You've got your Email Outreach planned and ready to put it into action before and during the first days of your campaign for your successful soft launch. Now you are probably wondering, what else can you do to promote your campaign?
After direct, personal emails, Social Media is one of best ways to engage with your network, spread the word about your campaign, and encourage your community to help you spread the word.
When it comes to Social Media, keep a few important things in mind:
- Take some time and invest in growing your social media presence, engagement, and relationship with your followers before you launch your campaign.
- Be sure to go where your audience is and spread the word to them. It wouldn't make sense to post several times a day on a social media site where you have no followers and aren't engaged with a community there.
- Make sure you are using good Etiquette (crowdfunding and otherwise). Say thank you to your contributors and supporters for contributing, or for posting your project. Engage with them and make them feel a part of your larger project- don't solicit them for cash with no mention of the larger goal. Respond to their questions and comments; don't ignore them. Don't spam them with the same post over and over again. Rather, use new content and formats to keep them engaged and excited about your project.
- Your posts should be frequent and they should vary in subject matter. Posts should be more engagement driven, shake up your topics and images, and should:
- Let your crowd know how their contributions can make a difference
- Share your campaign's status and milestones
- Share new images or videos of your project
- Announce new perks or incentives to contribute or share your campaign
- Provide your contributors with a chance to get to know you and your team - the people behind the project
We've listed some of the most successful social media sites, as we've seen from past campaigns, below:
Facebook is a great opportunity to drive traffic to your campaign. In fact, after email, Facebook is the most powerful 'share' tool and is responsible for eliciting more contributions to campaigns on Indiegogo than any other social networking tool!
Ask those who have already contributed to share your project on their Facebook wall. Build this message into the Thank You email message you send to your contributors. Have a quick pre-written blurb they can easily post to Facebook, and be sure let them know how important Facebook is in helping you raise awareness and get more contributions.
Twitter can be used for quick, direct, and casual interactions with your followers. Be sure to share your short-link in your posts, and answer questions or comments about your campaign.
Be sure you have a pre-determined hashtag to rally your posts around, and include it in each of your posts (on twitter, but also facebook, instagram etc.). We've seen campaigns have great success with their community rallying to post the hashtag, so much that they trend on facebook and twitter!
The Girl Scouts is #ForEVERYGirl did this well, with their #ForEVERYGirl hashtag.
Twitter can also be a great way to connect with journalists, bloggers, and other influencers who may be interested in writing about, or sharing, your campaign.
Use Twitter to quickly thank your community; you are in good company with the likes of Rainn Wilson and the Help Rainn Wilson educate girls in rural Haiti! campaign
Instagram is a valuable social channel for image-driven campaigns. If your story can be told visually or has a strong visual component, consider integrating Instagram into your Facebook and Twitter content strategies.
The Shoot The Skies 365 Photography Book campaign used instagram posts to engage with their instagram community through beautiful images and striking stories. Their posts showed sneak peaks at images that would be in their book and showcased milestones their campaign accomplished.
Remember, Instagram doesn't allow clickable URLs to be posted with a post. So be sure to add the campaign link to your Bio, and direct people to the link in each post!
Starting a dialogue with impassioned communities on reddit can hugely benefit your campaign — provided you know the right way to engage them. reddit forums are unique from other social channels in that the audience is almost uniformly active: they’re there to discuss! Take a look at our 4 Steps to Campaign Success on reddit and then start planning your Ask Me Anything(AMA)!
Flow Hive: Honey on Tap Directly From Your Beehive did an AMA and a corresponding social media push to notify their network of the AMA.
Bring Visitors Back To Your Campaign
Your campaign page should serve as the central hub for all project-related content. No matter how many social channels you leverage, make sure each includes a clear path back home so that your audience can find your campaign — and fund it — as easily as possible!