Equity crowdfunding is the latest and greatest way to fund your small business or enterprise, and it’s come a long way since its inception. It’s an incredibly strong marketing tool for businesses as well. If you’re working on your own equity crowdfunding campaign, social media can make a huge difference for you no matter what, but it will be most successful if you know how to leverage it.
To begin with, it’s important to understand that equity crowdfunding is its own entity. It’s often confused with other types of crowdfunding, particularly rewards-based, but unlike reward-based crowdfunding, equity crowdfunding requires handing over a stake in your company to a set of investors in order to raise money for your cause.
Because of the difference, it quickly becomes clear why equity crowdfunding needs its own social media strategy. You aren’t just marketing to the masses. You’re marketing towards a specific audience of sophisticated investors, and your social media campaign should reflect that. There are several ways that you can use social media to leverage your campaign.
Be Realistic
To begin with, be realistic about your crowdfunding campaign. Though thousands of people find success along the way, it’s not an easy road, and you’re not likely to see quick returns. However, that’s perfectly fine. Zack Miller of OurCrowd, equity crowdfunding experts, puts it best:
“The fact that equity crowdfunding is still in its infancy (most equity crowdfunding platforms are less than two years old) means that it’s still a little premature to look at returns. And yet, some investors using equity crowdfunding platforms are seeing a bright future.”
In short, the fact that you aren’t seeing returns yet isn’t a sign that your crowdfunding campaign is a failure. It’s more important to look at the numbers of investors, analyze their support, and study the reach of your brand. These are all better signs of success in your campaign than calculating the returns alone.
Have Several Profiles on Major Social Networks
If you truly know your investors, you’ll know which social networks they frequent. You can probably bet that they are members of the largest networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. Depending on your market, it might also be a good idea to leverage Instagram, Pinterest, and any other niche social networks.
Be very selective about the networks you join in order to attract investors. This isn’t reward-based crowdfunding where you can deliver a pitch to anyone and everyone and receive a good response. You are targeting sophisticated investors, and the social networks you use should reflect that.
Establish a Relationship
This will be one of the biggest differences between equity and rewards-based crowdfunding. With reward-based, you only need to engage your investors long enough to collect their money and send them a reward. In equity crowdfunding, you need to build a relationship that will last long after the campaign ends.
This takes frequent engagement and a considerable amount of time before you will have established enough trust to call it a good relationship. Positive engagement with investors involves reaching back when they reach out to you. If someone connects with you, follow up with a short thank you. If someone comments on your posts, engage them in steady conversation.
Also, recognize that successful engagement is a two-way street. Relationships are about giving as well as taking, and if you let the investor do all the reaching out to your company and you ignore their company altogether, you aren’t giving enough. Engage with them on their company’s social profiles as well to establish mutual trust.
Utilize Influencers
Influential social networkers generally have friends in very high places. If you can get influencers on your side, they’ll likely spread your campaign reach to a wider audience of investors. Roy Morejon of Social Media Today gives the following advice for connecting with influencers:
“The goal is to build meaningful connections—you aren’t plugging an algorithm into a machine. When connecting with influencers, make sure you’re approaching those who would be genuinely interested in your project.”
Once you’ve connected with influencers who are truly interested in your brand, you can turn them into brand advocates, who will talk so much about how they love your brand, that they’ll get others to love your brand as well. This will give more investors an opportunity to see your company and side with your campaign.
Ultimately, good social media use in your campaign will boil down to a work in progress attitude. You’ll learn from your failures and grow with your successes. The important thing is to continually work at it until you join the hundreds of thousands who have found equity crowdfunding success.
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