Author Marketing

All About Street Teams @pendarielraye #RLFblog #MFRWauthor

Kaden’s Reprieve 
Dariel Raye and I have worked together on several projects,
so when she started a street team recently, I asked if I could tag along. She
soon outran me energy-wise, and I dropped back to admire from a distance. I
asked her to keep me posted on what was what. This is her report. — Kayelle
Allen
  1. Street
    teams are all the rage in the book market right now. Ideally, an awesome group
    of loving fans sacrifice their time and effort to help get the word out about
    our books. Realistically, though, it’s not quite that simple. After contemplating
    the pros and cons of street teams, I finally started one a couple of months
    ago. I’d been reading about them and asking questions from more experienced
    marketers, but since I started working with Raye’s Ravers, quite a few more
    things have been made clear to me. Here’s my take, along with a few suggestions.
  2. Ongoing
    point/reward system is too tedious, and even that doesn’t get everyone sharing/tweeting.
    Also becomes impersonal, IMO. The golden rule for street teams is to find unique
    ways to show appreciation. Never forget that these awesome individuals are
    helping you for FREE, so personal thank yous are definitely a requirement.
    I’ll talk more about this later in #6 and #11. Points/rewards for special campaigns/projects
    works better. You can use Google or some other spreadsheet to help keep up
    with points for each team member during the campaign. I started with a month
    long campaign, but I don’t recommend that – too LONG. Two weeks is probably
    a good maximum for special projects and campaigns.
  3. Don’t accept
    people onto the team who are on more than 5 street teams – there are exceptions
    to every rule, of course, but generally speaking, they simply don’t have time
    to keep up with all the boards, groups, and teams on a regular basis. Unless
    your team quickly becomes a favorite, they’re seldom around to respond to tags
    or any other messages you post.
  4. Create
    a private group for sharing and team files.
  5. I’m sure
    you know this, but very few writers have time to be on street teams. Like you,
    they need to be writing. Any time they have left needs to be spent marketing
    their OWN work. Cross promotion is always awesome, but it should never be just
    about you and your work when working with another author. Enough said.
  6. Team-ONLY
    parties can be nice incentives for special campaigns, and this is another reason
    for #7.
  7. Let people
    go nicely who never share. I call most of them “Friends of Raye’s Ravers”
    because they cared enough to give the team a try, and they still help by sharing
    occasionally. Occasional “house cleaning” is important though. Unless
    a team member lets you know why they’re not around (vacation, family problems,
    illness, etc.), set them free if they don’t respond to posts and never share.
  8. Chatting
    with team members as a group helps everyone get to know each other better –
    strengthens the team and it really is nice to get to know people who like your
    work.
  9. Another
    thing I’m planning is choosing a “Raver” of the week or something
    to help get more consistent sharing. It’ll be random.
  10. Playing
    random games and asking questions helps with team building too.
  11. Create
    special prizes only given to team members to increase interest and pride.
  12. All in
    all, if you’re planning to start a street team, expect to spend the first few
    weeks or so just getting your team up and rolling. In other words, don’t try
    to start a street team in the midst of a big writing project. Your goal is
    to keep the team moving and show appreciation without
    constant hands-on involvement from you. Let’s face it – if your team needs
    your constant attention, you still don’t have time to write! I don’t think
    there’s a hard and fast rule as to what works or doesn’t work, but the beauty
    of it is that the sky’s the limit in terms of fun things to try, and you get
    to meet some awesome people along the way.
Heck, you might even get a little more marketing done than you
can on your own.

Previous Books

Kaden’s Reprieve:
Barnes and Noble http://barnesandnoble.com/w/untameable-heat-dariel-raye/1116022654?ean=2940148255086
Dark Sentinels Book One: Sable:
Amazon http://amzn.com/B008L87H0O
Jordan’s
Wings – The Alerians – Dark Progeny Series:
Amazon http://amzn.com/B00AQBDTJW

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