Crowdfunding campaigns, when run well, can seem effortless, almost magical, if you’re watching from afar. Seeing the money and backers pile up, especially in the last phase of a campaign, can be breathtaking, buy instagram likes when everyone is hugging and high-fiving. However, crowdfunding is not a walk in the park. Unless that park is covered with broken glass. And a lion ate your shoes at the entrance gate. And he is now chasing you. There is anxiety, especially during that famous mid-campaign plateau. There are sleepless nights, when instead of counting fluffy sheep you’re counting all of your Facebook friends who haven’t contributed yet. And don’t forget about the obsessive-compulsive “refreshing” of your campaign page to see if there are any new backers. Yes, crowdfunding can be stressful, but if you do the proper prep work — and create the right relationships on social media — crowdfunding can be full of great joy and excitement. Below are some hard lessons I’ve learned after helping run many crowdfunding campaigns. If you’re not into sneakers, you should know something: People immersed in sneaker culture spend a lot of money on their kicks, so this is a potentially very lucrative niche audience to hook. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as though the team behind the documentary connected with their intended audience prior to the campaign. Instead, according to this article, one of the directors thought Kickstarter would find the backers for them. This was not the case.Alternately, “Ride the Divide,” a documentary about the toughest mountain bike race in North America, raised more than twice its Kickstarter goal in 2012, mostly because they worked very hard to connect with the people most interested in their subject prior to the launch of their campaign. Be like “Ride the Divide.”
THE CROWD IS NOT LOOKING FOR YOU
No matter how amazing your film or book or custom leather bracelet or designer ice cream cone idea is, no one is sitting around flipping through projects on (insert your crowdfunding platform of choice) looking for your project. buy b instagram likes b Yes, all crowdfunding platforms create a hub for your campaign, but no, 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 it to hook their crowd for a new crowdfunding campaign. Kartemquin Films has been making documentaries out of Chicago for just shy of 50 years. They have lauded films such as “Hoop Dreams,” “The Interrupters” and “The New Americans” under their belt. If you’re in the docs industry, you know them. One might think that thLife Itself, a documentary about Roger Ebert by Kartemquin Filmse crowdfunding campaign for their latest project, a documentary about Roger Ebert called “Life Itself,” would have no problem raking in the dough, especially with big names like Martin Scorsese and Werner Herzog behind it. But the team behind this campaign is not resting on its laurels. Instead, they’ve created a very active and interactive campaign that draws in long-time Ebert fans and younger cinefiles at the same time. One of their simplest and most effective social media moves: dedicated one of the movie reviews from Ebert’s vast catalog (he wrote almost 8000) to each backer. This is a smart way to use an available resource and welcome each new supporter into the fold. Yes, your dream project is important and deserves much discussion, but the key to effective social media is hooking people quickly. Tweets need to be short, awesome punches that people cannot resist clicking on and re-tweeting. On Facebook, you can write longer messages, but don’t go into multiple paragraphs; you’ll have plenty of copy to dive into on your campaign home page. And never underestimate the power of a good picture on Facebook.
PICK THE PERFECT PLATFORMS
You don’t have to be on all of the social media platforms that exist. That would be exhausting. Instead, pick the right platforms for you according to: where your audience is; what you can reasonably handle in your daily life. instagram followers free For example, if you are a filmmaker, you’re likely 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. There is no cookie-cutter plan for social media; you have to find what appeals most to your specific audience. The day you launch your crowdfunding campaign is not the day you should start considering whether or not to use Twitter or Facebook. Or Instagram. Or Tumblr. Bottom line: You need to at least be on Twitter and/or Facebook to have a decent shot at crowdfunding, and you need to have been using them for a while. If you’re reading this and want to crowdfund but are not on these platforms, don’t fret; start social media-ing today, and postpone your plans for crowdfunding until you’ve established a solid social media presence. Why do you need to be on social media in order to crowdfund well? Because if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it…you get the picture. You can have the best campaign in the world, meant to support the best project in the world, but if you don’t have a way to spread the word, it won’t matter. You won’t raise the money you need. (One exception to this rule is if you have a tremendously large email list of fans or potential donors, or have built up fans on another social platform.) What happens if you start a campaign without laying down the social media groundwork and without that kind of This Kickstarter campaign for a documentary about people really into sneakers ended nowhere close to its $100k goal.