Whether you’re in the very early stages of gathering support and backing for your project or are focused on putting the word out there with the help of influencers in your industry, LinkedIn is a great resource.
While most business leaders and company owners will have a LinkedIn account, many don’t use it as an actual tool in promoting their products and achieving core marketing objectives.
So, if for some reason you’re not leveraging the power of LinkedIn to support your crowdfunding efforts, here’s a reminder of why you should be.
What’s So Good About LinkedIn?
The beauty of LinkedIn for businesses is the predominating user demographics that frequent the platform.
While Facebook and other platforms should definitely be part of your crowdfunding marketing strategy too, LinkedIn facilitates connections with many types of people who can assist you in the early stages of your launch, such as influential people in your field, potential investors with capital, professionals in your sector, and partners who may want to be involved in a great project like yours.
With business conventions and industry events being severely disrupted due to Covid-19, LinkedIn is also one of the only spaces where individuals in your community can gather, albeit virtually. It can give you a vital chance to share news about your project and learn from people in your sector.
1. Find Influencers and Potential Backers
You can make advanced searches through LinkedIn to search out potential investors, partners, influencers and other individuals who may be able to facilitate your crowdfunding scheme.
The platform lets you make searchers with keywords relating to location, industry, interests, and seniority level so that you can narrow down who you’re looking for.
The list of individuals you discover can serve as potential leads for a number of goals, whether you want to find an industry blogger to cover the launch of your project or investors who are actively looking for new projects in your sector.
2. Build a Vetted Audience
LinkedIn is the perfect place to build an audience based on specific criteria that can be useful for your brand and project. For instance, you can focus on building your awareness among managers, CEOs and those in leadership roles so that when you publish engaging content, you have a greater chance of being noticed by the right people.
Also, a member interested in the same industry as your Kickstarter campaign or who is in the same LinkedIn group as you may be more willing to pay attention or even support you in some way.
As a Kickstarter video production company, we understand that the work we do isn’t worth anything unless the right people see it. So, to prepare for when you have something meaningful to actually share, we always recommend building online communities as early as possible so that your content will achieve a significant amount of amplification.
3. Introductions and Reach-outs
With some decent connections in your industry, achieving introductions and reaching out to people who can potentially help you can be incredibly effective on LinkedIn. You can do this by posting something in a group, or just in your feed, with a request for introductions to relevant people.
Even if just one person puts you in touch with someone who can help you, it’s worth it. And even if not, your posts can double as a kind of announcement to people in your industry that you’re engaged in interesting activities.
4. Direct Messages
We’ve all been in situations where we’ve identified a potential lead who could help our project in some way but haven’t been able to find a contact for them.
Even if you’re able to uncover their email, it might seem too forward to send them something directly without an introduction of some kind.
Through LinkedIn, you can search out the people you want to contact and send them a direct message, following a connection with them on the platform. This will greatly improve the chance of someone actually reading and responding to your message, as you’ll be within their “network” even if you only have a tenuous link with people they already know.
5. Expand Your Network
Constantly working to expand your network can help you in many different ways. With more professional contacts in your industry knowing who you are and potentially viewing your posts, knowledge of your brand and your product launch can gradually diffuse among the right communities of people.
Boost Your Crowdfunding Efforts
At Wow Your Crowd, we’re a Kickstarter video production company committed to showcasing the value of your clients in the best possible light through video content, but we’re also passionate about helping you build communities and establish connections with the right people.
If you’re looking for help to get your Kickstarter going or want to learn more about how platforms like LinkedIn can be used in your strategy, get in touch with us!
