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- Pick the right platforms
- Create an explainer video(s)
- Promote pins on Pinterest
- Use Facebook ads
- Implement LinkedIn sponsored updates
- Advertise on Twitter
Social Media is and has to become an integral part of your crowdfunding campaign. Since you’re asking for money from people, you need a direct way of communicating with them. Social media excels at this task. In fact, to be successful in some types of crowdfunding (e.g. rewards, donation) effective use of social media is critical. Promoting your campaign is not the job of the platform… it is your job…
Gaining financial support through social media is not an easy task. Successful crowdfunding through social media requires planning, dedication and determination.
No matter how amazing your product or service or idea is, no one is sitting around flipping through platforms looking for your project. Crowdfunding platforms create a hub for campaigns, but it’s not their job to drive traffic to your hub. That’s your job! Even a firmly established and trusted brand has to work to hook their crowd for a new crowdfunding campaign.
How can you do that you ask? Well here is a quick-start guide for maximising your social media for your crowdfunding campaign:
You don’t have to be on all of the social media platforms that exist. That would be exhausting and drain valuable resources. Instead, pick the right platforms for you according to your industry, your audience demographic, your geographical target and what you can reasonably manage with the resources at your disposal.
e.g. If you are a filmmaker, you’re likely to be posting videos and commenting on the videos of others on YouTube and/or Vimeo. If you have a fashion-themed project, make sure you’re on Instagram. If your project is attractive to foodies, find people who love pictures of food on Pinterest.
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of video marketing. Statistics show that video increases engagement. Sit down with your marketing team and craft a well-produced video or multiple videos that creates a sense of anticipation about your upcoming product launch. Distribute that video to the usual quarters (YouTube and Vimeo at a minimum) and be sure to share it on all your social media channels.
You can also run the video as a YouTube promoted ad. Target people in the YouTube community based on interests and demographics so that they see your video even if they don’t subscribe to your channel.
Finally, keep in mind that YouTube is also a search engine. Be sure to optimise your video for keywords relevant to your product.
Use the image-driven social media website Pinterest to prove that a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. Create a clever image that reflects your product, include a brief ad copy, and pin it to Pinterest. Consider teasing people on Pinterest with the revolutionary way your product will solve a problem, but not telling them how, then, promote it. Pinterest allows you to promote your pins so that they appear to users who don’t follow your brand or any of its boards.
Schedule at least a few promoted pins to roll out in the weeks and months leading up the launch. If your images look great, you’ll have people on the social media site liking and re-pinning your pins.
Start by using Facebook native ads. Those are the ads that appear in a user’s newsfeed as though they’re content posted by friends with your sponsored message (something catchy about your product). Your ad should include a link to some outstanding, teasing content about your upcoming launch. The content should have a compelling headline.
Also, run a ‘Like’ campaign for the Facebook page associated with your product. Once again, you can get creative with the text you use. One of the best approaches is to ask people to click ‘Like’ if your product solves their problem.
Make sure that you target the right types of people with both of your ads. Fortunately, Facebook allows you to craft an ad campaign to users based on demographics and interests.
Implement LinkedIn sponsored updates
A great way to build buzz about your product, especially if you’re in the B2B (Business to Business) space, is to use LinkedIn Sponsored Updates. Here’s how it works: you use your company page to create some amazing content, then promote that content so people in your target market see it even if they’re not connected to you.
Another social media channel that offers you a veritable ocean of prospects is Twitter. You can tweet a brief text message in 140 characters or less, an image, or even a video.
Then, you can promote the tweet so that even people who don’t follow you will see the tweet. You’ll be charged based on engagement.
Fortunately, Twitter Ads allow you to target your tweet to people based on interests and demographics, so be sure to promote the tweet to people who are in your target market.
Wouldn’t it be great if instead of spending an hour each day on social media marketing your crowdfunding campaign you could automate the entire process? Well it’s now possible by using a social media dashboard! Hootsuite, Buffer, Tweetdeck and Tweepi are all websites that you can use in order to save time and money from managing your social accounts!
These websites give you the ability to manage all your social networks and schedule messages for future publishing, and they give you a wide scope of your social media activity.
Also, what’s your audience saying about your brand? By using those tools, you can find out who they are and engage them!