Crowdfunding Starts With A Crowd!
So this amazing idea hit you and you know it’s going to be a winner! Your excitement is driving you berzerk. You can see the people lining up in the stores to buy one. You can envision people all around you benefiting from your product or service! However, there is only one small problem. The product is only an idea at the moment. Getting the product down to reality is going to take a lot of time and money.
We are both not worried about the time since your excitement level at the moment is popping off the charts we both know you will find the time to get it done. You will rearrange your morning schedule and your weekend schedule and you will get at least the demo product created in a jiffy!
You have heard about crowdfunding and you are saying to yourself that there must be a way to crowdfund for his product! It’s a great product and just look at kickstarter.com and see all the money raised. If people hear my idea or see my product they will definitely want a piece of the action!
Crowdfunding is definitely a great new way to raise a lot of money quickly for a lot of different initiatives and could very well possible for your new product as well.
The first and foremost thing you need to do is build your social media presence. Every day you must make a healthy time investment in building up your new social media crowd.
Today we will focus on the two most important social media platforms for crowdfunding Facebook and LinkedIn. There are smaller platforms like bizfluence that can be helpful however these are the front runners at the moment.
So we will start with a hypothetical scenario to help you get a clearer understanding. For instance, if you are making a new type of window that insulates people’s houses in a better way.
You should post daily about the cold weather in the area and high heating bills in the winter.
Make sure that your posts beg for comments so that people will engage in your content. Create content that sticks out from the noise by thinking outside the box. An idea in this situation would be to take a quick video of you walking in the snow in shorts and boots.
You can say ”You might think I am crazy however it’s not so much warmer in my home”. You get the point I hope. We will discuss tools and ideas for exciting content creation in a future post. I just wanted you to get a taste of what I am talking about for now.
Starting with Facebook find everyone you ever knew and friend them on Facebook. If you have a spouse or close family members add them as well. Look for old classmates, neighbors, and distant relatives.
Make sure that you build up to the five thousand friend limit.
Post daily helpful content about the importance of the problem that your product will eventually solve. This will start warming up your audience to your new endeavor. Facebook is about sharing content with friends that have the same values as you in life. The Facebook crowd is hanging out there for recreation. Your content should stand out be informational but should have a relaxed and warm feeling.
Make sure to build relationships with your friends by liking and commenting on their content. Over time you will be able to get a sense of who could be a possible candidate to take a liking to your new product. Make sure to allow at least six months to build a social media crowd.
The other social media site that can help you build a crowd to support your new product is LinkedIn. The LinkedIn audience is much more business-minded and here your posts have to be focused on the win-win advantages for having your product brought to market. For instance, in our example of a new insulated window, you should look to connect with anyone that could benefit from your product like contractors and building management companies.
With LinkedIn, there is no connection limit so you can constantly add connections as long as you build it up slowly.
If you belong to any social group like a local rotary club or place of worship you should constantly look to bring up the problem that you are trying to solve in your discussions. Listen well to what people have to say about the problem so that you can learn from potential customers about what they feel would be the best solution. It may very well be that they will give youan idea that can enhanse your product or service.
This process works for both the for-profit and the non-profit sectors.
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In the nonprofit sector, you look to connect and engage with similar-minded people that feel that the problem your nonprofit is coming to solve is of high importance. So for instance if you are looking to create or expand a food pantry for the poor in your area. You should discuss the problem and promote your solution with people in your area that most appreciate your community undertaking.
In my next article, I will discuss how to get people excited about your future product or service. To sign up to receive my weekly newsletter by email please send an email to [email protected] subject add me to the newsletter!
Have a great day!
Coach Yitz