Help Your #Crowd Help You - And Don’t Forget Your Twitter

I've been writing a lot about social media and crowdfunding lately, and this guest post is no exception. With so many networks saturating our online experience, it's sometimes hard to see which ones you need and which ones you can do without. With crowdfunding, though, you need the big three: Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

Guy Kawasaki mentioned in an interview what he views as the prime differences between the three powerhouses. He said Twitter is for news, Facebook's for friends and family, and Google Plus is for passions. While I don't agree 100% with Guy with regard to Facebook and Google Plus, he's on-point with Twitter; my feed is a veritable waterfall of links, photos and videos, and concise updates that are more like headlines since there's only so much you can say in 140 characters.

For crowdfunding, Twitter is arguably the most powerful tool at a crowdfunder's disposal because of its ability to tap deeper into the vein of the Internet using hashtags (#) and mentions (@). With a single Tweet, you can reach out to potentially thousands of people through the right combination of hashtags, or you can connect directly with someone by simply mentioning them. And they, in turn, can do the same for you and your campaign.

But first you have to make it easy for these people to find you on Twitter.

Since long before I started working at Indiegogo to now, I still can't understand why crowdfunders make it so difficult for folks to find them on Twitter. Whenever I look at a campaign's "Also Find This Campaign On" section on Indiegogo or the "Project By" section on Kickstarter to see what social networks the project can be found on, there's almost always a link to the project's Facebook page but seldom a link to its' Twitter account. And before I think to myself "they probably don't have a Twitter account," I do a Google search for their name and the word "Twitter," and that locates them fairly quickly. Then I'm able to support their project more directly, mentioning them so that they can retweet and gain even more exposure for their campaign without putting out the same Tweets over and over again.

The problem is that the average everyday person won't go that extra step to support and help bring about more awareness to the project and project owner. So do the work for us and always, always include your Twitter link on your campaign homepage.

Then we can quickly and easily go to work for you and your project.