Pro-Housing Power Building: 4 Ways to Build a Pro-Housing Presence on Reddit

Guest blog written by Abundant Housing Illinois Volunteer Leader, Ben Wolfenstein.

Why focus on Reddit vs Other Social Media Platforms?

Reddit is a great place to grow your local YIMBY movement! Unlike other social media platforms, it’s designed to encourage thoughtful interaction and conversation, so it attracts users who are curious and looking to get involved IRL. Reddit conversations on housing or urbanism already exist in most cities, but few have a YIMBY-specific community.

Two years ago, I didn't have a Reddit account, and I had never really used Reddit. A couple of weeks later, I started r/chicagoyimbys because there was no housing-specific Chicago area subreddit. Since then, the subreddit has grown to over 5,000 members with relatively low effort. From this community, our YIMBY Action chapter, Abundant Housing Illinois, has substantially grown our email mailing list and membership, and it's become a critical way we share information, especially as the Twitter diaspora continues.

If you want to take your local pro-housing movement to the next level, start a local YIMBY subreddit! Check out these tips to learn how, as well as strategies from Reddit’s own Growing Your Community help page.

Tip 1: Share your new subreddit in other communities

There are already a number of highly active urbanist subreddits, some of which will be in your community or nearby. These are the users who you most want in your new YIMBY community because they are already engaged! To find them, post in one of those local subreddits or in a larger community–r/yimby, r/georgism, r/StrongTowns, etc.–announcing your new local YIMBY subreddit and asking people to join.

Tip 2: Invite power users to your subreddit

Mining popular housing posts is also a great way to quickly build your community! One option is using Reddit’s Community Invite feature to directly invite people into your community. Here’s how:

• Go to your local subreddit (e.g., r/chicago) and look for posts related to housing or new development.
• Find comments from people making YIMBY arguments.
• Invite those commenters to your new YIMBY subreddit.
• Note: It’s always good to check their profile before sending an invite to make sure they’re not an antagonistic poster.

This is how I invited the first 100 or so members of r/chicagoyimbys. But keep in mind that the feature is fickle; it’s apparently no longer available on desktop and seems to occasionally disappear on mobile.

If the Community Invite feature isn't working, you can also direct message people through the Reddit Chat. Just write a quick casual message that you can copy and paste: “Hey, join my new subreddit for pro-housing Chicago stuff r/chicagoyimbys”.

Tip 3: Crosspost to other subreddits

Often recommended by Reddit as a way to grow your community, use the Crosspost feature to share posts from your YIMBY community to other subreddits. Keep in mind:

• This strategy works best when sharing to a local community where people may be interested in local housing conversations.
• Pick crosspost content based on what will directly appeal to your target subreddit
• Only crosspost content that’s already driving engagement in your own subreddit

Tip 4: Share your subreddit in post comments

When there is a housing-related post on your city’s subreddit, add a comment tagging your YIMBY community (e.g., r/chicagoyimbys)! You can also reply to pro-housing comments with a tag of your subreddit. But be sure not to spam every post and every comment with a tag of your subreddit–that’s an easy way to get banned or create antagonism toward your community and the local YIMBY movement.

Now, You're Ready to Get Started!

No matter which tactic you choose, just remember to stay consistent–the more you engage, the more your community will grow. And don’t be discouraged if you start small. That’s how every great movement begins. See you on Reddit!