6 things you should be doing on Linkedin now if want to crowdfund

“The crowd round” is something that many businesses now have on their radar as a potential activity. Crowdfunding is now widely understood as a great way to come out as a business and demand to be taken seriously by the market. Players like Revolut, Monzo and Brewdog have set a precedent and have brought some serious investors to the platforms they launched on. 

Crowdfunding (firstly and foremostly) allows you to invite your own contact lists, including professional contacts, friends, family and customers, to become part of your success. But it also opens you up to new investor and business audiences. It enables you to publicly command a level of respect that otherwise would be only visible to those behind the closed office doors of sophisticated investors. 

In this joined-up world we live in today that promotes equal opportunities for all, equity crowdfunding makes sense. Why should only a specific few benefit from the success of a business?

So whether you’re about to embark on a crowd raise, you think it is something that you ‘might’ consider in the future, or you’re sure you’ll do it at some point, but not yet, here is a list of things to start right now that I know will make a difference to you and your chance of crowdfunding success as and when you do go ahead. If you don’t go ahead, it should prove useful to your business regardless.

6 things to do on Linkedin:

1. Get your and your team’s Linkedin profiles on the same page.
   • Ensure your titles are correct, that you’re all linked to your Linkedin company page as employees and that your images are professional, consistent and on-brand. 
2. Get a line at the top of your profile explaining exactly what it is that you do.
   • Look at mine if you're not sure what I mean!
3. Become a thought leader, even if only once a month.
   • What do you have to say about your industry?
   • Surely you have some opinions?
   • What’s hard, what’s frustrating, what is wonderful to see?
   • Share your thoughts either as short mind-dump-style posts or as full blog posts at least once a month.
   • It might also pay to share the odd thing about crowdfunding to educate your network on this. Don't overthink this, just be honest and post.
4. Notice who likes, shares and comments on those posts.
   • Thank them, make a note of who they are, connect with them and start a conversation.
   • Those who are most interested in your story are often the easiest to sway towards conversations about investment, even if just token amounts so notice who is taking notice!
5. Take interest in the posts of people who are influential in your space.
   • What are they saying?
   • Do you have any comments to leave on their posts?
   • Or opinions that might make them notice you and connect?
   • Can you share what they’re sharing? If yes, then do.
6. Connect with secondary connections that may be useful to link up with.
   • Who currently takes the most interest in your business and what you do?
   • Who is liking, commenting on and sharing your posts?
   • Who are you emailing?
   • Who do you share the opinions of?
   • Now, who are these people connected to?
   • Find them and send them a note inviting them to connect with you too.
   • Widen your network as much as possible by connecting with secondary connections in this way and engaging in brief conversations. When you’re crowdfunding, the amount you raise is directly proportional to the number of emails you send and the size and quality of your audience, the more people you can talk to, the more chance of raising investment.

If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that in-person, face-to-face networking is optional. You can network online. You can have video calls if people want to chat to an actual voice. You don’t need to be in a room with someone to get their attention, but in order to get attention, you do need people with their ears turned on. So build that crowd and fill your virtual room with open ears, so that people are present and listening when you have something to say. 

Allowing people to be part of your story is powerful. Don’t just start connecting with and talking to people when you want something. Do it habitually and broaden that crowd as an ongoing activity starting right now. That way, when you do want something, or you have an opportunity to present (i.e. the chance to invest), you have a nice crowd of people to talk to who are already engaged with and interested in your story, rather than scrambling to make noise to a half-filled room of unengaged people who don’t know what you’re talking about.

Written by Kirsty Ranger, CEO @ ISQ