So, I finally had my Girl Clown Kickstarter campaign up and running. An the next step (and equally as important) was PROMOTING IT.

I personally can think of at least two (or more) very inspiring, creative, worthwhile Kickstarter projects that did NOT make their funding.  I believe it was because the campaign wasn’t promoted enough, or the creators didn’t have a network of people to promote it to.

Anyway, I’m going to share with you how I promoted my campaign, and what worked for me.

1.) TWITTER. Twitter is MAGICAL. There are a ton of self-proclaimed “non-Twitter” people out there that will probably skip over this section. But all I can say is, for me, Twitter brought about 40% of the backers for my campaign, and these were PEOPLE THAT I DIDN’T KNOW (except for connecting with them on Twitter). That is how magical Twitter is. Yes, Facebook is great and I wouldn’t give that platform up either, but for creating a new, larger audience for your film (or other creative project), there is nothing like Twitter.

2.) TREAT YOUR CAMPAIGN LIKE A JOB. I sat down for at least 4 hours, every day, 7 days a week to promote my campaign. These are some of the things I recommend that I did:

a.) Make sure the link to your Kickstarter campaign is the MOST PROMINENT LINK on your Twitter and Facebook profiles.

b.) On Twitter, tweet and post the link to your Kickstarter campaign multiple times every day. (Use Hootsuite.com: Schedule tweets every couple of hours, every day in Hootsuite)

c.) Grow and connect with your Twitter people every day. Do searches on Twitter and follow/connect with people who love film (or music/art/theater -whatever medium your project is) and people interested in Kickstarter projects in general (another big group).

d.) Donate to other Kickstarter campaigns (and Indie Go-Go campaigns). VERY IMPORTANT karma-wise, and also for many other reasons. See this great article by filmmaker Paul Osborne about why creators should back other projects.

e.) Write a press release and distribute it online. Now, there are a few ways you can do this. You can do it for free at sites like Free Press Release, OR you can do a professional-quality one PR Web.com (which is what I did.) Here is my GIRL CLOWN Press release

f.) Facebook about it once per day. Unlike Twitter’s real-time platform, your Facebook friends will get annoyed if you post multiple times per day. Once per day on Facebook is just fine, in my opinion.

By doing the above, I found that, not only did I raise the money for my film, but, I also grew a strong and loyal fan base. The magic of a Kickstarter project is that your backers get emotionally involved in your project, and they will also promote it for you because they love it, too. And in general,  a Kickstarter is just GREAT PUBLICITY.

So, please leave a comment below if you have any crowdfunding questions or things that worked for you!

 

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