Social Media For Crowdfunding: How important is it
Social media is a relatively new concept, a brand new product of the 21st century. During its short lifespan, social media has prominently influenced the communication of many companies among a vast array of industries, and the crowdfunding industry is not an exception. To fully realize the potential of your crowdfunding campaign, you should definitely implement social media marketing to your crowdfunding strategy. In this article, you will discover how to utilize social media to turn your crowdfunding campaign into a success story.
Social Media For Crowdfunding: Step 1
Social media for crowdfunding is a very good way to deliver the news that you’re carrying out a crowdfunding campaign to potential backers/investors. It’s especially great to have a social media presence before the crowdfunding takes place. If you haven’t got a presence online, it’s advised that you carry out a bit of social media-ing before you start your crowdfunding. This way you will be able to use your social media to identify those that are likely to donate and engage with them early on. This will help you receive valuable feedback regarding the business idea in real time, which you can later implement in your crowdfunding campaign.
Social Media For Crowdfunding: Step 2
First of all, when using social media for crowdfunding, you need to choose which platforms you are going to use. When making this decision you will need to take a couple things into consideration; which platform is most of your potential donors more active on, in terms of discussion, general advertisement etc? What social media platforms do you have the most following on (pay attention to those that you may have more activity with potential donors on)?
- Facebook – with 1.32 billion daily active users, Facebook definitely a must when it comes to crowdfunding. It gives you the opportunity not only to create a page and build a community around your
brand, but also to target your ads towards very specific niches. By doing this, you won’t be wasting money and resources to spread your message in front of users who have no interest in what you are offering or people who have no idea what crowdfunding is. Instead, if you use Facebook properly, you will be able to share your crowdfunding campaign with the people who are most likely to back your idea;
- Twitter is another platform that has proved to be effective for
promotion of crowdfunding campaigns. Although your messages there should be as brief as possible, it’s still a great platform to spread the word and build a following by researching and strategically using popular and relevant hashtags;
- LinkedIn is a great way to reach investors for equity crowdfunding campaigns. Keeping your page up-to-date with all business-related news and updates will help you build a strong presence in front of business-oriented people and industry professionals;
- Instagram could also be highly beneficial for your crowdfunding campaign, but it doesn’t work well for all types of businesses. The industries that tend to perform well on the platform are related to food, DIY, design, fashion. This should not discourage you to integrate Instagram into your marketing strategy, just don’t rely too heavily on it. If you decide to promote your campaign on this platform, don’t forget to add relevant hashtags to your posts so people outside of your network will also be able to find you.
- Reddit – with more than 82 billion page views per year, Reddit is an online powerhouse. The platform is an excellent place to engage with niche communities, but you should keep in mind that the website has strong policies against people who only use it for self-promotion.
Social Media For Crowdfunding: Step 3
If your crowdfunding social media marketing includes many platforms, you should definitely consider using tools like Buffer and Hootsuite. With these smart social media management tools, you will be able to synchronize several social media accounts and manage all your posts from one place. Just consider how much time those tools will save you!
Social Media For Crowdfunding: Step 4
When you create posts for your crowdfunding campaign, ensure you write engaging posts regularly and that most of the posts have called to actions that would lead to your crowdfunding campaign page on the crowdfunding platform you chose.
With social media, you’re able to use analytics to track and measure how your posts do. Always check to see how much engagement each post attracted, as it will help you see what kind of posts the followers are most interested in. Once you’ve found out which kind of post attracts the most amount of engagement, you can use it as a guideline in order to create your next social media post.
Social Media For Crowdfunding: Step 5
To make the most of your social media crowdfunding marketing, you should definitely spend some time researching relevant keywords and hashtags for the different platforms. These can be words related to crowdfunding or terms that are specific for your industry and your business. Here are some of the hashtags we love using for our clients’ campaigns: #crowdfunding #crowdfundmonday #fundraising #startup #invest.
Social Media For Crowdfunding: Step 6
If your crowdfunding budget allows it, you can use the power of social media influencers – or people who have built a reputation and following in a particular niche; individuals who have the power to influence the purchase decisions of the people within their social circles.
Try and get as many crowdfunding influencers, and popular accounts that are related to your business idea, to engage and repost your business idea, by tagging their social media accounts, for example, @Indiegogo @Crowdcube etc. You can also direct message followers/influencers to ask them to share the tweets that you post on your social media page.
In conclusion, social media can greatly impact your crowdfunding campaign in a positive manner. It can help you find those who truly support your business idea, and help you push your campaign towards those that might also be interested in donating, providing services etc.
Social media has many benefits when it comes to crowdfunding, which you’ll see when you try it.
How Drop can turn your idea into a success story
- Immediate feedback on whether your business is suitable for crowdfunding
- Access to Drop Studio’s Crowdfunding Accelerator Service – available for Crowdcube approved campaigns only
- Crowdfunding strategy and planning
- Marketing strategy and marketing content – social media posts, ads, emails
- Management of social media profiles, ads and email marketing
- Crowdfunding video production – treatment, script writing, filming, editing with animation, promotional content
- Ongoing crowdfunding support throughout the whole campaign