Social media is full of overnight sensations. Its newest platform, however, is over two decades in the making.
CrowdShare, a software solution designed to be a fan factory, is set to launch on October 3, 2022. The platform is the brainchild of serial entrepreneur and marketing veteran Lane Gregory. According to Gregory, Crowdshare is “a social media branding platform that helps businesses leverage advocacy marketing to further their brand message and reach.” In other words, Crowdshare wants to help brands go viral, faster.
Leading up to its official launch, Gregory has been spreading the word about Crowdshare offline, promoting his platform in particular and advocacy marketing in general. He was a speaker at TechCrunch Disrupt in Berlin, where Crowdshare was touted as the Biggest Social Media Disrupting Software by attendees. High praise, indeed.
Gregory, a career storyteller, has over 20 years of experience in marketing and has worked with some of the top brands in the automotive, hospitality, tech, government, and entertainment industries. What he has learned through consulting and marketing mentorships is that every business — no matter size or industry — can benefit from advocacy marketing. The key to creating more overnight successes, he says, is boosting organic reach to greater audiences and exposure.
While Gregory has already started and sold three businesses, he’s most excited about his latest project, which he wants to use to help jump-start sales for entrepreneurs like himself.
“Simply put, Crowdshare turns friends, colleagues, family, employees, customers, and anyone else that wants to see your brand grow into part of your marketing strategy,” Gregory says. “You never have to awkwardly ask anyone if they’ll share your posts again. When your content is ready, the platform lets them know when it’s time to share; and in less than ten seconds, their fans can share your posts and move on with their day. That’s it.”
Gregory also mentions that, although Crowdshare has only been in development for a few years, it is in fact the culmination of over 20 years of learning. Now, he’s ready to share everything he’s learned.
CrowdShare was chosen to participate in this year’s WebSummit’s elusstrious Startup Program and Gregory is slated to speak at several conferences on building fandom and utilizing your network for marketing. In addition to promoting his new platform, Gregory typically “shares” his experiences as a community advocate, as well as his “Foundational 5”; his faith, his family, his Texas roots, his dad-puns, and his BBQ.
“All of us want to share something,” Gregory observes. “That’s the underpinning of all social media, and why it has been so transformative. CrowdShare simply lets you choose who shares your content, which makes it the only organic marketing engine on the planet. By automating the sharing process, we hope to make our users’ posts and content achieve viral status.”
Crowdshare’s website describes the platform as a disruptive software that helps businesses leverage advocacy marketing to further their brand message and reach. “What that means in practice is that it gives small businesses the chance to compete with bigger brands and companies,” Gregory says. “It’s all about connecting with the broadest audience possible, no matter the size of the business or the size of the industry.”
Although Crowdshare is still days away from its official launch, the platform is already working with national companies such as US Health Advisors, Keller Williams, and Farmers Insurance. Gregory says that his closest competitor is probably social media planner Hootsuite, though their platform is more focused on efficiency, rather than growth.
When Gregory started his marketing career 20 years ago, Facebook did not yet exist. Now, the Metaverse beckons. Crowdshare’s creator says that there will be plenty of room for platforms that help connect creators with consumers in the future, but he thinks that his will have an edge.
“We are offering the only platform where the business can choose who reshares their content because it is up to the business to give out the code,” Gregory observes. “That’s our major point of differentiation.”
