The Best Social Media Platforms for Crowdfunding

When starting your crowdfunding campaign, you have an endless amount of options thrown at you for everything from promotional services to websites to host your campaign; the options for social media are no different. It can be hard to decide which platforms will benefit your campaign most, especially when you don’t have a team dedicated to social media and you have to pare down your options. Below is a guide to help you decide which social media platforms are right for your campaign.

Facebook

Facebook is definitely the number one social media platform we recommend; if you have nothing else, have a Facebook account. Facebook allows you to target very specific audiences, which is a good way to gain a following as a new company. Having a Facebook Page gives you a platform to spread the word about your campaign, provide updates, build brand awareness and share photos of your product.

Facebook advertising is also a great tool to utilize as a crowdfunder because it allows you to target your ads toward very specific niches. By doing this, you won’t be wasting money by putting your ad in front of a bunch of people that have no interest in your product and no interest in crowdfunding. Instead, the people seeing your ad are going to be the people who are more likely to back your project.

Twitter

Twitter is another social media platform that we highly recommend due to how easy it is to interact with millions of other brands and users. While Twitter is not always the best for sharing a wealth of information through text, it’s a great way to get creative with how you share content and interact with influencers in your industry. You can easily build a following for your brand by researching popular hashtags using tools such as RiteTag and Hashtagify.me and using those hashtags strategically in your Tweets.

One feature Twitter has that other social media platforms don’t offer is the ability to see what others are saying about your brand, even when you’re not tagged in the post. By searching your product or company’s name you can see honest opinions about what people like and what they don’t like, which is great for a startup crowdfunding a product.

Instagram

Instagram is a great social media platform to find potential backers, but we only recommend it for some campaigns. The only crowdfunding projects we recommend using Instagram for are ones where appearance or design is a large part of the product’s appeal. Not only do the images need to be visually appealing, but we advise having a gallery of at least 150 diverse pictures, so that you aren’t posting the same images week after week. The industries we find that do the best on Instagram tend to be fashion, food, design, home decor, DIY, and anything with a highly visual component. If your campaign fits within this criteria and you decide to promote your project on Instagram, posting with hashtags is critical to gaining potential backers, particularly ones who aren’t following you yet.

Pinterest

The same criteria for Instagram applies to Pinterest– it’s ideal for projects that are visually-appealing and have a variety of images. You can catch the attention of potential backers with the images, and link the pin back to your campaign. Just be sure to not spam everyone’s homepage with a bunch of pins of your product; instead pin a variety of related content from other sources too. Keep in mind that campaign page graphics can be great to pin!

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is best for companies that are more B2B-focused because it is great for reaching out to other businesses and posting industry-related content to catch their eye. LinkedIn Groups are helpful because they allow you to spread your message to an audience that would be interested, rather than just the general public. Even though LinkedIn is business-oriented, don’t come across like you are reciting a sales pitch to your followers; if you do, you’ll be more likely to be ignored.

Google+

While Google+ should not be overlooked, it should be the first to go when resources are scarce. It’s a great tool for SEO, or improving your Google rank. By having a Google+ account, you are giving Google a better idea about what your company is about, which usually means you’ll be higher on a Google results page. Even if you don’t use Google+ during your campaign, you should definitely create an account once the campaign ends so you can reap all the SEO benefits it offers.

If you can’t manage an account for all social media platforms, hiring an agency for help is always an option. Otherwise, follow this guide to help narrow down your options and figure out which platforms work best for your campaign! For more tips on managing a crowdfunding campaign, subscribe to our newsletter.

Hosted by
Roy Morejon

Roy Morejon is the President of Enventys Partners, a leading product development, crowdfunding and ecommerce marketing agency in Charlotte, North Carolina, in charge of digital marketing strategy, client services, and agency growth.

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