Kaden’s Reprieve

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.

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