Do Influencers Matter in Crowdfunding?

Look at Instagram’s most popular accounts. It’s common to see these people highlighting a product, app, or service.

Does this mean that they use them on a daily basis? Chances are, probably not.

What do they do? These power users are paid by companies to provide exposure to an unique audience. Depending on the product, you could see a Facebook post, a Tweet, or a YouTube video with a call out.

Does this cheapen the product? Using a person to sell? Not really, it’s actually where a lot of marketing is headed.

But is there an ROI for a crowdfunding project to use influencers?

It depends on what you’re looking for. Don’t think you’re going to get a wave of backers. Don’t even plan to get one. You’re not going to convert like a Facebook Ad or Promoted Tweet.

Famebit is a site that connects companies with influencers. We’re not sure if there’s a strict vetting of who is considered an “influencer.”

You create campaigns that influencers can propose their services. Depending on what you’re looking for, you find influencers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and YouTube.

The campaigns have set price ranges that you choose and once you’re happy with the campaign details, you set it public, and wait for influencers to come to you. Like a plague.

That’s the short explanation.

Pros of Famebit

1. Lots of proposals — The main pro for Famebit is that you get a ton of proposals. Depending on the platforms chosen, you’re going to get the spread of excellent to waste-of-time. I’m sure for higher, more well known influencers, spending a lot of money can get some great exposure.
2. Communication — Famebit’s site is crap and prone to crashing. But one good thing is that you can message influencers. This leads to faster hiring or denial of proposals.
3. Approve all content — Rather than just hire someone and hope they create assets that match your brand voice, you approve all content before it goes live.
4. There are some excellent influencers — We found that there’s a small, but strong selection of influencers who know what they’re doing, reply to messages, and can write copy without a lot of direction but in their unique voice.

Cons

1. Lots of proposals — It’s sad to say that about 90% of the proposals you’ll get are worthless. The proposals received ranged from idiocy to extremely insane. You’re going to have to read and decline a lot.
2. There are “influencers” who shouldn’t be — It became a consistent trend that many proposals would include follower or like counts. But looking at their accounts, it was obvious that some of these were bought. These accounts were also the ones who asked more than our budget, thinking their 100k followers justified a $500 proposal.
3. Follower numbers don’t matter, it’s about engagement/reach — Famebit gives you reach and engagement stats for each proposal. READ THEM. It was through these numbers we found that Facebook is generally worthless, Twitter doesn’t result in much, and YouTube is an open plain to everyone talking about anything.
4. There’s no quality control — Famebit is an introduction to influencers. But you’re not going to find the best without being patient.

Influencers are great if you’re selling something that’s readily available. People get that preview from the influencers’ account and can make a decision to buy or not.

With crowdfunding, you’re already battling against a product that’s not releasing for a number of months. Then you battle against getting people to go from social media to a Indiegogo/Kickstarter page to back a project.

If you’re going to use influencers, the goal should be reach and exposure. Short of having a very strong visual product, you’re not going to convince many people to convert to backers.

Testing influencers against crowdfunding was interesting. Even with a small budget, it had some interesting results.

Read the full case study at Crowdtoolz to feel our pain.