Running A Business

Social Media & Crowdfunding: Why You Should Be Using Both For Your Startup

By Camille McClane
Dec 11, 2013 • 3 min read
Table of Contents

      Thumb-UpSocial media has been around for awhile and its success has given way to a more recent trend in business startups using crowdfunding as a method by which to finance their projects.

      Instead of going to the banks or federal government, two organizations that are becoming less popular in our day, small business owners are electing to use online crowdfunding campaigns. These campaigns are usually set up through third party crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo and can then be marketed through well-established social media accounts.

      Depending on a business’ social media following, these types of campaigns have the potential to be highly successful, and are often enough to fund entire projects and startups.

      It might just be the new, preferred method of funding — which is why your business needs to take advantage of it alongside social media.

      Crowdfunding and Social Media: A Perfect Match

      You don’t have to look far to find someone touting the importance of using social media to market your small business. Since such a high percentage of marketing is done online now, businesses need to have both an online and offline component to their marketing strategy.

      The online portion usually involves a heavy dose of Facebook, Twitter and now perhaps even Pinterest, since that’s where most people are spending their time online.

      If you’re a small business owner and you’ve done that already, then you’ve got a powerful marketing platform from which to launch your crowdfunding campaign. A sizeable social media following provides an incredible amount of potential donors to your campaign, since they’re already following your business and therefore interested in what you’re all about.

      Once you launch your crowdfunding campaign, you can then use your social media accounts to spread the word and in effect, market your own campaign.

      While it certainly involves some shameless self-promotion, you’re getting an early start on some targeted advertising by getting your message in front of people who have already bought into what your business is doing.

      If they had not bought in, then they probably wouldn’t be part of your social media following.

      Once your campaign is up and your social media accounts are spreading the word, you’ll have a decent base of people who are aware of what you’re doing who will hopefully continue to spread the word beyond the scope of your online followers. There are several different types of crowdfunding sites as well, with sites like www.Crowdfunder.com specializing in the funding of small businesses, among other ventures.

      Plenty of Work Involved

      That’s not to say that your crowdfunding campaign gets launched and social media does the work for you. In fact, making money via crowdfunding can be a tremendously difficult task, involving plenty of work and an effective marketing strategy.

      Social media can however, be an intricate and crucial component of that strategy, at least in terms of the online portion of your marketing plan.

      Ideally you’ll have a system in place where you raise awareness for your crowdfunding campaign, both on and offline, where social media takes a significant role in generating that online awareness.

      How much work you’re able to put into planning that campaign and analyzing your audience will determine your success, but there’s no question that both crowdfunding and social media can help you reach your financial goals.

      Camille McClane
      About the author
      Camille McClane

      Camille McClane is a blogger who enjoys writing on tech, social media and their integration into the small business environment. She hopes you enjoy this article and start to consider utilizing social media and crowdfunding services to their fullest capacity!

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