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How I targeted the Reddit CEO with Facebook ads to get an interview at Reddit

558 points| dumbfounder | 7 years ago |twicsy-blog.tumblr.com | reply

102 comments

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[+] Abhishek41783|7 years ago|reply
Reminds me of this article where Brian Swichkow pranks his roommate with targeted ads that are hilarious http://ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-retaliation-pranking-...
[+] eertami|7 years ago|reply
Is it just me or do conversations he posted between him and his roommate seem a little off... They just don't read like any natural conversation I've ever had or have seen, and I'm not sure people naturally talk like that.
[+] erikpukinskis|7 years ago|reply
Seems unfair to deny the prank when the roommate straight accused him.
[+] jypepin|7 years ago|reply
ah that was a great read, thanks for sharing!
[+] fluxic|7 years ago|reply
I did this with the CEO of Breather. Back then, you could target based off of employer, job description, school, and interests. You could also make these target options mutually exclusive—which, in the case of Breather CEO Julien Smith—meant an audience of 1.

My unlisted Medium post got 1 read. Felt like a damn king when it worked. Cost me (I shit you not) 20 cents to pull off.

Epilogue: I quoted him too high, and didn't get the job. Oh well. Still one of my best stunts ;)

[+] schoen|7 years ago|reply
I feel like Chris Soghoian (or maybe Ashkan Soltani) also did this in the same timeframe with Google executives when he wanted to lobby them individually about policy issues—but I didn't immediately find a reference to it. (But I think it was the same method, like targeting attorneys at Google who had a certain combination of almae matres.)
[+] BurningFrog|7 years ago|reply
20 cents? That's cheaper than a stamp!
[+] Abhishek41783|7 years ago|reply
Could you share the Link to your medium post please :)
[+] DisruptiveDave|7 years ago|reply
I simply sent him a well-worded cold email. Worked well enough for a response and a discussion. (Nothing came of it for me, either.)
[+] rdiddly|7 years ago|reply
So 2 years later and he's not with Reddit anymore. Are we not supposed to ask about that part? Sounds like this wasn't exactly a success story.
[+] dumbfounder|7 years ago|reply
I didn't end up working for Reddit. I wanted the head of search position that was open, but they thought I didn't have enough experience. We talked about an IC role, but I would have had to move to the SF area (I live in DC) as they didn't allow remote employees. I couldn't justify uprooting my family (wife and 3 little kids) to move to a more expensive part of the country for less money than I can make in DC, even with the promising stock options. It was a hard decision. Still don't know if it was right one.

(For the sake of full disclosure, I was never extended an offer, we decided to break talks prior to that stage based on the salary/location discussions)

[+] phillco|7 years ago|reply
Well, we don't know if he got the job :)
[+] diminoten|7 years ago|reply
It's possible he did what he wanted to do there and had decided to move on!
[+] mathewsanders|7 years ago|reply
> [Hacker News] is an amazing community, built off an early version of Reddit, and run by Y-Combinator (which incubated Reddit way back when)

I just scanned wikipedia, first version of reddit was from 2005, and first version of hacker news was 2007.

I always thought PG wrote the code for Hacker News, does that imply that PG helped write the first (Lisp) version of reddit before Aaron Swartz rewrote reddit in Python?

[+] rrggrr|7 years ago|reply
This doesn't work anymore. All the ad platforms now require thousand(s) of users in a targeted audience.
[+] downandout|7 years ago|reply
Minimum custom audience size on Facebook is currently set at 20. You can target them by email if you have it.
[+] gwern|7 years ago|reply
Just makes it more expensive! How much would you pay for your dream job or a new lead? A few hundred or thousand dollars would be chump change to a lot of people.
[+] ericwood|7 years ago|reply
Someone recently did this for my employer, but instead of targeting just the CEO they targeted every employee working here with a Facebook ad.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about it but at the end of the day I don't think they earned a good reputation with the stunt.

[+] rando444|7 years ago|reply
There was an article on HN of a writeup from someone that pulled this off recently. I think the post was probably someone in the neighborhood of 4-6 months ago.

I don't recall the company or the person that was targeted though.

[+] guessmyname|7 years ago|reply
> My first thought was email. I can just email him! But that’s boring.

> What about getting my article to the top of Hacker News?

> The problem is, I didn’t think my article would be interesting enough to a large crowd to make it to the top of HN.

Ha! He not only played Reddit's CEO with a Facebook ad…

He also got his blog post into the HN top-ten (today).

Well done my friend, well done.

[+] prokes|7 years ago|reply
What's more: he concludes with "P.S. I am out again looking for new opportunities". So besides being excellent at putting his work in front of his target audience, he may go 2 for 2 on the job front.
[+] franciscop|7 years ago|reply
It is an amazing way and very growth-hackish (in the true way, not just marketing rebranded). As a long-term HN visitor, I really enjoyed the writeup and I'm not surprised at all it's in the front-page of HN.
[+] atomical|7 years ago|reply
Can't you buy upvotes? Bunch of accounts running with a script through Tor?
[+] rotred|7 years ago|reply
I'm surprised this worked. I would have assumed he had adblock of some sort.
[+] Mahn|7 years ago|reply
Anecdotal, but I personally don't block ads on Facebook because I want to see what other people are advertising. Perhaps he has the same philosophy.
[+] mrep|7 years ago|reply
Mobile apps and some mobile browsers don't support ad block.

While I have ublock on my laptop, i still get ads when I am on my phone which ironically is where these companies get most of their revenue these days.

[+] Kiro|7 years ago|reply
Why would you assume so?
[+] gst|7 years ago|reply
Somewhat related: Since a few weeks I'm regularly getting a Facebook ad with the title "I want to work at [company name]. Can you help?" from someone who seems to be interested in a job at the company at which I'm working.

Anyone else who noticed similar ads?

[+] slackoverflower|7 years ago|reply
There have been a good few of stories of people trying to get jobs, internships, client meetings with clever hack like this. I don't why this hit the front page.

Related to your story, it's either this person really wants to work for your company or you're part of a huge bigger list of employees whose company the person wants to work for. So the person might have just lumped your company with the others in the ad targeting set up.

[+] rusanu|7 years ago|reply
The cost should also account for the work put in and the years of experience and know how to pull it off. It cost you $10, but it would cost me several hundreds or even thousands to pay experts to do it for me.
[+] tmh88j|7 years ago|reply
How is that relevant? When calculating my home's value should I add the cost of my college tuition? I wouldn't have my job without my degree, and I wouldn't have my house without my job.
[+] abvdasker|7 years ago|reply
Classic HN comment: criticize someone else's cool idea to make one's self feel better about not having that idea.
[+] rvalue|7 years ago|reply
I am surprised that Reddit CEO does not use adblockers.
[+] oselhn|7 years ago|reply
The same trick was used to convinced Putin to go for olympic games in Sochi. Except they used ad in radio programme [1].

[1] All the Kremlin's Men by Mikhail Zygar

[+] leoplct|7 years ago|reply
Can you show us the Facebook Ad placement and the article you sponsored? Would be very interesting
[+] deviationblue|7 years ago|reply
Cynical me all the while thinking this is an ad for Facebook.