If you are preparing to launch a crowdfunding campaign I highly recommend taking the time to outline a detailed social media strategy. This will help you make the most of your crowdfunding campaign and market it more effectively. Also, Followers that you gain during your crowdfunding campaign can become loyal customers if you maintain your social media accounts post-campaign.
Unfortunately, not all creators take full advantage of social media and the tools that are available to them.
“Point blank, a lot of Kickstarter project owners do not have a strong social media presence,” shared Salvador Briggman in a previous CrowdCrux post, “Many might understand intellectually why Twitter or Facebook marketing is important, but most don’t follow up and do it! Personally, I don’t think this is due to lack of passion. I think it’s because most project owners don’t know where to begin.”
Reality Crowd TV has put together a comprehensive guide on creating a social media strategy for your crowdfunding campaign. From the very first steps to pointers on how to turn followers into backers, here are 8 key things you to consider if you want to successfully promote your crowdfunding campaign on social media:
1. Choose the Platform First
Don’t just go about creating social media profiles with no real plan or strategy. How can you reach your target audience if you don’t know what platforms they’re using?
Take some time to research the social media platforms that your customers love. Are they on Instagram or Snapchat? Are they on Twitter or Facebook? Where do they spend their time?
Once you figure out where their attention is, then you can begin to work on your message and the value you’re going to bring to that platform.
2. Choose a Social Media Dashboard
If you have never heard of tools like HootSuite and Buffer, check out this list of popular social media dashboards. These social media management tools are fantastic because they allow you to sync several accounts, manage posts from one place ahead of time and access analytics that give you the power to learn what works and what doesn’t.
Personally, we use Buffer to schedule our social media content, but you can’t really go wrong with so many options now a days.
Being able to schedule posts means that you can take care of big chunks of your social media all at once. Think of all the time you will save now that you don’t constantly have to go to every individual platform to post the latest updates!
3. Assign Tasks
Depending on the size of your team there are various ways that you can divide up the social media work based on your team members’ strengths.
For example, one person can be in charge of producing content, another can act as the dashboard administrator, you can have specific platform engagement specialists and also encourage your biggest supporters and fans to act as brand ambassadors!
At the end of the day, social media is one way for your customers to get to know who you are and what your company’s all about. Don’t forget to reply to crucial mentions and messages!
4. Create Accounts
Now you can create accounts on the social media platforms of your choice. A few key things to remember here: it is generally recommended that you use the same profile picture and color scheme across platforms to keep things cohesive, complete as much of the profile information as possible (a full profile looks a lot better than a blank one) and make sure that whatever username or page name you choose will be easy for your target audience to find.
All of these things reassure people that your profile is legitimate and make your pages easy to identify across different social networking sites.
If you’re still new to social media and want a basic overview of the different platforms out there, check out this guide which will get you up to speed.
5. Identify Key Words
Identifying key words is a useful way to get to the root of your message and figure out what needs to be communicated to potential backers.
These can be words that people would use to search for your project, terms that are specific to your industry or words that are repeated in a lot of your promotional and advertising materials.
Key words can be used as tags or hashtags on social media, making it easier for people to find your content. They are also a simple way to encourage people to interact with your message.
6. Build a Crowd
Your next step is to build up these social media accounts by following people, posting and gaining followers. This is typically done at least 3 to 6 months before launching your crowdfunding campaign.
Take this as a chance to assert yourself as a thought-leader in your industry by sharing relevant content. Show people what you can do for them and teach your followers the basics of crowdfunding. When you launch they will be ready to support your campaign.
7. Engage Your Crowd
As your launch date approaches, remember to engage your crowd instead of passively posting a bunch of links. Ask questions, participate in conversations and share things like inspirational pictures to encourage people to interact with you on social media.
Taking the time to make meaningful connections can mean the difference between people following you on social media and choosing to actually back your crowdfunding campaign.
Conclusion
These steps for creating a social media strategy are meant to give you a complete guideline of the steps you should follow when preparing for your crowdfunding campaign. Remember to keep some variety in your posts (pictures, text, links, videos, etc.) and have fun! The great thing about social media is that you get a chance to be creative and leave an impression on your followers.
