How to Optimize Your Crowdfunding Campaign For Facebook
There’s no doubt that when it comes to raising money online, Facebook is an extremely powerful tool. Studies have shown that Facebook drives the most donations in comparison to all other social networks. Therefore, it pays to pay attention to The Social Network.
Article Contributed by Sandip Singh from GoGetFunding
There is a lot of crowdfunding advice out there. That's why I thought I would get more specific about Facebook. Facebook may seem straightforward. However, it’s not just a case of slapping up a link to your campaign.
These 3 tips will help optimize your call for backers and maximize the donations you bring in:
1. Time your updates
Status updates between Sunday and Thursday are shown to get the most exposure. As for specific timing, post at around 8pm when most people have finished work and are free to check out the latest Facebook updates.
The habits of your particular friends will vary depending on where in the world they’re located so tailor these guidelines to your audience.
As for frequency of updates, you should post no more than 3 to 4 times throughout the duration of your campaign. Any more and you can easily leave your friends feeling overwhelmed.
2. Choose your message, link and picture carefully
It’s essential that you include a passionate and personalized call-to-action message along with the link to your campaign. Keep it concise, natural and ask people to become a part of your project.
Try and keep the update to less than around 45 words. Any more, and people will have to click ‘…see more’ to get your whole update when viewing on a mobile device. That increases the number of clicks to your campaign and as a result, reduces engagement and donations.
The URL and title of the link you share will also be displayed with your update. Keep this in mind when creating your campaign and if appropriate, add a call-to-action here as well. Prefixes such as ‘Help’, ‘Support’ and ‘Join’ work well.
Finally, select a great picture to go along with your update – that’s a sure way to increase click-through-rates. Once you’ve pasted your link into the status update field, you’ll be able to scroll through the images that Facebook detects on the URL.
3. Maximize engagement
To maximize the longevity of your status update and for it to be seen by your friends’ friends, you’ll need to get likes and comments on your update.
You can do this by following the steps detailed in point 2 such as including a passionate message. Speaking in the first-person is also proven to increases likes.
Another strategy is to simply tell your closest friends that you’ll be posting your crowdfunding campaign on Facebook soon and any support is appreciated. That way, when they see it pop-up there’s a much greater chance that they’ll like, comment and even share it.
Make sure you interact with those that show some love. Simple notes such as ‘thank you for the share, I really appreciate it’, can go along way and prompt others to take the same action.
By following these three optimization tips, you’ll be utilizing the full potential of Facebook status updates.
Do you have any tips of your own? Please post them in the comments below.