Why Reddit is an overlooked opportunity for health and pharma social.

First, a quick but important disclaimer: I don't believe AI has killed search and SEO. This isn’t a doomsday pitch. It’s a look at what’s shifting when it comes to Reddit specifically and how brands can adapt, not overreact. Got it? Great. Let’s go.

If health and pharma brands think Reddit is still just a corner of the internet for memes and niche fandoms, they’re missing the plot – and the patients.

Reddit has become a popular space for peer-led health dialogue, offering candid, experience-driven conversations that are often missing from traditional channels. Anonymity makes it easier to ask the awkward, emotional or "is this normal?" health questions (you know the ones).

Now, Reddit’s influence goes far beyond its platform.

AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) are surfacing Reddit threads as answers to health searches – often above official health websites or brand-owned content. It's fairly unsurprising given Reddit licenses its data to Google, positioning the platform as a highly visible source in AI-curated results.

Regardless, that shift in search results matters. It means what patients say on Reddit shapes what AI shows the next patient searching.

What brands should be doing

Reddit forums aren't always brand friendly, especially in industries like pharma where trust is already hard won. Redditors value authenticity and tend to push back when they feel marketed to.

To be blunt: Redditors can be ruthless.

That doesn’t mean health and pharma companies should avoid Reddit altogether – but it does mean the role needs to shift. The opportunity isn’t to speak on Reddit. It’s to listen to Reddit. Then identify the Reddit opportunities that genuinely align and focus on using insights to inform smarter action elsewhere.

By overlooking Reddit, companies are missing out on:‍

• Influence over AI-cited content: Reddit is increasingly a source of record for AI outputs‍
• Trust equity: peer-driven content holds more sway than polished brand copy‍
• Insight advantage: patients and healthcare professionals speak candidly here in ways that rarely surface in focus groups or interviews‍
• Visibility in zero-click search: increasingly, people don’t click through. They scan the AI-generated answer and move on

When patients type “MS treatments Reddit” into Google, they’re not browsing branded pages. They’re looking for lived experience.

Reddit’s health threads shape opinions and more importantly, influence behaviour.

It’s a conversation space but also a signal of what matters to patients and what’s missing from official channels.

So where should companies start? With two clear opportunities that offer both immediate value and long-term impact:

1. Listen like it matters (because yes, it does)

Think of Reddit as the world’s most brutally honest, ongoing focus group.

It’s where patients share:

• Symptoms that are vague, overlooked, or dismissed
• Side effects they’re unsure about mentioning to their doctor
• Their unfiltered experiences
• Workarounds for access issues

Reddit listening can:

• Provide a lens into patient language
• Inform patient support programs
• Shape unbranded content strategy (including how to advertise on Reddit)
• Surface unmet needs before they hit social or search
• Identify audience priorities or content gaps within treatment categories by considering engagement rates and votes around threads and comments

Not paying attention means missing the chance to contribute real value. Though remember – this doesn’t mean jumping into every thread. If you’re not there – or not helping credible voices show up – someone else will be.

A word of advice? Don’t get spooked by the negativity in threads. Anonymous forums invite that at times. Instead, embrace the awkward and instead of avoiding unfiltered spaces, lean in.

2. Adapt for the answer engine era

We’ve moved from search engines to answer engines. People often won’t see your site. They’ll see an AI summary – and often move on.

In the first half of 2025, health websites lost 31% of their web traffic from Google.

Not because people stopped searching. Because they stopped clicking.

That shift changes content strategy. It’s no longer just about getting clicks. But when someone does click through, what they find better be worth it.

To adapt:

• Optimise for AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation): designing content that AI will find, understand, and summarise accurately (key word: accurately).
• Build layered content: write website content with large language models in mind first. AI tends to cite the clearest top-level point, so make sure the insight is front and centre. Then use the rest of the page to deliver more meaningful context for people who want to go deeper.
• Use Reddit to inform both: the questions patients ask in threads are the same ones they type into search.

A final thought

Reddit is now the second most cited domain in Google’s AI Overviews. It’s foundational.

Companies don’t need to insert themselves into every thread. But they do need to:

• Listen to where patients are learning
• Anticipate what AI will amplify
• Support credible voices that can be cited in its place. For example, partner with trusted healthcare creators in specialist areas to host AMAs or answer common questions – creating content that’s more likely to be surfaced by AI and trusted by patients. Equip credible creators with better answers and better language that resonates based on the insights from Reddit threads

That’s how you start to earn relevance in the AI-shaped health journey. It starts by recognising Reddit as both an untapped media opportunity (especially outside the US) and an underused source of patient insight that should be informing strategies far beyond the platform.

Now, my challenge to health and pharma brands: get started with Reddit.

Because really, it’s scratching the surface of a broader shift that’s happening. More on that to come.

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