Assessing types of social media signals on crowdfunding campaign success

In the context of increasing austerity for cultural funding across Europe, artists without a solid commercialization strategy (non-commercial artists) increasingly turn to alternative finance methods such as crowdfunding. This research investigates how signals external to crowdfunding platforms, such as social media signals, impact the success of cultural crowdfunding campaigns, particularly in the music industry. With a framework built on signaling theory and media richness theory, this study analyzes data from a Dutch cultural crowdfunding platform and corresponding Instagram activity in order to assess the impact of external signaling on success. Findings confirm that the quantity and richness of campaign signals-especially dynamic formats like video-positively influence both financial and social success metrics. While internal signals remain more predictive overall, this research highlights the importance of external social capital amid shifting cultural policy, as well as the need for further investigation on the effects of external signaling on crowdfunding. The study contributes to literature on cultural financing, and it suggests that artists should strategically consider external social media signaling in their crowdfunding communication.