Funding for the arts has become something of an issue in light of the recession and budget cuts in the UK, but social networking has found the answer. Kickstarter is a website that allows businesses or individuals to launch creative projects and try to get funding from their fans and followers to make it happen.

So how does it work? A business or individual will design and plan out their project and work out how much money they will need to make it happen. Projects can be anything from making a movie, writing a book or album to something like the Challenger’s Almanac, a resource for pioneering businesses. When the project goes live people can pledge money to make it happen. It’s an all-or-nothing deal so if the project doesn’t receive all the funds it needs in the time allotted no one pays out.

For successful projects social networking has been key. Twitter and Facebook have been used to garner fans and direct them to the project page. Businesses with a large fan base on Facebook often find they get more pledges because people are passionate about what they do. Kickstarter itself will generate traffic for the project and is something of a social network itself. Creators of the project also offer the people that pledge funding some type of reward – like a free copy or limited edition of the end result.

Kickstarter was launched in April 2009 and more than 2.5 million people have pledged over $350 million dollars to fund 30,000 creative projects. There are currently over 3000 projects live on Kickstarter, so having a following from other social media sites is important to set you up above the rest.

Whether you have a project for your business in mind or want to see what you could support, Kickstarter is worth a look. The power of social media to help grow creative projects is evident here and something very worth investing in.

By Harriet Thacker