Autodesk is a 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software developer. They provide hundreds of software products to designers and engineers. And like most software developers, they have a robust online discussion forum that allows community members to ask questions, receive support, and interact with other users and Autodesk employees.
In addition to the official Autodesk discussion forums, there are a handful of subreddits dedicated to Autodesk and there are countless mentions of Autodesk on reddit. We have seen Autodesk participate on reddit (their CEO did an AMA), but we have not seen them take an active role in engaging the reddit users that are talking about their products. An active presence on reddit would help Autodesk learn more about their users, identify user issues faster, and source high-quality feedback and ideas from users.
Marketing Opportunities on reddit for Autodesk
We have identified over a dozen subreddits that contain Autodesk’s target audience. Five of these subreddits are specifically dedicated to Autodesk and their products.
Subreddit Audiences that Autodesk should engage:
- r/3dprinting (~34k subscribers)
- r/engineering (~86k subscribers)
- r/askengineers (~39k subscribers)
- r/gamedev (~124k subscribers)
- r/cad (~6k subscribers)
- r/autocad (~2k subscribers)
- r/fabrication (~1k subscribers)
- r/digifab (~500 subscribers)
- r/inventions (~4k subscribers)
Autodesk Specific Subreddits
- r/autodesk (~400 suscribers)
- r/maya (~5k suscribers)
- r/3dsmax (~3k suscribers)
- r/revit (~1.5k suscribers)
- r/autodeskinventor (~150 subscribers)
These 14 subreddits have over 300k combined susbcribers. This is a huge audience that Autodesk could be engaging to achieve marketing, community, and business development goals.
Redditors are talking about Autodesk
There are numerous mentions of Autodesk happening everyday on reddit. A simple search of Autodesk on reddit produced pages of results. Each mention is an opportunity to learn about Autodesk users and engage them.
Here are three examples of reddit posts that Autodesk should be monitoring and possibly responding to:
Marketing Recommendations for Autodesk
We recommend Autodesk take the following actions to explore marketing opportunities on reddit:
1. Monitor reddit for mentions of Autodesk and Autodesk products. Utilize Karmalytics.co to track keywords related to the Autodesk brand. Tracking the right keywords will help Autodesk identify opportunities to engage redditors and contribute value to the community.
2. Make relevant announcements in product-specific subreddits. If a new version of Revit is released, then an Autodesk employee should be making this announcement in the r/Revit subreddit. This also gives redditors an opportunity to ask questions about the announcement so they are informed and can spread the correct messaging to others.
3. Run experimental ads on the subreddits listed above. There is a very targeted audience of potential Autodesk users in the subreddits previously mentioned. Experimental ads could be crafted for each subreddit and given a small budget to test effectiveness.
4. Top level employees at Autodesk should hold AMAs or feedback sessions in various subreddits. The AMA with CEO Carl Bass was a huge success. Other Autodesk employees should offer themselves up for questions, too. These AMAs will help spread awareness about Autodesk and they can provide valuable feedback to the Autodesk team.
5. Develop the Autodesk subreddit communities. Just like Autodesk manages their own communities, they should contribute to their subreddits. It is important that correct information is being shared and complaints about Autodesk should be heard by Autodesk employees.
TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)
Autodesk is no stranger to community management but they are ignoring a huge audience of current and potential Autodesk users on reddit. We have identified 14 subreddits that Autodesk should engage, five of which are focused specifically on Autodesk products. Autodesk should apply the same community management principles they use in their own forums to the subreddit communities. This engagement will lead to more awareness of Autodesk, a better reputation among redditors, and consistency in brand messaging.
