How to Build and Manage Social Media Networks for Crowdfunding Campaigns

 Building Social Media Networks to Raise Money for Crowdfunding Campaigns

By Robert Hoskins

Need help planning a marketing campaign for your GoFundMe.com, Kickstarter, IndieGoGo or one of the other top 100 crowdfunding sites around the world for a fundraising campaign?  Front Page PR offers a large portfolio marketing services to serve crowdfunding clients.

Since July 10, 2008, we have been deluged with calls from customers wanting to learn more about how to plan a successful crowdfunding campaign to raise money to start or expand a small business.

Their primary concern is how much money will it cost and what type of marketing campaign they need to launch in order to complete a successful fundraising campaign.

One of the most cost-effective types of marketing is social media. A minimum of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are recommended for two primary reasons.  

1. It will be difficult for crowdfunders to run a successful crowdfunding campaign without a large crowd of supporters who want buy and stand behind the product or service as social cheerleaders.
2. More than 95% of people who donate or invest in crowdfunding campaigns validate that the campaign is being hosted by a real person and to validate whether or not a person has the technical, professional skills, experience and work history to actually deliver on their crowdfunding campaign promise.  

The best way to get started is to build a profile on each social media channel and begin posting pictures, videos and text messages that provide more and more information about the product or service that you are trying to bring to market.

Take pictures during the whole product/service development and provide updates along the way. Tell your friends, family and business colleagues that you are going to be launching a crowdfunding campaign. Ask them to follow your profile, like and share your product/service posts and pledge donations and social media support during your campaign.

At least two-months of prep work should be done to groom  a target audience of future buyers so that when you launch the crowdfunding campaign you have a large crowd of followers who are waiting to buy your product/service. And once you have a nice crowd built, start issuing press releases to begin generating news articles, buzz and momentum by telling future customers, buyers and sellers how to get involved and help you start building future sales and distribution channels.  

As you begin generating news articles, then you can start sharing them with your crowd and ask them to share it with their crowd.  If 5,000 people follow you and they have a group of 5,000 followers following them, then one post has the potential to reach 5,000 x 5,000 = 25,000,000 million people for free. 

More important than the shear numbers is the opportunity to explore the world around you through social media.  It is a great way to see who is out there that might have an interest in buying your product as well as to find retailers, resellers, distributors, e-commerce sites, manufacture reps and bloggers that may have an interest in buying and promoting your product during the crowdfunding campaign. 

Last, but not least, are your social media credentials. For Business-to-Consumer (B2C) crowdfunding marketing efforts, Facebook is instrumental in utilizing friends who know and trust you to share news of your crowdfunding campaigns launch and recommend the campaign’s products and services to their existing family and friends. For Business-to-Business (B2B) crowdfunding campaigns, LinkedIn can be instrumental in building sales and distribution channels. The same is true on Twitter.

Not only will future customers and investors check to see how large of a following you have, but also what kind credentials do you have in your industry to effectively deliver the products and services promised by your crowdfunding campaign. The same is true for all of your management team members. Having a strong resume complete with powerpoint presentations, photos, videos, training certifications, etc. are great visual tool to show off a successful track record.

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