Your community is your greatest resource.
Before you launch, it is important to spend time finding and engaging the right audience for your project, and plan a communications strategy for inviting those people to be a part of your campaign. Carefully think through how you’ll approach promoting your project:
While an exceptional project can find outpourings of support from all over the web, much of your support may still come from people who already know your work: your fans, friends, and community.
You should also spend time before launch drafting specific messaging for friends and family that are active online and have large followings. Provide them with sample Facebook or Twitter posts that they can easily use to spread the word once you launch. Keep your messages personal, showcasing your project’s unique features and rewards — a personal note tends to get a better response than a form letter.
“Our goal was to do 90% of the work in advance. For example, crafting emails 2–3 days early so we just needed to click ‘send’ when we launched.” says creator
Mike Del Ponte.
Outside of your nearest and dearest, research media outlets and bloggers who may be interested in what you’re doing. Gather lists of relevant blogs, media outlets, and online communities — like forums, message boards, or Facebook groups you know will care about your work. Google topics and projects related to yours and see who writes about them, and find venues and publications that cover similar work. It’s important to explore where your project fits in the broader context of your field.