The 'What Tool Do You Use' Threads Are Gold Mines. Here's How to Get Mentioned.

Someone on r/marketing just asked “What do you use for social media scheduling?” That thread will get 50 replies, be read by 5,000 people, and eventually train ChatGPT’s recommendations for that category.

Is your product going to be mentioned?

Tool recommendation threads are disproportionately valuable. They represent active buying intent. They create lasting search-visible content. And they feed the AI systems that increasingly drive software discovery.

Why These Threads Matter

Tool threads matter more than other Reddit content because:

High intent: The poster is actively looking for solutions. Readers often are too.

Persistent visibility: These threads rank in Google for “best [category] reddit” searches for years.

LLM training value: AI assistants cite Reddit tool discussions when making recommendations.

Social proof: Upvoted mentions create credible endorsements that influence future readers.

Finding Tool Threads

Active Monitoring

Set up monitoring for new threads:

Reddit search: Search your category terms weekly. Sort by new.

Google Alerts: Set alerts for “site:reddit.com [your category] recommendation”

Monitoring tools: Services like F5Bot send notifications when keywords appear on Reddit.

Where They Appear

Common subreddits for tool recommendations:

• r/SaaS
• r/startups
• r/entrepreneur
• r/marketing
• r/sales
• r/webdev
• Industry-specific subreddits

Also watch for cross-posts. A tool thread in r/marketing might get cross-posted to r/PPC or r/SEO.

Timing Matters

Early comments on tool threads get more visibility. Comments made within the first few hours get upvoted alongside the thread. Late comments get buried.

Check your target subreddits daily, or set up notifications.

Participating Legitimately

Getting Others to Mention You

The best scenario is when genuine users recommend your product. This is more credible and doesn’t require your direct participation.

Enable Customer Advocacy

Make it easy for happy customers to talk about you:

• Ask customers which subreddits they use
• Send post-success reminders that they can share their experience
• Feature customer stories that they might want to expand on publicly

Don’t incentivize Reddit posts directly (violates TOS), but organic customer enthusiasm is powerful.

Create Advocates Through Support

Exceptional customer support creates advocates. Users who feel genuinely helped become organic promoters. They’ll mention you in threads without being asked.

Build Word of Mouth

Products people love get discussed. Products that merely function don’t. The best Reddit marketing is building something worth talking about. PLG companies have a natural advantage here because free tiers let users recommend from genuine experience.

Comment Templates That Work

For Balanced Recommendations

“We’ve tested several options for [use case]. Here’s what I’ve found:

[Product A] - Good for [use case], pricing around $X/mo. Main strength is [feature]. Weakness is [limitation].

[Product B] - Better for [different use case]. More expensive but [benefit].

[Your Product] - Full disclosure: I work here. We built it specifically for [specific need]. Works well for [specific customer], less ideal for [different need].

[Product C] - Worth looking at if [specific situation].

Happy to answer questions about any of these.”

For Experience Sharing

“We switched from [Competitor] to [Your Product] about 6 months ago for our [team size] team.

What we like: [specific benefit], [specific feature], [specific improvement]

What we miss: [honest limitation], [feature gap]

Overall it’s been worth it for us because [specific reason]. Might not be right if you need [specific thing] though.

[Disclosure if employee]”

For Specific Expertise

“I’ve been in [industry] for X years and have tried most tools in this space.

For [specific use case], honestly [Product A] is best. But if you need [specific thing], look at [Product B].

For context, I now work at [Your Product], which we built specifically for [different specific use case]. Not always the right fit for everyone, but worth evaluating if [specific criteria].

What’s your specific setup? Might be able to give more targeted advice.”

What Not to Do

Don’t create threads asking about your own product. “Has anyone used [Your Product]?” from a new account is transparent manipulation.

Don’t coordinate multiple accounts. Several employees replying to the same thread looks like astroturfing and can get everyone banned.

Don’t upvote your own mentions. Vote manipulation detection is sophisticated. Not worth the risk.

Don’t only mention your product. Comments that ignore the question to push your product get downvoted and reported.