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Does Kickstarter Have a Place in Your PR Campaigns?
A few weeks ago, reading through Mashable’s list of 10 Websites to Watch in 2011, I couldn’t help but notice a few interesting choices. Although I had fully expected to see Foursquare and Quora on the list (both of which have enjoyed mainstream exposure throughout 2010), I was pleasantly surprised to see that Kickstarter, one of the newest “crowdfunding” platforms, had not only made the cut, but was listed as the #1 pick to watch.
Never heard of Kickstarter? That's OK, I'll fill you in.
This site’s only been around for a year and some change, but it seems to be taking the social fundraising scene by storm lately, and I’ve had positive experiences as well. I’m anxious to see what the future holds for this platform, especially in terms of usage for PR and fundraising campaigns. So today, I share with you the quick-and-dirty down-low on this new tool.
What is Kickstarter?
One of the newest “crowdfunding” platforms on the social media scene, founded in April 2009, Kickstarter has gained a ton of popularity very quickly. In just a short time span, this site has helped hundreds of diverse projects to raise millions of dollars through a rather unique approach to social fundraising.
The site allows users to create a profile for a project, filling in the details through a standard “About” section. Users can then leave comments on projects, share via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, email, or even embed project videos and widgets on outside websites. By allowing users to share links to projects freely, Kickstarter integrates social elements seamlessly. The site’s real strength is in allowing users to share real causes with the world, connecting their stories with audiences that care about them, and are willing to support the cause through donation.
Users take action to donate for a few main reasons. First, the social-proof nature of the Kickstarter’s site inspires a sort of “group-think” mentality, where people are willing to donate to causes that have a good amount of support, and the sense of urgency that Kickstarter’s unique “all-or-nothing” deadline attitude creates.
Kickstarter uses an approach that allows users to set a fundraising goal, but only receive the money if they are able to fully reach that goal in pledges by other users. (For example: if you were to set a goal of $100, and find enough donors to back your project that you raised $150, you would keep $150. If you were to set a goal of $100 but only managed to raise $70, however, you would receive nothing.) In other words, if the entirety of the cause’s fundraising goal is not met by the deadline date, the cause receives nothing.
Here’s how Kickstarter explains it (taken straight from its FAQs):
“All-or-nothing funding?”?
Every Kickstarter project must be fully funded before its time expires or no money changes hands. Why?
1. It’s less risk for everyone. If you need $5,000, it’s tough having $2,000 and a bunch of people expecting you to complete a $5,000 project.
2. It allows people to test concepts (or conditionally sell stuff) without risk. If you don’t receive the support you want, you’re not compelled to follow through. This is huge!
3. It motivates. If people want to see a project come to life, they’re going to spread the word
So far this approach seems to be working for Kickstarter.
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It worked for my college a cappella group…
Last year, The UGA Accidentals, for example, used Kickstarter to help fund our trip to New York to compete in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. Though our group was cash-strapped at the time, we decided to crowd-source to raise the funds for the multi-day trip.
My a cappella group used Kickstarter to connect with our fan base, and ended up raising close to $4,000 for our competition in just two weeks.
Hearing of the success of other Kickstarter projects, we filmed a video expressing our passion for singing and created our own campaign, which we then linked back to our website and promoted via Facebook and Twitter. What worked for us? …Setting up progressively cooler rewards for those who pledged more also helped. Within days, we’d raised the money.
The result: in 15 days, more than 50 backers, dedicated Accidentals fans, pledged to donate to our project. In all, we raised nearly $4,000 dollars for our trip to New York through fan donations, in just over two weeks.
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Another Example?
Look no further than “Blue Like Jazz,” an indie film project by Steve Jazz, slated to release later this fall. Two devoted fans created a Kickstarter project called “Save Blue Like Jazz” after hearing that the movie might be canceled due to lack of funding. Within weeks, thousands of online supporters rallied to funnel nearly $350,000 dollars to the film’s budget, in effect saving the film from being canned. Not only did Kickstarter help raise thousands of dollars to produce the film, but served as a method of free online advertising, and a great PR story.
Here’s what the “Save Blue Like Jazz” Kickstarter page looked like:
Blue Like Jazz supporters were eager to help the movie project when they heard it might be canceled.
What this means for you, PR people
The above are just a few quick examples that illustrate Kickstarter’s usefulness for crowd fundraising and PR efforts.
Kickstarter works, but why?
It seems that the site’s power, and future success, lies in its ability to allow groups with real causes to share their stories with stakeholders and help fund dreams. Most people love a good story, or doing their part to rally behind a compelling cause. I predict that a great number of campaigns will begin to integrate crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter in their public relations campaigns.
Mashable already says that this site is one to look out for in 2011, and I co-sign this sentiment.
So what more are you waiting for? If you’ve got a cause and could use some cash for it, use this platform to connect with your stakeholders and reach your goals. It seems like a no-brainer to me.
Don’t just watch out for this rising star; use it in your PR campaigns. Find a cause that people can rally behind.
And now it’s time to share your experiences…
Have you used Kickstarter in the past? How do you see crowdfunding platforms influencing the field of PR going forward? Share your thoughts below.
* Special thanks go out to my friend @Kiley0 for introducing me to Kickstarter way back when it first came out. He is always “on the ball,” so to speak, when it comes to knowing about the latest new media platforms.
#NowTrending in Social Media: Geo and Q&A
(Note: I’ve included a lot of hyperlinks in this post to add some context. Make sure to read them.)
There's a turf war brewing in the social media scene, and the 'mobile throne' is up for grabs.
Perhaps you’ve heard of Foursquare, the explosively popular social gaming platform based on check-ins and badges? But did you know that Twitter, Google, Gowalla, Facebook and countless others are all fighting for the same territory? It’s true. What do these contenders have in common?
They all offer some form of geo-location-based service, which have been gaining popularity for some time now in the social media world. At a glance, it appears that each of these titans wants a shot at wearing the ‘mobile crown’.
And what about social media Q&A platforms– social sites built upon community question-and-answers, such as Formspring, Quora, Aardvark, and many more? They’re going mobile too. Aardvard and Quora have had cell-phone friendly versions for a while, and Formspring just released their mobile site a few weeks ago.
It’s clear: both geo and Q&A have been gaining steam recently in the mobile trend, and are important to the future of social media.
Why?
As the social media power players are duking it out, geo-location and community Q&A is getting bigger. Social sites and applications based on “check-ins” are quickly gaining in popularity with consumers, and it’s only naturally that businesses and advertisers are in turn responding. Social media going mobile means that ‘consumers’ are creating new opportunities for retailers and advertisers to make money. As Business Week explains about Q&A, for example:
“The attraction to business of this new flavor of search is that as users pose and answer questions, they’ll reveal more data about themselves and create discussion threads against which ever more targeted advertising can be sold.”
While I think it’s a bit early to know for sure who’ll win the mobile ‘turf war’, I’m confident about one thing: the words “cell phone” and “shopping” are about to become as synonymous as “peanut butter” and jelly.” You can bet on that.
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Geo-Shopping and Q&A are Trending Topics in the Social Media World
Consumers are snapping up Smartphones at a record clip, and there are no signs of slowing down. Smartphone sales are rapidly increasing, and predictions indicate that this trend will continue. In short: people really want their Androids, iPhones and Blackberries. And the power players in the social media industry have no problem keeping up with Smartphone technology; iPhone apps like Bakodo and Stickybits are giving all parties just what they want.
Smartphone apps like Bakodo are just the beginning of geo-shopping.
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For the last few years, industry experts have been claiming that web browsing (and by extension, social media) will go mobile on a large scale in the next few years. The limitations of currently available technology, however, challenged these predictions, as most cell phones web browsers were notoriously slow and clunky. With recent technological advances, things are changing, and according to research by International Data Corporation, for example (in addition to many more studies) there will likely be more than one billion mobile devices accessing the Internet by 2013. And IDC isn’t the only one predicting that mobile is expanding.
Mashable recently posted a list detailing their picks for the five biggest social media trends, and as expected, each of them are integrally related to geo-shopping and community Q&A. I’ve posted it below, for ease of reference (Make sure to read the original article here too):
1) Social Scanning
2) Q&A and Intelligent Information Discovery
3) Group Buying
4) Mobile Meets Loyalty
5) Checking-in to Entertainment
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So what does all of this mean for field of public relations?
Quite a bit. Here are just a few implications that these trends have for the field of PR:
New Technology to Learn
At the end of the day, whether you like Foursquare, Facebook Places, Gowalla, or any of the other location-based social incarnations is totally irrelevant: you’d better know how to use them, if you want to work in PR. Your clients will want to know exactly how Foursquare can make money or win press for a company. Guess who’ll be setting up an account and teaching them?
- Increased Immediacy
Social media’s immense popularity over the course of the last decade has already forever changed the way we consume news information. But as the social/mobile web grow, people demand information sooner and sooner. In terms of business, customer support are changing the way they operate to better accomodate consumers’ needs. Smartphone-based scanning and intelligent information discovery, as Mashable notes, will only further drive the need for immediacy, even from PR people.
- Increased Transparency
It’s clear that community Q&A sites like Formspring, Quora, and Aarvark are seeing popularity like never before. Right now, only a few major brands are truly taking advantage of this opportunity to connect with their customers by providing answers to their questions, but if Mashable’s list is any indication, it’s only a matter of time. As more social sites go “Q&A”-style, the more chance they can make money from their users. PR people need to know that this trend will be linked directly to geo-location. If brands and their advocates (read: us) expect to keep customers, then we’ll have to be honest like never before.
While it’s no surprise that all of these trends are mobile-based, it’s important for that they each have the potential to take advantage of geo-location technology and community crowd-sourcing. The reality is, both of these features present major implications for the future of commercialism, and therefore public relations.
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Takeaway Points for PR pros
The main thing to understand here is this: the Web’s is not just coming to our Smartphones.
Smartphones are changing the Web as we know it — through features like geo-location and Q&A.
This means that we can’t ignore them; we must change along with the web — companies, consumers, advertisers, and even us, public relations professionals. Just as we adjusted our press releases for social media, we’ll soon have to do the same for a mobile format. We must be prepared to interact with clients, consumers and the media in countless new ways.
Here’s the question: Will you be prepared?
What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Join the discussion and share your thoughts below.
So You Want to Run a Social Media Campaign…
There’s been a lot of “trial-and-error” with social media campaigns over the last few years.
But there doesn’t have to be. Not anymore, at least. We have a pretty good knowledge of what works and what doesn’t.
Here’s what doesn’t work…
So many business owners have heard that they “need to get on” Facebook, Twitter, or whatever the latest and (supposedly) greatest social network is at the moment. How do the majority of them respond?
Most just sign up, grab their virtual loudspeaker, start cyber-shouting.
Most immediately quickly type in the url and sign their names on the dotted line, taking their company name along for the ride, of course. Without the faintest bit of research, these businesses register for social media accounts, and begin mindlessly posting and “cyber-shouting,” putting their corporate brand reputation in jeopardy.
“What’s the problem?” you might ask.
Many of these people don’t understand the simple concept behind social media. Instead of legitimately engaging audiences with relevant material (read: content they actually care about), many social media marketers sites are too busy cramming content down peoples’ throats that they don’t realize they’re being regarded as a spammer. And if they’re not spamming, they’re usually being simply ignored.
Most of them have no strategy (well, beyond the traditional direct sales method, which rarely works with social media). So what’s the end result? The answer is obvious: They fall flat on their faces. Utterly misguided in their efforts, failure is the end result, more times than not.
Before you tell anyone to "Become a Fan" or "Follow You," you'd better do your homework.
According to a TechCrunch study done in 2009, 77% of Facebook Fan pages have less than 1,000 fans. If you’re a business that depends on bringing in new customers and clients, it’s not the easiest thing to hear that more than three quarters of corporate social media accounts aren’t exactly reeling in ‘fans’ by the boatload. But it’s true.
So if you want to cut through the clutter and be heard, you need a strategy.
And strategy starts with research.
Here’s what does work…
Step One: Conduct Research
There are lots of ways to research:
- Demographics
See? Charts don't bite.
Instead of just jumping in and starting a Foursquare account, for example, you’d be better off doing some solid demographic research to find out if the people you want to sell to even know what Foursquare is, or care about location-based social gaming services.
Resources like Quantcast are invaluable for finding information on what sites your audience frequents. A quick audience profile search for Foursquare, shows that typical Foursquare users are predominantly young, white, well-educated males:
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Great information to know, but there are also other ways to research.
- Polls & Surveys
You might consider conducting audience polls and surveys, to find out what your followers care about.There’s a reason that resources like Surveymonkey exist. You can better inform your marketing strategy with real data by using these resources.
- Read Influential Bloggers and Social Media “Success Stories”
Learn the differences between the hundreds of social media platforms out there; know the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Read blog posts like this one, a listing by TopRankBlog of the ‘best and worst practices’ in social media marketing. Also be sure to check out resources like Mashable and Alltop. They’re nearly always on the money. And you should also research social media “success stories,” campaigns that companies like Pepsi and Starbucks have run. They’re easy to find through Mashable, and are a great model to emulate in your own campaigns.
After you’ve done thorough research on your target audience, you’ll have a good idea of the best platforms to communicate with your audience. Based on your research, you’ll know which sites will be most effective for you to spend your time, money and energy, and can then target your time learning how to use them.
Step Two: Use Said Research to Craft a Strategy.
You should be executing nothing, until you’ve done background research on your target audience, and used that information to develop a viable social media PR/marketing strategy. Without doing the background legwork, and planning a real long-term strategy, your ‘jumping the gun’ will most likely prove futile in terms of ROI.
Not even their catchy "Taste the rainbow" slogan could save them after it started raining tweets.
Example? In Spring 2009, candy company Skittles entered the social media realm, to seemingly wild success– at first. Redesigning their homepage, they integrated a Twitter feed, as well as content from Flickr, Facebook, and Youtube. All seemed great, until the flood of “Twitter @ mentions” started pouring in . . .
. . . And never stopped. Within a few short days, “@Skittles” mentions and “#Skittles” hashtags cluttered Twitter to the point of overload. With all of the traffic, the Twitter feed soon fell prey to “inane comments” and spam, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. It immediately became clear that Skittles had outlined no real crisis control plan to moderate user comments, a necessity in any social media campaign. In effect, ‘fans’ could post what they wanted, however much they wanted.
Skittles’ first real foray into the social media realm was thereafter regarded as one of ZDNet‘s “nine worst social media fails of 2009.” What began as a clever public relations effort quickly turned sour without adequate research and a contingency plan.
Yes, this could take time. But real professionals don’t do rush jobs.
As you can see, it all starts with research and strategy. If you want to create a social media marketing campaign, you still need to do your homework. Yes, this could some time.
…But it sure beats realizing after the fact that your campaign was totally off-the-mark because you didn’t know your target audience wasn’t on Foursquare.
(By the way, I didn’t forget about Step Three: Execution. That’s just a can of worms that deserves its own blog post. Stay tuned, my friends.)
What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts and join the discussion.
About Me:
I'm Robert - a Technology Underwriter at The Hartford Insurance Group, one of the nation's top 10 carriers. Having worked in the communications and risk management industries, I've become passionate about the fields of PR, tech and new media. Thanks for visiting my website!
Linkedin.com/in/RobertBurnsII
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