Succeed on Kickstarter with Social Media

If you get bored with social media it’s because you are trying to get more value than you create – Fast Company

Odds are that you are not the only one trying to crowdfund on Kickstarter a 3d printer, a movie, book, or new accessories. The people have from what to choose, and there is always the option to head on over to other crowdfunding sites, so how do you ensure that your target audience/consumer back your project? By telling a story, but as we all know even if #contentisking, you’ve got to have a successful social media presence to conquer Kickstarter backers’ wallets. Here is our two cents on how to succeed on Kickstarter with social media.

Start Early: 

Thorough preparation makes its own luck – Joe Poyer 

There will be those that will tell you to start 3-6 months before, others will say wait till you have a prototype, and some, like Guy Kawasaki will tell you to start a year ahead of time. All that really matters is that you do it the right way by either beginning to create a social media presence ahead of time – like RobinHood (not from Kickstarter), or you create a strategy and outline a campaign that you will execute (and update) from day one. We think that getting a head start on your campaign and building an audience ahead of time is the better practice.

Use Images

• The Human brain can process an image in up to 13 milliseconds
• More of our Neurons are dedicated to vision than the other 4 senses combined

You don’t have to use Instagram and/or Pinterest to go picture-crazy. First of all, make sure that you use an image in every Facebook status, and get creative by adding an image to your Tweets (maybe 1 pic/day?). Now, because you are on Kickstarter you’ve got to get something like this:

Create funding/creation milestones for yourself and then create a new cover image for Facebook, Twitter, LInkedIn, etc. for those milestones. For example, you can thank backers with a thank you cover image when you’ve reached 50% – and then ask them to share it so you can reach at least 100% of your funding goal.

Create your Hashtag #

Don’t go hashtag crazy by adding one to every other word. If you are going to take someone’s advice on creating one, then check out the infographic that Twitter published on how to create a hashtag. A few pointers –

• Is it already being used?
• Can it be used to incorporate with live/ongoing events?
• Watch out for the hidden meaning – don’t pull a Susan Boyle “#Susanalbumparty” (you see two words there?)

Today, the # is relevant on more than just Twitter – Google Plus, Pinterest, and Instagram – are great places to keep your # alive and kicking.

Let Followers get Involved

The first thing that comes to mind is creating a group board on Pinterest. Why would I do this before releasing the product? Let’s say you are creating apparel for training – well then you could create a board for people to share images of times where they would have used your product – add make sure the # is used. In addition, you can offer a giveaway of your product (in addition to backing) for anyone that uploads a selfie/image to your Facebook page –  the same concept can be used on almost any social network. 

Going back to the hashtag, create one that people can use freely in their tweets. Check out the campaign by DiGiorno Pizza that went viral because not only was it freaking unique, but also because it let people use it freely – and not in a form of straight-forward advertising.

Use the Profiles Correctly

Yes most people usually have more than one social profile, but that does not necessarily mean that they want to get the same notification from you on every network. Status A may be great for Facebook, but won’t bring results on LinkedIn or Google Plus. Social media is an art, and like every art form, it needs to be perfected.

The people that want your product, what do they want on…

• Facebook?
• Twitter?
• LinkedIn?
• Google Plus?
• YouTube?
• Instagram?

Sharing the exact same thing on each and every social media network is not going to get you to your needed funds. Understand what story the people want. 

A few bonus social media hacks:

• Use Reddit! There is a subreddit for gadgets, Kickstarter, entrepreneur, and so much more.
• Retweet the sames status (maybe in different words) more than once a day – a tip from the great Guy Kawasaki.
• Pinterest is not just for women
• Share your story with statuses and micro-blogging (Twitter)
• Live video chats on Google Hangouts