Effect of Social Media on Crowd Funding Project Results

Crowdfunding is a form of collaborative social media. Even though crowd funding can function without social media, this phenomenon has developed greatly with the advance of social media. The studies in entrepreneurship and finance established connections between startup projects and social ties. However, the impact of social media on crowdfunding is still lightly studied in academic literature. The purpose of this thesis is to define the influence of social media on crowdfunding. In particular, this research studies the connections between social media assets such as the social media followers and the social media seals of approval and crowdfunding results such as the delivery of the funding target, the fundraising total, and the number of backers. The value of this research is that it explores the underlying mechanism of social media influence on crowdfunding results and helps individuals and businesses involved in crowdfunding projects identify factors of success and predict results for their projects.