- One Redditor sold a movie script to Warner Brothers based on an idea
he posted in a Reddit thread (Rome, Sweet Rome)

6. DRAWBACKS
- “Karma-whoring” – people who post things that are untrue, or repost
earlier links just to gain vote karma
- Spam – but reddit has a good filter
- Quality of comment discussion (often based on memes and in-jokes,
not always generating valuable conversation)
- Quality/Accuracy of information and mob mentality
- Enormous growth and increase in low quality content has caused
original users to be disenchanted

7. REDDIT – HOW TO IMPROVE IT
- Stop tracking karma to improve the quality of discussion?
- Continue active moderating and promoting “Redditquette” to new users

8. LINKEDIN – WORLD’S LARGEST PROFESSIONAL
NETWORK
- LinkedIn is a professional social networking site to keep track of your
professional contacts, follow companies you are interested in, and post
an online resume
- It’s a digital rolodex, but so much more
- Often used by HR recruiters to find potential candidates
- One of the most financially successful social networking sites

9. LINKEDIN – HOW TO GET STARTED
- You can sign up for a free or premium account (gives more access)
- You are expected to provide quite a bit of information about your
professional life and set up a profile (like a resume)
- You can make posts on LinkedIn and sync them to Facebook or Twitter
if you want
- You can look up people in your professional network and add them as
“Connections” – you have the option to synchronize it with your email
contacts

10. LINKEDIN – GETTING THE MOST OUT OF IT
- LinkedIn will frequently remind you to optimize your profile by making it
complete with : work experience, skills, education, recommendations,
and more
- Optimizing your profile makes it easier for people (i.e. recruiters) to find
you in searches
- You can also join Groups (like forums) and make posts to gain influence
- The “Answers” tool lets you ask/answer questions to show off your
expertise to the professional community
- Some companies do post jobs that you can apply to via LinkedIn

11. LINKEDIN - DISADVANTAGES
- People you don’t know often try to “Connect” – are they spam accounts?
- You are judged by your professional network
- Not totally mainstream in terms of job applications
- Not easy to upload contacts through a secure email server (like your
company’s)

12. LINKEDIN – HOW TO IMPROVE
- Make it easier to upload contacts from company’s email servers
- More job postings