Where You Should Promote Your ICO on Social Media
News about companies being able to raise more start-up capital from ICOs as compared to venture capital has continued to dominate headlines for quite some time now. However, these articles usually don’t have an all-rounded approach. There’s a general lack of understanding about cryptocurrencies and ICOs. As recently as November 2017, Bloomberg wasn’t aware that you can buy a part of a Bitcoin instead of having to buy the whole of it.
What is an ICO?
Most cryptocurrency projects fundraise their start-up capital by carrying out Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). This is a way of crowdfunding to get the funds for the project that you have. Out of all the tokens or coins that the company has, it will set some aside to be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. In other cases, these tokens may be exchanged for fiat currencies, such as the Dollar. In case the company can meet its fundraising goals successfully, then these tokens will become functional units of the cryptocurrency. ICOs are important because they help a company draw attention to its coins, they attract developers; raise the money needed for development and to popularize the coin, so that people start using it. It’s very important to attract developers, since when the coin is launched; this is just the beginning of its development. The coin will need further development to make it successful in the long term.
How ICOs Work?
The sale of ICOs takes place in two phases. The first phase is the pre-sale and the second phase is the public sale. Both phases might take a couple of days or even weeks. These sales aim to raise enough capital to fund the project. During the pre-sale, tokens are reserved for a select group of people. They can buy the tokens before sales are open to the public. In some cases, the investors must meet certain set criteria for them to be allowed to participate in the pre-sale. This is a way of rewarding some of your committed supporters. Investors might be given bonuses if they make a purchase. The public sale usually lasts more than the pre-sale one. Any member of the public can participate in this sale, if they meet the KYC guidelines. The KYC is usually set in place to prevent money laundering.
This is What Happens During an ICO
- A white paper will be published by the team managing the cryptocurrency project. This paper will detail things such as the plans for the cryptocurrency, how it will be used, what it will be used for, how it will be developed and how the funds raised for the project will be used.
- The team managing the ICO will have a website specifically dedicated to the project. There will also be an online chat platform dedicated for this purpose to help build community and keep people posted about what’s going on with the project. The chats in most cases will be on Telegram, which is a mobile platform.
- A whitelist is going to be created before the project is officially launched. The people on the whitelist will be able to buy tokens during the pre-sale. In case there are more interested people than there are spots in the whitelist, the project team will choose who gets on the list; they might have a lottery to help them allocate spots, or they can use a combination of these two options.
- During the pre-sale and public sale, investors can invest by sending Bitcoin or Ethereum to a wallet address. In case the company raises the set target amount, then they will send tokens to all the investors. But if they don’t achieve their target funding, then they will refund all the contributions that were made.
- If the project can fundraise enough money, then the company will distribute the new coins and get listed on an exchange, and it will start trading live. At this point, the investors who have the new coin can choose to sell or buy more coins at the exchange.
Why Choose to ICO?
There are various reasons why a blockchain might decide to raise money through an ICO.
One of the major reasons is because it’s important to get as many people on board as possible, so that they can start using your coin and so that you can have many developers working on the project. An ICO will help you achieve these goals, as well as help you raise the money required for the project. This creates a win-win situation for both parties involved. That’s why having an ICO is a good idea for most cryptocurrency projects. Apart from having a stellar team to manage your project and coming up with a whitepaper, you really need to do good marketing and tell a convincing story to gain momentum for your funding.
Since ICOs don’t have to deal with a lot of compliance and regulatory issues, the company will be able to save a lot of money since there won’t be excessive fees that they have to pay out for different processes. This makes ICOs a low-cost way of raising funds.
With ICOs, you can reach your fundraising goal much faster than if you were to raise funds through other means, such as using venture capital. This can help you keep up your momentum and get started on your project very fast. This will save your team a whole lot of time.
For the time being, ICOs are one of the best ways to fundraise for cryptocurrency projects. It’s a way of fundraising for new technology. However, there’s no doubt that with time new compliance measures are going to be put in place, to prevent scams or fraudulent behavior.
Where to Promote Your ICO on Social Media
There are so many cryptocurrencies in the market, so you must work extra hard to make your ICO stand out. Good marketing will help you reach a huge audience. For this reason, marketers usually use multiple platforms to fundraise. This includes blogs, websites, forums and crypto communities. Another important and effective channel is advertising on social media. You can be able to reach many people through social media and create awareness about your project.
If you are going to use social media, make sure that you advertise on these platforms:
Facebook has over 2 billion active users. This is fertile ground for you to promote your cryptocurrency and create awareness even among people who are not very much aware of what cryptos are. For instance, you can set up a Facebook page where you will constantly post updates about your ICO. All the people who have liked your page will be able to view your posts on their feeds. The good thing about Facebook posts is that there’s no word limit, so you can even write long paragraphs and articles explaining more about cryptocurrencies. You can even post videos and photographs in your posts. The good thing is that your posts will bring up discussions with members talking with each other in a thread that’s easy to follow. However, you cannot put up crypto related ads on Facebook. This is because many people started posting fake ads on the platform and this made Facebook ban such ads.
Another way to create interest is to set up groups that are solely dedicated to this topic. This allows for more discussion and interaction than a Facebook page. With a Facebook page, the discussion seems to be largely one-sided since posts are made by the admin and most people just comment or reply to comments. But a group is more dynamic and provides enthusiasts with a chance to talk about any trending topics on the subject.
You can choose to pitch your currency on a Facebook group or page or both. Whichever option you choose, you need to prove your credibility as a company. This is because Facebook requires companies to prove their identity. This was after the 2016 elections, where it was argued that Russian organizations tried to influence the results of the US presidential election.
There are downsides to using Facebook though like its big size. This means that there are many bots and fake accounts in use and a lot of fake pages too. So even if you advertise here, you won’t be able to reach your target market that well. Also, the younger generation has moved from Facebook to other social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. This makes pitching on Facebook a financially risky affair since you are not sure if you will reach your target audience.
There are a lot of crypto fans on this platform so you may be able to build a huge following here. When you use this platform, you will get analytical data that will show you how successful your Twitter campaigns have been. You can even pin your tweet about your crypto sale in your account. Even though Twitter has also banned ICO ads, you can still have conversations about the topic on this platform.
There are over 8 billion monthly views on Reddit. This makes Reddit a great platform to market your ICO. You can take advantage of the subreddits to post your message. These subreddits normally show up on top of search results since they are SEO rich. This is a great way to reach the younger population since they are the ones who mostly visit this platform.
- Telegram
A telegram has become one of the most popular ways to market ICOs. If you have many followers on this platform, this could be a sign of your ICO being a success. The messages on this forum are encrypted from end to end, making Telegram a quite secure platform for sending messages.
- Steemit
This is a social media platform that’s based on the blockchain. You can post blog posts here. Popular blog posts get upvoted if you have a lot of votes and Steem power. Then you will be rewarded by having your posts more visible.
For your campaign to be effective, use all these channels and many others. But keep in mind that quality content is one of the best ways to attract potential investors.
The Cost of ICO Marketing
There’s no set marketing cost. You need to think about the whole process involved and how much time and money it will take to run your project successfully.
- Social Media
You can promote your posts to get more visibility. Boosted posts are seen by more people than posts that haven’t been promoted. You can advertise on social media platforms on a low budget. However, you must make your posts very interesting so that your audience will be compelled to click on your page or website to find out more information. You can use videos and attractive images too to draw attention to your posts.
- Google AdWords
You can also advertise on the Google platform. Your advertisements will be displayed at the top of search engine results or on websites that usually display Google ads or even on YouTube videos. However, this can be a very costly platform. Therefore, ensure that you have a marketing plan in place so you can get leads and traffic for your ICO. Otherwise, you might end up spending a lot of money and still not get good results.
- Direct Media Buying
There are many ICO websites or coin listing sites that offer this option. However, it’s best that before you engage with any website that you check out their reviews. This is to ensure that you are advertising on a trusted platform.
