Hey folks!
So, we’re a week into our Kickstarter campaign and thought it was probably time for another update on where our heads are.
Before we get to the tip for today, we thought it might be helpful to share some of the other questions and frustrations we’ve faced. Primarily, the biggest issue we’re having is getting our film out there. Even though we sit over a quarter of a way to our goal with three weeks left, I think we all thought that our project would be more in the public by this point.
We’ve really tried to not spam people, so we attempted to get our project out into the world a number of other ways. As we mentioned in an earlier post, we’ve hit the following:
Traditional media: We sent a press release out using PR Newswire, which, in theory, hits all the major traditional news outlets (note: this is a paid service).
Events: We co-hosted an event in Brooklyn where we screened clips from the film and interacted with fans.
Social Media: We’re releasing exclusive content (30-35 pictures and 3-4 videos per week) viaTwitter, which is subsequently posted on Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Vimeo, YouTube andJux.
In terms of a success rate, it would seem that the social media campaign is paying off best. When logging into Kickstarter, we can see that over a third of our pledges have come from people directed to Kickstarter by Twitter. The press release hasn’t yielded much to this point, other than a few articles and minor mentions; we’ll have to wait and see if it winds up being worth the investment. The success of the event is harder to gauge: we didn’t see a major bump, but we have seen people mention it across the internet and, though we don’t have evidence of it, we do have the sense that it fostered a loyal fanbase who will spread the news of our film by word of mouth.
We’re still trying to figure out the best way to craft our Tweets, which seems like a ridiculous thing to say, but it’s true. Why? We have friends who are extremely into Twitter and love this project, but have told us they haven’t watched our videos because they don’t click links on Twitter. When we showed these same friends our exclusive video of Caroll and Jim Henson, they freaked out with excitement. So, how do we get that video to people who will really care about it? We’re still working on that and will report back. We’re also trying to determine if it’s wise to put a link directly to the Kickstarter campaign in the Tweet or if that’s too much information in 140 characters. Again, we’ll let you know what we decide. Of course, if any reader has feedback on these strategies, we’d gladly accept it!
Ok, somewhere in here we’re supposed to give a tip, right? Here’s today’s tip: answer everyone! As soon as we launched our Kickstarter campaign, we were bombarded with emails and Tweets, etc. It took a long time, but we have answered every single one. We’ve even sought out comments on message boards to respond to. We have found that this practice results in loyal fans who are willing to both pledge and encourage others do the same.
That’s about it for now. We’ve gotta go scan Twitter for mentions of Caroll Spinney and make sure those people are pledging!
Much love,
The Copper Pot Crew