
How I targeted the Reddit CEO with Facebook ads to get an interview at Reddit - dumbfounder
http://twicsy-blog.tumblr.com/post/174063770074/how-i-target-the-reddit-ceo-with-facebook-ads-to
======
Abhishek41783
Reminds me of this article where Brian Swichkow pranks his roommate with
targeted ads that are hilarious [http://ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-
retaliation-pranking-...](http://ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-retaliation-
pranking-my-roommate-with-targeted-facebook-ads/)

~~~
eertami
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.

~~~
Abhishek41783
The subtlety of a normal conversation might have been lost due to the writer's
poor writing skills. This is just a speculation though as I have faced similar
problems in jotting down my views.

------
fluxic
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 ;)

~~~
BurningFrog
20 cents? That's cheaper than a stamp!

~~~
mslate
And you get read receipts!

------
slow_donkey
Reminds me of this story: [http://ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-retaliation-
pranking-...](http://ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-retaliation-pranking-my-
roommate-with-targeted-facebook-ads/)

Might have to try myself someday

~~~
greenhatman
That is hilarious. I wish I could do that. Too bad all my friends use adblock.

------
rdiddly
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
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)

~~~
whymauri
What is an IC role?

~~~
swyx
individual contributor ie non management

~~~
zhte415
Individual contributor can still be management, but in this case the position
often means others matrix and not directly report ib to you. Influence,
threat, or use magic wands to get things done.

~~~
madeofpalk
I didn’t understand a single thing you just said.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
Basically it involves promoting synergy and a lot of blue sky thinking.

------
DonHopkins
I wonder how many ads Fox News has sold to people who want to reach a certain
audience of one. At least one!

[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-oliver-donald-
trum...](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-oliver-donald-trump-iran-
deal_us_5add7d00e4b075b631e7346b)

------
mathewsanders
> [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
This doesn't work anymore. All the ad platforms now require thousand(s) of
users in a targeted audience.

~~~
downandout
Minimum custom audience size on Facebook is currently set at 20. You can
target them by email if you have it.

~~~
txsh
Add one person and 19 other people of the opposite gender. Then, filter by
gender.

------
jwilk
Copy of the article that works with JS disabled:

[https://gist.github.com/jwilk/3f0d80740f72c5ac0e2a4ae8790b9a...](https://gist.github.com/jwilk/3f0d80740f72c5ac0e2a4ae8790b9aa1)

~~~
jhoh
Thanks. I couldn't get past the "Update to our privacy policy" thing even with
JS enabled.

------
guessmyname
> _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
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.

~~~
ronilan
Chris got Steve's attention but never worked at reddit[1], Nina got Brian's
attention[2] but never worked at Airbnb[3] and Feross got Chad's attention[4]
but never worked at YouTube[5] even though TechCrunch jumped to report he
accepted the job[6].

None of them was actually ever offered one.

Make what you want of it.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17110763](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17110763)

[2]
[https://twitter.com/bchesky/status/590561521576587265](https://twitter.com/bchesky/status/590561521576587265)

[3] [https://eatwritewalk.com/2015/07/14/the-good-the-bad-and-
the...](https://eatwritewalk.com/2015/07/14/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/)

[4]
[https://twitter.com/chad_hurley/status/24129459657](https://twitter.com/chad_hurley/status/24129459657)

[5] [https://www.quora.com/Why-would-Feross-Aboukhadijeh-turn-
dow...](https://www.quora.com/Why-would-Feross-Aboukhadijeh-turn-down-a-job-
offer-from-YouTube-just-to-complete-his-degree-Arent-degrees-just-for-gaining-
more-knowledge-Accepting-the-YouTube-offer-would-be-as-educational-if-not-
more)

[6] [https://techcrunch.com/2010/09/24/youtube-instant-
instant/](https://techcrunch.com/2010/09/24/youtube-instant-instant/)

~~~
relyio
Feross was actually offered (at least) an internship per the link you
provided.

~~~
ronilan
I meant an offer, not an “offer”.

I don’t think there was one.

I might be wrong tough and Feross is around here. If he’d want to clarify I’m
sure he can. So can Chad, btw.

But it’s been almost 8 years, so...

------
rotred
I'm surprised this worked. I would have assumed he had adblock of some sort.

~~~
mrep
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.

~~~
kmin93
If you have a Raspberry Pi, look into using Pi-hole[1]. It provides network-
wide blocking when installed on your home network by proxying requests. I also
use AdGuard Pro[2], which provides a similar function when I'm outside my home
network. Both happen to be open source software[3][4], so that's a plus.

[1]: [https://pi-hole.net/](https://pi-hole.net/)

[2]: [https://adguard.com/en/adguard-ios-
pro/overview.html](https://adguard.com/en/adguard-ios-pro/overview.html)

[3]: [https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole](https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole)

[4]:
[https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardForiOS](https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardForiOS)

~~~
ktta
Still doesn't block ads from the Facebook mobile app.

Even if you install a root cert to MITM, some apps pin certs.

~~~
saagarjha
Of course, there are ways around this: you could make a copy of Facebook that
doesn’t pin certificates.

~~~
ktta
True. Not for iOS though, atleast without a jailbreak.

~~~
jsjohnst
> Not for iOS though, atleast without a jailbreak.

If you have persistence, no jailbreak is needed. Would require you to binary
patch the executable then resign the binary using your own Apple Dev account.
Far from trivial, but still doable and without Jailbreaking.

------
chrisweekly
Reminds me of a clever approach a former colleague used to land a job,
connecting famous / high-profile people:
[http://katelynfriedson.com/post/70127031536/how-i-used-
custo...](http://katelynfriedson.com/post/70127031536/how-i-used-customer-
development-to-snag-an)

------
gst
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
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
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
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.

------
rvalue
I am surprised that Reddit CEO does not use adblockers.

------
unusximmortalis
Why you stayed only 2 years there?

~~~
unusximmortalis
Answer is below/above. He did not accept the position offered.

------
jaksmit
Here’s how i did something similar a few years ago, using Linkedin ads:

[https://thehustle.co/the-linkedin-hack-that-made-
me-120000](https://thehustle.co/the-linkedin-hack-that-made-me-120000)

------
oselhn
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
Can you show us the Facebook Ad placement and the article you sponsored? Would
be very interesting

------
deviationblue
Cynical me all the while thinking this is an ad for Facebook.

------
itronitron
so it's just a matter of time before someone proposes to their girlfriend with
a targeted Facebook ad :(

~~~
evanmoran
Too late :)

[http://www.justmediadesign.com.au/experiments/facebook-ad-
pr...](http://www.justmediadesign.com.au/experiments/facebook-ad-proposal/)

------
verroq
How I wrote a content free article to get upvotes on HN.

~~~
dang
It's a small story but there's content there. Please don't post mean or
unsubstantive comments!

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zaheerbaloch
This is savage :)

------
dm7
Reminds me of S4E8 Breaking Bad when Gus tricks Don Eladio into a meeting.

