Modding throughout the year
Subreddit activity can go up and down depending on the time of the year. Each sub will have it’s own ebb and flow, and to some extent you can learn this and to anticipate the needs of your sub and community.
Generally speaking subs may be quieter during big holidays, especially Christmas. Except of course, the Christmas/giving subs who experience the opposite! Major exam times and similar things may also reduce activity depending on the demographics of your sub.
Some subs may have national days that are related to them, which could cause spikes in activity. May the 4th for Star Wars subs, or Polar bear day on a conservation sub perhaps. In contrast TV subs overall maybe active all year, but subs about specific shows will be most active when the show is on air, and less so when it’s not.
Planning ahead
It’s worth talking to your mod team about their availability during holidays, especially if you do foresee a rise or drop in activity, so you can be prepared and have it covered. This is important too for moderators who also act as content creators.Plan some redundancy too - holidays can mean plenty of merriness and naps for mods and users alike!
You’ll get a feel for when your sub is active, and older moderators should help too. But you can also look back at your stats. You can use reddit’s traffic page for user visits, or try third party websites like RedditMetrics and Subredditstats for comments and post numbers.
Real sub examples
My (solariahues) sub r/gardenwild, being about gardening, changes with the seasons. Spring and summer are active, autumn less so, and winter is rather quiet. There isn’t much activity in the garden in winter, and the sub reflects that. By knowing the topic of the sub well enough, and planning ahead, I can try and boost engagement sometimes. For example, in autumn, it’s a typical time to plan for the following year, and buy in seeds and bulbs, so I can plan some posts around this, and near Christmas I find myself posting about what left-overs are safe for birds!
My (MFA_Nay’s) sub r/malefashionadvice is an advice forum for mens clothing. Traditionally fashion brands release their collections every autumn/winter or spring/summer and anecdotally we get more content about new stuff around those times. Plus traffic-wise we often get dips during typical college exam periods and the holidays, which then reverse during sale periods! Because we see these dips we often plan ahead. A few of our mods tend to hold back on engagement aligned content and events till it picks up, for example.
My (no-elf-and-safety) main sub is a christmas one - so that kinda explains itself!
How does your sub experience this, and what do you do to plan ahead? Let us know in comments!
Related guides:
Written by u/solariahues and u/MFA_nay
Posted Dec 6, 2019, 6:51 PM UTC