If you’ve spent any more than 14 seconds on the Internet in the past 5 years, then you are probably aware of a ubiquitous presence — pictures of cats. While there might be something about cats that make them especially viral, they underscore the larger ecosystem of sharing across social media, blogs, video, and beyond. People are encountering things that catch their attention, and they want to pass them on to others.
What does this have to do with crowdfunding? A lot. Campaigns have become a part of this ecosystem, as sharing (or getting the word out there) is a large part of what leads to funding success. Pieces of shareable media — whether pictures, gifs, or videos — are often people’s first point of contact with a crowdfunding campaign on places like Facebook, Twitter, and online articles.
As you run or build a crowdfunding campaign, it’s important to develop pieces of media to accompany your campaign that will resonate with your audience(s) and encourage sharing. Whether the photos or videos are funny or serious, make sure they’re something people will see and say, “I want to show this to someone else.” A quick look at Indiegogo’s Facebook Photostream provides a strong sampling of this kind of media — much of which has actually been created by Indiegogo campaigners for their campaigns.
One such campaign is Save Our Sloths, who paired adorable pictures with their efforts to raise money for the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica:
This strategy earned them tons of traction on social media, and it provided us at Indiegogo with great content to share on our homepage, blog, newsletter, and social media once they reached a high gogofactor. This post, for example, went on to receive 147 Like’s and 47 Shares! And the campaign…it raised $93,879 ($80,000 goal) from 1,240 contributors. That’s the power of sharing.
The shareable content you create for your campaign doesn’t need to be high quality or professional — it simply needs to make someone laugh, smile, think, or feel some emotion that will catch their attention and inspire them to pass it on. Here is so more inspiration from recent Indiegogo campaigns:
We look forward to seeing your awesome pictures and videos! Share them on any social network with hashtag #IndiegogoFYI!
