One of the topics for indie author marketing that was discussed in the recent WMG Publishing Business Master Class created by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch (to which gathering PG was invited) was Street Teams.
What is a Street Team?
A street team is a term used in marketing to describe a group of people who ‘hit the streets’ promoting an event or a product. ‘Street Teams’ are promotional tools that have been adopted industry-wide as a standard line item in marketing budgets by entertainment companies, record labels, the tech industry, corporate brand marketers, new media companies and direct marketers worldwide. The music industry is now seeing a boom in the use of large street teams to reach out to fans and improve sales in the smaller hard to reach fans internationally.
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The concept for organized promotion teams in the music business can also be traced back to mid-1970s, when Starkey and Evans, two teenage KISS fans from Terre Haute, Indiana created the KISS ARMY as a group of fans determined to promote the KISS name. Although this could be more attributed to fan clubs, fans worked together outside of their homes, to promote KISS to other kids at school or while hanging out. This KISS army was quickly taken over by the band KISS itself and army recruits were offered limited edition merchandise and seating.
Usually unpaid, street teams for bands and artists are still often composed of teenagers who are rewarded with free band merchandise or show access in exchange for a variety of actions:
- placing stickers and posters in their communities
- bringing friends to the shows
- convincing friends to buy band merchandise
- phoning the local radio stations to request their songs for airplays & voting in the charts
- bringing vinyl and CDs to local DJs in the clubs where they work
- posting to band forums and bulletin boards online
PG is interested in how visitors to TPV use street teams in connection with their books, how street teams are managed (or not) and organized. He is also interested in any negative experiences, reasons street teams don’t/haven’t worked.
Links to useful resources relating to indie authors and street teams would also be great.
I love the concept of street teams. At first glance, the term itself is a fairly nostalgic term andddd it wasn’t limited to rock bands of the 80s. It still isn’t! People who side eye it skeptically most likely haven’t seen the sci-fi, fantasy, and sports fans mobilizing for their favorite groups.
Firefly, anyone? We still see browncoats hitting conventions as cosplayers, people slipping others fan-made art of Serenity, and River’s “I can kill you with my brain” memes flooding even the most non scifi feeds of social media.
Outlander, folks! First it was a quiet following, then it grew as it acquired more and more fans over the years since the 1990s, and now it’s an internet sensation for about five years with street teams organizing things their own way across different chapters. Groups host streamings of the newest Outlander episode, whether it was live social media or in personal homes together.
I put up large examples of nerdery in its finest above, but there are plenty of small published books garnering enough fans who employ all the elements of street teaming it up. Stink eyeing the fact that social media take up probably 75% of interactions, graphic design, etc doesn’t really change that core element of ‘teams’. If anything, I see room for innovation here. I have fantasies, but it’ll take some hardening, logistics, and clear-eyed look at what works to really push the envelope.
Even games have street teams in their own way. I think the common denominator in many of these situations is that most of these started with fans, but I always appreciate when companies, authors, etc see potential and expand on this. Hell, new apps and programs have something like that. Discord has a huge following that boomed two-three years ago, and on top of this, I’m loving that there are fan servers for romance readers and nerds alike now. A few of the authors are actually engaging in their own servers on Discord or creating an entire Slack server for their teams in general (beta readers, ARC team, etc).
On a far smaller scale are local wrassling groups. I’m not talking high school and college wrestling, I’m talking wrassling featuring the same backtalk and scripted rivalries as WWE. Sort of. Local shows, especially in rural areas, tend to be far more bloodier and willing to take more risks for adrenaline pumping performance. Fans put up surprisingly excellent posters with an eye for decent graphic designer career in a few years, put on outfits, and engage in friendly rivalry with opposing fans. Wrestling will never die lol, and there’s something about this that gives me inspiration.
Back to books, though. Look at Kit Rocha. Two self published authors, one pen name, and very popular post apocalyptic romance erotica series. They use ecommerce to also sell handmade merchandise, including jewelry, stickers, online banners / posters / cover art, etc. They’ve got swag. They’ve got great fans. They probably have a street team. Hmm, I’m pretty sure they do…
“Street Team” may seem like a misnomer… but it does hearken back to those days of physical fanbois and girls clubs while taking on a life of its own across the interwebs. I think it’s great… and I also think I rambled too much while low on caffeine early in the morning.
I make no apologies! LOL.
The concept of having a ‘Street Team’ is a great one.
I know there are a lot of prolific Romantica authors who have (or claim to have) them. But aside from that one genre, I don’t know any other authors who have enough unpaid fans to be able to claim they have a street team.
Most writers I know are struggling to get a mailing list of more than just family and a few author friends.
The term brings back memories of Amazon’s message boards and the hoards of harpies shrieking ‘Shill! Shill!’ when you mentioned that you liked any Indie e-book.
Many an Indie went down in flames, never to return.
Sounds like there are a few misconceptions here. In modern digitally-focused indie publishing, “Street Teams” are almost entirely focused on social media. It’s basically a core group of fans that are so excited about the latest release that they can be counted on (and organized for the purpose) to:
– Spread the word about the launch on FB and Twitter
– Leave early reviews
– Maybe even buy early copies to jumpstart the algos
Street marketing can be fun! My placing promotional book information sales cards in clear acrylic unexploited advertising space on rapid transit commuter trains has resulted in many social media connections and a few readers. Marketing campaigns should be as tightly targeted and focused as possible, so I think it is important that my book’s topic is broad enough to attract a wide audience.
Sounds like a really cool name in search of an application. Think anyone would bother if they were called Mobile External Marketing Units? Anyone want to be a MEMU?
How about Mobile External Nutter Units?
Would you like to be next on the MENU? 😉
These days, authors sometimes use the term “Street Team” to mean any fans who help promote your work. It is rarely––if ever–– actually on the street these days.
Folks leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, they share social media posts about your books, they talk up your books to friends.
Authors who do a lot of big conventions use them in other ways that I’m unsure of.
I have a small, dedicated Advance Review Team and other loyal readers who spread the word about sales and new releases. They are invaluable and I’m grateful for their help.
Frankly, I can’t think of a more ridiculous way for a writer to promote his books or other materials.
Street teams might work OK for rock bands, pizza places, a circus coming to town, and other stuff. But for book promos, on a cost-v.-benefits analysis, it comes up woefully short IMHO.
To quote Sam Goldwyn: “Include me out.”
You’d have to be ‘very’ well know for street teams to do you any good.
And any paid-for street teams are called astroturfers! 😛
MYMV