A Reddit AMA (or Ask Me Anything) is an online event using the website Reddit, which allows people from all over the world to ask questions and talk to experts about their work.
A Reddit AMA is a chance for you to talk to a global audience, find out what people think about your work, answer unexpected questions and share why your work is important and interesting.
We find that Reddit AMA’s work best when part of a broader event, festival or specific day. Open slots are available for the following events:
- British Science Week: 2 slots, 2-3pm any day from 10th – 19th March - all slots taken.
Get in touch with the Public Engagement Unit to register your interest
If you would like to take part in a Reddit AMA and know about another festival or event that we coincide with, please let us know. This could be a specific day, week or local / national event relating to your topic area.
How does an AMA work?
To start you need to provide a short title and description for your Reddit AMA post. This will include some information about yourself, your area of research and what kind of topic you can answer questions on. This will then be added to the reddit board by the moderators and users will post questions for you to answer.
At an agreed time, you can log into reddit and answer the questions left by users. Reddit users ‘upvote’ the most popular questions and these will appear at the top of your page. Normally researchers spend around an hour answering questions before logging off, but this can be adjusted to fit your schedule.
We've also found that returning to the AMA for half an hour the next day lets you answer any questions that came through after you left or didn't have time to answer.
This is a great opportunity to learn what parts of your research are most interesting to a public audience and understand the relevance and importance of your research as well sharing your knowledge with people from around the world.
Who is the Audience?
Reddit is divided into subreddits. These are communities based on a shared interest such as science, politics or video games. Each subreddit has its own community, guidelines and moderators.
The audience depends on which subreddit you are using; r/IAmA has 24.3 million users, mostly based in the USA with a wide variety of interests. If you are interested in reaching different audiences, you can look for different topic specific subreddits who might be interested in your research area. For example, you could try r/UKPolitics or r/Science or another subreddit related to your research.
Get involved
If you’re interested in taking part in a Reddit AMA the Public Engagement Unit can help arrange the AMA and support you to get the most out of the event. Get in touch to arrange a Reddit AMA.
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