Successful Crowdfunding Missions for Musicians Using Social Media
To have a successful crowdfunding mission you need to do social media before, during and after your campaign has been completed.
Selecting The Best Channels For Your Mission
Look through your social media channels and find out which ones have the most followers.
Where are your fans located.
Who has the most influence in your fanbase.
Which platforms do you know well.
You are more than likely going to be looking at Facebook and Twitter, but don’t disregard Instagram. If you are ready to take snapshots of your life, share, and create a window into your world, then you will find an abundance of connections with new potential fans appearing before you, and you can start creating some deep long term fan relationships with this platform.
Facebook Groups
We know Facebook is not the easiest platform to grow. Remember the days of Myspace, and how you could add every man and their dog to be your Myspace fan… Well sadly Facebook doesn’t have such a feature. However you can utilise Facebook Groups to build a community of people who love good music, and more importantly love your music. Use it to bring awareness to the things that you are doing, have discussions with your fans, even ask their opinion, for example - name choices for your new EP. Don’t know what “Converse” to wear to the show, ask them, get them involved, get them invested.
Tip - Keep an eye on spam. No one likes spam.
The Hashtag
Create a hashtag for your campaign. Use it throughout your social media platforms, on every post that is relevant to your mission. Using this strategy will allow you to organise and talk around your campaign. Your fans can learn more simply by searching for the hashtag.
Encourage your fans to use your hashtag to help raise awareness of your mission. Add your hashtag to your Facebook and Twitter cover photo. Use it at the end of all your promotional posts.
You can also follow the hashtag on Twitter and see what the social world is saying about you.
Tip - Go for short, catchy and relevant. Pay extra attention when creating your hashtag as you don’t want an oversight like the hashtag drama created by Susan Boyles PR company.
How it was posted - #susanalbumparty
How it should have read - #SusanAlbumParty
How it was read - #SusAnalBumParty
What it was then changed to - #SusanBoylesAlbumParty
Analytics
Use analytics to look at which of your posts are doing well and which are not working. Adjust your content accordingly. Do more of what your fans are engaging with.
Engagement
Engagement with your fans is key. Write engaging posts that will encourage discussions and debates amongst you and your fans. Remember to always engage back. If you were in a pub and you were talking to someone and they didn’t talk back, how would you feel? Same applies on social media.
Updates are essential and they help keep your fans in the loop of what you are doing. If you hit a milestone, share it with your fan base. They will become more invested, even if they haven’t contributed to the campaign “yet”.
Tip - Don’t forget to say thank you. A simple thank you can go a long way to people who have already contributed to your mission. A public thank you on Facebook or Twitter goes even further.
Content
Content is key, and no one wants to see “ I’m doing a mission on Rocket Fuel, come buy something” over and over - Get creative! Your aim is to increase the number of contributions your mission gets, what you don’t want to do is spam your followers. Mix up your posts with information about your campaign, and sales posts. 80% of your campaign should be educating your fanbase, followers and alike. Not focusing on sales.
Example -
“Here is a sneak peak of the handwritten lyrics for my Rocket Fuel Mission, what do you think?”
Show fans what is going on behind the scenes. This could be anything from putting a reward together or going to a local show. They want to know what you are up to. There is a reason reality TV is huge. People love to see what other people are doing.
20% of your posts should be promotional.
Example - “Dreaming of a new album - Will you join my mission www.RocketFuelHQ.com/yournamehere”
Tip - Plan your content in weekly batches and schedule. You don’t want it to become overwhelming, and you also don’t want to drop the ball. If you aren’t talking about “you” how can you expect others.
Journalists
If you have a cool mission idea, one that is out of the box, share it with music journalists, and see if you can get some extra exposure to push your campaign along.
Example - “Artist raising money to record new album to feed the hungry”
You can find a lot of music journalists on Twitter. You can also send your out of the box mission idea to “Pitch Your Story” and see if anyone takes the story on.
To conclude -
Increase the content you share with fans before you start your project, be more engaging. Show them who you are. During your campaign don’t bombard them with “Buy Now, Buy Now”, build relationships. After your campaign has finished don’t go radio silent. Carry on sharing updates on what you are doing, but keep the content valuable.
Bad Example - “Come see us play tonight at Club, £3 on the door”
Good Example - “Getting ready to play Club X tonight” and show a photo of your set list.
Your main objective is put across which is to raise awareness of your gig, but you did it in a respectable way which wasn’t blatantly promoting yourself.
Final Tip - The email. The email has been part of the online world forever... It can take you directly to your fan. Always try and get your hands on your fans email address because you can do some really cool things with it. Facebook has a function that allows you to boost your posts directly to your mailing list. Twitter allows you to import all your email into Gmail and find those fans on Twitter, which can then be imported to Pinterest and Twitter, but you get the picture. You might not be writing emails to your fans but you can use the email to find them on social media, and build the relationship.
Have you tried a crowdfunding mission? What strategies worked best? Let us know!