The amazing growth of crowdfunding means everyone wants a piece of that action. But although the industry is worth an estimated $5 billion globally, it’s not all about the money.

Not only can crowdfunding help get money for your project, but it can be the perfect marketing tool
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Sure, crowdfunding can lend a hand in providing much -needed financing for your idea, but it can also be the perfect launchpad for “the next big thing”. Oculus is a case in point, a company that began life as a Kickstartercampaign and went on to be acquired by Facebook for $2 Billion this year.

With so many great crowdfunding ideas to choose from it's a lot harder to get noticed
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With so many great ideas to choose from, however, getting noticed in the crowd is also getting a lot harder. Gone are the days when you could get away with badly spelled copy, boring rewards and sloppy videos. Those are now the minimum standards for any campaign worth its salt, and there’s really no excuse, as platforms like Indiegogo and Kickstarter make it easy to put together a nice page. On top of these basics, there are 3 key things that can really make a difference to crowdfunding success, and while working on several campaigns I learned from people in the trenches what they are:

1 — Set your target amount low, and exceed it early

A high target can put some supporters off, especially at the start of the campaign, when it can seem too large a mountain to climb. Ideally, you want to reach over 30% of your target amount in the first few days of the campaign. That gives you a lot more chance to get promoted in the platforms, and creates a buzz of excitement around the campaign. You can always exceed your target, and that looks good too. The trick is to go as low as you can, while still being confident that the minimum amount you set is enough to keep your promises to the community, so keep this realistic, and be honest with your supporters. One recent example where this went really well, as a campaign run by Ramen VR for the virtual world, Zenith. They initially looked to raise an initial $ 25,000 USD and easily achieved that within several hours. It’s been so successful that Zenith has managed to raise just over $ 167,000 with a month still to go.

It’s not a Monty Python restaurant, so Spam is definitely not on the menu where it comes to Crowdfunding
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2 — Communicate constantly and creatively

It’s not a Monty Python restaurant, so Spam is definitely not on the menu. What you need is to have a solid plan of how you will roll out relevant content across all your social media channels, engaging your existing supporters and encouraging them to bring new ones on board. Shareability is key, so think interesting visuals, video, multimedia, games, and text content that will intrigue and delight your community. Someone at Indiegogo once told me that “Crowdfunding is just another word for marketing, and a successful crowdfunding campaign demands around-the-clock promotion. In today’s technocracy, that translates to constant tweets, relentless Facebook status updates, email blasts up the wazoo, sleep strikes, the occasional hunger strike, and any other means by which to keep your project on the minds of your friends, family, and supporters”.

Shareability is key, so think interesting visuals, video, multimedia, games, and text content that will intrigue and delight your community
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3 — Leverage influencers

Think long and hard about what the audience is for whatever you’re crowdfunding. When you have that picture firmly in your head, start thinking about the type of person that audience is likely to listen to, especially on social media. They might be celebrities, or simply trusted influencers in their field, but getting them on side is key to energising your campaign and giving it that extra reach and momentum. Do your research and find things about yourself and your campaign that would interest those people, and reach out to them proactively with any means at your disposal.

Think long and hard about what the audience is for whatever you’re crowdfunding
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Remember that there are many benefits to crowdfunding when it’s done right, and these certainly go beyond reaching your money target. Film director Ashley Thorpe from Carrion Films, currently producing an animated short about Borley Rectory, used his Indiegogo campaign to grab the attention of the likes of Julian Sands and Reece Shearsmith, who are now taking part in the project. He’s in no doubt that crowdfunding elevated his company’s status and potential in spite of the campaign falling short in financial terms. “With the reward costs and fees deducted, we were left with about half of the film’s budget in the end, but I have raised the profile of what I’m attempting to do tenfold, and made connections with groups of people that I never thought I’d get to work with”.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Successfully Crowdfunding Your Idea appeared first on Tech Trends.

Teachers are increasingly embracing technology in the classroom, and one platform is helping them do this.

“When you hear that the average textbook in an under-funded school in the US dates back to 1989 and still refers to the USSR, it really drives home the importance of teacher-created resources in the classroom,” Says Tom Glover, Communications Director at TES Global.

Founded in 1910, TES can hardly lay claim to being the new kids on the education block, but they are nevertheless taking the lead in some important innovations in that space. They are home to the world’s largest online community of teachers, with 8 million registered users, who collectively downloaded over 200 million classroom resources in 2015.

The average textbook in an under-funded school in the US dates back to 1989 and still refers to the USSR
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This represents a significant shift, showing how teachers are embracing technology, specially when it comes to sourcing their lesson materials. TES conducted a survey amongst 3,000 teachers in 2015 found that 69% felt that those sort of community-curated resources were more relevant and useful than textbooks.

Teachers are embracing technology, specially when it comes to sourcing their lesson materials
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Global engagement and demand for shared classroom resources is soaring, with the platform currently attracting around a million downloads per day. TES are now launching new services such as a blended teacher training service in the UK which also supports recruitment.

Global engagement and demand for shared classroom resources is soaring
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The plan is to continue growing globally, specially in markets such as the US and Australia, where they already have about 75% of teachers signed up to the platform. As big as they are, however, Glover stresses that there is a lot of room left to grow, as there are around 70 million teachers worldwide that could benefit from access to such platforms.

there are around 70 million teachers worldwide that could benefit from access to platforms such as TES
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Embracing digital technology is therefore crucial in remaining relevant to teachers, and he marvels at how much the landscape has changed since his own time as a student:

 

“The technology I remember most clearly from my school days in the UK was the BBC Micro computer. It was built by Acorn for the BBC and was adopted by most schools in the UK during the 1980s which completely changed Acorn’s fortunes. Educational games like Granny’s Garden stick in the memory, and also Elite which had quite a cult following.”

Education applications for virtual reality will have an extremely positive impact on classroom engagement
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“I think the education applications for virtual reality are hugely exciting and will have an extremely positive impact on engagement of students in the classroom all over the world, creating real and exciting learning experiences. The costs of something like Google Expeditions (A Virtual Reality education initiative running off Google Cardboard) shows that this doesn’t have to be reserved for the rich. Fundamentally though, I think that education in the future and the technology we use, should be teacher-led. They are the real experts in education and we should be led by them.”

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Building a Global Teaching Community appeared first on Tech Trends.