Promoting Your Crowdfunding Campaign on Facebook: 4 Expert Tips
Sharing your crowdfunding campaign is crucial to your fundraiser’s success, and social media is a great way to spread the word.
Facebook in particular is the prime platform to promote your crowdfunding campaign. With over a billion users, there are plenty of potential donors who might be interested in learning more about your cause.
If you’re interested in promoting your campaign on Facebook, we’ll cover four tips to help you raise awareness:
- Build your social network.
- Engage with donors frequently.
- Optimize your Facebook posts.
- Acknowledge donors on Facebook.
Let’s get right into the tips!
1. Build your social network.
While you may already have a personal Facebook account or a page for your organization, it’s still important to constantly build your network. That way, you’re connecting with people that will be interested in your mission and possibly support your cause.
If all you have is a personal account, you might want to create a dedicated page for your crowdfunding campaign so it’s clear to donors what you’re raising funds for.
The more relevant pages you follow, the easier it will be to build your Facebook presence and establish connections with potential donors.
Here are few ways you can build your social following on Facebook:
- Find organizations and people that support similar causes. Interact with these pages by commenting on their posts, following their page, and asking them to follow you.
- Take advantage of your connections with family members, coworkers, friends, current and previous employers, and schools you attended. Ask them to follow your page and share it with their networks.
- Include as much information as possible on your Facebook page. The more details you have, the easier it will be for similar organizations and interested supporters to find you. Plus, it will make it easy for potential donors to learn more about your mission.
Bottom line: Whether you have an existing Facebook page or not, you should continue to build your social network so that you can increase your reach.
2. Engage with donors frequently.
With the plethora of content that fills up your donors’ Facebook feeds, it’s easy for your posts to get lost in the mass of content. That’s why it’s important that your posts catch their attention and get them interested in learning more about your campaign.
To do this, you’ll need to post frequently and engage donors by sharing content that isn’t just asking for donations. In fact, soliciting gifts all the time can be counterproductive because donors will think that all you care about is the money rather than their support, which can deter them from contributing.
The key is to make supporters and potential donors alike understand the impact that their contributions have and that their support is more than just a monetary value.
Along with posts asking for donations, you can:
- Ask donors to provide feedback on your campaign. When donors give their advice, they not only see that you care about their input, but they’ll also become more invested in your campaign.
- Share news or other resources that are relevant to your cause. Donors will see your page as an authoritative resource when you share content related to your mission.
- Post progress updates. It’s important to keep these updates donor-focused. Let donors know how thankful you are for being close to your goal by posting updates that acknowledges your supporters and shows the impact their donations have made.
The point is to interact with donors on Facebook frequently and let them know that you see them as more than just a piggy bank—but as supporters with an active role in promoting change.
Bottom line: When you post on Facebook, encourage your donors to respond or share your content with their peers. Not only will this gain more awareness for your campaign, but it will also make donors active supporters.
3. Optimize your posts.
When you share your posts on Facebook, the goal is to get as many people as possible to see your campaign. As we mentioned earlier, posting engaging content frequently will help, but it’s not the only way to reach more people on Facebook.
You should also optimize your posts so that you can reach potential supporters outside your social network. We’ll go through three ways you can optimize your Facebook posts:
A. Include an image or graphic.
Images draw attention and can help to illustrate your cause better. All your posts should include an image or another graphic to grab your donors’ attention.
For example, if your organization helps feed hungry kids, you can take a picture of an empty table and ask supporters to help you fill it with food. The image will tie readers to the campaign and encourage them to at least learn more about your cause.
B. Use a hashtag.
Including hashtags helps your post get discovered by people who search for similar content on Facebook.
Additionally, creating a hashtag specifically for your campaign and encouraging your supporters to use it will help you follow the conversation surrounding your fundraiser.
You don’t want to overdo the number of hashtags you use because it can make your posts look unprofessional. With that said, use a maximum of four hashtags per post.
C. Keep your copy short and sweet.
Unlike Twitter, Facebook accepts posts with a much longer character count (around 63,000!). While that creates more opportunity to describe your cause, you still want to keep your copy short and concise. You only have your donors’ attention for a short period before they scroll on to the next post.
Therefore, lengthy descriptions will often be ignored even if they’re engaging and meaningful. Just like with your crowdfunding description, you should begin your post with a punchy sentence that leaves readers curious for more.
Try to capture your cause in 1-2 sentences and link to your crowdfunding page so potential donors can learn more information.
Bottom line: Optimizing your posts will make it easier for donors to find your campaign and get informed about your cause.
4. Acknowledge donors on Facebook.
Another way to promote your campaign is by showing your appreciation. While you should always thank donors via email or direct mail, you can also send them a quick thank you on Facebook.
For instance, if supporters share their donations on Facebook or create posts to promote your campaign, you can comment on their posts with a simple acknowledgement.
By acknowledging your donors on Facebook, you can show your gratitude immediately after a donor gives.
In addition to commenting on your supporters’ posts, you can also highlight donors on your Facebook page.
The donors you showcase don’t have to be people who made large contributions. In fact, highlighting a variety or donors, no matter how much they gave, will show that you appreciate the person, not the gift.
Your donors will love getting acknowledged by a campaign they’re passionate about, and this simple gesture will show potential donors that you’re genuinely thankful for the support.
Bottom line: When people know that you’re grateful for the support you’re given, they’ll be more likely to contribute.
Hopefully, these tips will help you promote your campaign on Facebook so that you’re one step closer to reaching your campaign’s goal.
If you want more tips for launching a successful crowdfunding campaign, check out these additional resources.
- Crowdfunding Tips. If you’re looking for more ways to promote your campaign, check out our crowdfunding tips.
- Social Media Templates. Creating a template is a great way to share a quick post to your social media accounts. Check out our Facebook template for inspiration.
- How to Ask for Donations. Another important part of crowdfunding is learning how to ask for donations. This guide will teach you best practices for soliciting gifts.
- Crowdfunding 101: Before you start marketing your crowdfunding page on Facebook, learn everything you need to know about running a successful campaign. From crowdfunding updates to incentives, learn expert tips and best practices for your campaign.
