Crowdfunding can be a really valuable tool in itself for marketing your business, but most of the time having an already strong following on social media can be just what you need to make your campaign a success. Read on to find some tips on how to grow your social media for your business - whether you decide to crowdfund or not.
Show the personal side of your business
One strategy you can use to not only get more engagement on your business’s social media but also get you well set-up for crowdfunding is simply to show your face! Your customers want to see the people behind your business - after all, that’s part of the reason why people support small businesses.
There are so many ways you can do this - slice-of-life posts and stories are so effective, and can offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse into your business’s daily operations. When you’re in a growth state, this is doubly exciting for people, to be able to see in real-time how your business is thriving.
When you launch your crowdfunding campaign, you’ll already have a host of people who have the down-low on what you’re planning to do to grow your business - and having that context readily available on social media is really important to getting people interested in investing in your campaign.
Make your social media… social!
An easy way to grow your social media following is to, well, be social! When people engage with your business on social media, engage right back! Reply to comments, provide opportunities for people to ask questions and interact with the brand by posting quizzes and polls on your Facebook and Instagram stories.
Having an engaged social media audience is key, because it shows that people aren’t just scrolling past your content. When you crowdfund then, you know your content around the campaign won’t fall on deaf ears - people will actually see the opportunity and possibly get interested in it!
Connect with other local businesses in your neighborhood, and their followers, too!
Engaging with other local businesses in your community is another great way of reinforcing your status as a community business - which goes a long way when you start crowdfunding. It’s also a great way of growing your follower list.
Find businesses that are close to you - either in proximity, in industry, or even in values, and follow them. Then, head to their followers list and follow the people who follow them. Most likely, some of those people will see your follow and check out your page, and if it clicks for them, they’ll follow you back.
Now, collaborate with those local businesses!
Look for businesses that do things that complement yours to collaborate with - and you can get unique about it! Say, if you’re a brewery, why not work with a local bakery for a cookie and beer pairing event?
Collaborating with local businesses is a great way of strengthening your professional network, and these folks might be strong allies for you when you decide to crowdfund. Whether or not they invest in your business (and we have seen local businesses support each other by investing in their Honeycomb campaigns before), they can also share your campaign with their audiences, expanding your reach.
Test the waters - survey your followers about what they want to see from you
As you’re looking to grow your business, you can directly ask the masses what their interest might be in helping you along the way! If you’re looking into crowdfunding, but aren’t sure if it’ll be received well by your customers, you can always just ask. You can run a poll on your social media channels, make a post explaining what you’re planning to do, and go from there.
What we find a lot of the time is that business owners are overwhelmed by the positive response from their customers when they decide to run a Honeycomb campaign - after all, who wouldn’t be excited at the prospect of investing in a business they love? But, if you’re still unsure, you can always do a bit of research by asking your social media followers.
With the boost of social media, your business can flourish with crowdfunding!
Crowdfunding on the scale that we can do now is only possible because of the power of social media to connect businesses with their customers - why not leverage it to grow your business? Learn more about Honeycomb Credit crowdfunded business loans by filling out the form below.