Everybody knows the power of social media. It transcends all generations, demographics, and interest groups. It’s the most effective and crucial way to connect with your consumer, build rapport for your brand, and create a community of loyal followers. It allows you to give your brand a three-dimensional personality and spread the word about your crowdfunding campaign.

But crowdfunders often have a difficult time maintaining social media profiles for their companies. How much can you really post on a page for a crowdfunding campaign?

Surprisingly, quite a bit. Don’t believe us? We’ve decided to prove it to you and inspire you with a few examples! Here are a few of our favorite types of social media posts from successful campaigns and why they’re effective.

Engaging

When you have a social media page for your campaign, you can’t have it be too spammy or strictly promotional about your campaign, because your audience will feel like your content is being thrown in their faces and you’ll lose them. Take a step back and get to know your audience, their demographic, and their interests, and talk to them about what they want to hear. Remember, you won’t win over customers by telling them what you want to tell them; it’s about what they want to hear!

The posts above did a fantastic job of this; since they were selling high-end, smart helmets, they could reasonably assume that most of their customers would be passionate/avid bikers, and they posted engaging, impactful, and relatable posts that resonated with their audience. Plus, the content is primarily visual, so it sticks out in a swarm of text or on smartphones. You can see more of their posts here.

Entertaining

This seems like a no brainer, but in order to inspire your followers to keep following you, you have to post interesting and entertaining content! Keep some content exclusively for your social media profiles (preferably for one platform) so you give people a reason to follow that specific channel in addition to following your campaign or following your blog. If you keep posting the same content everywhere, you’ll lose followers because people will get tired of seeing the same thing over and over again.

You’ll want to have a good amount of posts that your viewer can easily take in and digest without much thought or effort, like the ones above. If you look at the video from Jibo, it’s a fun, short (~1 minute), animated video that nearly every viewer can appreciate. It’s shareable, it’s visually appealing, and it’s easy to understand. It talks about Jibo’s design elements eloquently, without quite pushing the product in everyone’s faces. Similarly, Pebble’s post is a cute little post (who doesn’t love Legos?!) that the reader can easily see, like, or share in a moment, without necessarily reading the content. These types of entertaining posts shouldn’t require much input from the viewer for optimal results. I see them like popcorn: small, fun, easy to eat, and addicting.

Updates

At the end of the day, most of your social media fans are interested in seeing how your product turns out. The primary purpose for your social media pages is to foster your brand’s community and keep in touch with your backers. So keep them continually updated using your social media channels! Some of the things you post might seem silly to you because they’re such mundane parts of your day/the process, but it’s reassuring for your backers/followers to hear. Plus, you never know; your proactiveness on social media could convert some skeptic followers to backers!

Personally, when I’m deciding whether or not to contribute to a campaign, I check out the social media profiles to see how often the campaigners update their backers, because it really speaks to how much they care about their consumers. If a brand cares about its consumers, it’s going to want to build trust and loyalty by showing its backers how hard they’re working to make them all happy. If I see rare/no posts about the progress of the product, I’m less inclined to update, because I feel as though they didn’t take the time to show me what they’re up to.

Integrating Fans

The whole point of having social media profiles is to build an online community, so I love it when I see posts like this! These posts serve as a sort of “shout-out” to the most loyal and awesome fans out there, which encourages people to post more about your brand and their experiences with your product for a chance to get featured.

These types of posts are the best way to show that the brand is listening to their consumers and will respond to them, which is absolutely crucial. It speaks volumes about the brand’s integrity, and shows that the brand truly cares about its consumers (like the updates do!). Holding contests and sweepstakes for your followers is a fantastic way to get the word out about your page and a great way to revive an audience. And lastly, if you need some input about your product/company (even if it’s an open position that you’re looking for applicants to) ask the people who are most qualified to give you advice: your fans! They care most about your brand, and they’re most likely to help you out with some awesome insight.

Educational

Many people think that you can only educate your fans about your product, and that every post has to be somehow related to your product/campaign. Nope! Social media profiles work extremely well when you educate your fans about both your product and your industry in general. Think of it this way. If I’m a huge yogie, I’m probably interested in different types of stretches, healthy eating techniques, and other life hacks about health and fitness. Even if you’re crowdfunding for something yoga-related, you can win over your audience by talking around your product, so your fans don’t feel like your brand is “in-your-face.”

These posts might not be as easy to digest and immediately satisfying as the others, but that’s okay, as long as they’re still fun and actually helpful. This is the kind of content people could learn from and share, which makes your page a valuable source of knowledge in addition to entertainment. Pro tip: always make sure that your post includes a thumbnail of a photo, so it catches your fans’ eyes as they scroll through the feeds!

Defining

Above all, remember that how you act on your social media defines your brand’s voice; because aside from your crowdfunding page, this is the only regular connection they have with your brand, so be mindful of how you speak. Make sure any statements about your brand or your products are accurate and well-written, and that anything else you post about is representative of how you want your brand to be seen. Look at Ubuntu’s post, and you can immediately see the precision and crafting that went behind the description. Many people’s first impression of your brand will be your social pages—make sure you’re giving off an accurate impression.

Do you want to be taken super seriously and seem like you’re a super organized, structured startup? It’s probably a not a good idea to post something about Grumpy Cat. But if you want to seem fun and lighthearted and very pop-culture-esque, a post like Pebble’s Grumpy Cat post works ideally. Define your company’s culture early on, so you know how to approach your social profiles.

We hope that this helped inspire you to connect with your backers and fans online! Did these examples get your social juices flowing? Or did we miss something? Let us know what you thought of these posts in the comments below. 

by Rafah Ali