Diving into Spurs' first year on Reddit

By my reckoning, Tottenham Hotspur are the only English football team to maintain an active presence on Reddit.

I've covered Serie A's presence previously (tl;dr it's not very good). But as more clubs - and leagues - are beginning to explore it seriously, it feels like a good time to take a look at how Spurs have used their account since joining last summer.

The soft launch

Unlike Serie A's statements and announcements, Spurs' beginnings were incredibly low-key. They looked at the r/coys subreddit, saw people posting the announcement about their new kit, and used that as their way in.

You can see from the comment underneath how much of a shock this was at the time.

This is one of the main things to understand with Reddit: it's not a space you own. Subreddits for clubs will have existed long before you get involved - the Spurs one was set up in 2010, for example - so you have to lean into the conversations and pick your moments.

Use native formats

Reddit's main strength is its community. And they love seeing content that exists only on Reddit.

AMAs (Ask Me Anythings) are a good way to add value to the existing communities. These are events where people submit questions in advance and you get someone to answer them.

In Spurs' case they've hosted two of these so far. One with two current players, and one with an ex-player ahead of a legends game.

In both cases the team set aside some time to sit down with the players and respond to questions.

But it doesn't have to be players. Good AMAs just need to be held with someone with a story to tell - this could be groundstaff, the ticket office, or the marketing team. The beauty of a Subreddit is you've got a pre-existing community of passionate fans. You can go deep.

Speak the language

You're on Reddit. People are there mainly to be entertained. Join in. Share the fans' voice. It's what the Spurs account does well. It keeps an eye on what's going on and, when appropriate, jumps in.

In this case, they knew what comments had been made and revisited it when the time was right.

It's also a good place for memes and in-jokes. The fans are creating them anyway, you might as well get involved.

Keep your eyes open

I've mentioned a few times that Reddit is a community. And the good thing about communities is that people share their stories in them.

In this case, the Spurs team spotted that someone was looking for a contact at the club to help celebrate their grandfather's 100th birthday.

This is a more basic example, but it's the kind of thing you can find out and use for further content if you're paying attention. You can imagine finding out about fans' stories here and the potential to move those to other channels and explore them further.

And that's Reddit. I feel like the next 12 months are going to be big on the platform. I already know of a few clubs and leagues across Europe who are in talks with the platform with an eye on joining ahead of the season starting in August.