Hi!
My name is Niecey and this is my journey as a Street Team Coordinator. I’ve been on TikTok for five years now, but my adventures in booktalk began just one year ago. I made many friends in this wonderful community. I’ve even decided to dip my toe in writing pool and I am currently working on the rough draft of my first book. I’ve gotten to know many talented authors along the way , and I do everything in my power to support their work.
One day while I was perusing my FYP, I stumbled across a video for Melanie Martin’s Blossom In Winter Series. I was intrigued by the enthusiastic fans posting videos, so I decided to visit the comments section with an inquiry. To my surprise, Melanie Martins herself answered and it turns out that this was her team. What is a street team? I asked. It’s a group of dedicated fans who assist in promoting the author.
Once I learned about this, I immediately knew what I wanted to do. I approached author Sylas Seabrook with the idea of starting a street team. While he loved the idea, he had no idea where to begin, so I offered to be his Street Team Coordinator! And my journey began.
We started out by asking his alpha and beta readers to join and they immediately said yes. This was definitely a good place to start. Your alpha and beta readers are heavily invested in your success. They assist you in the writing process of your stories to enhance the qualities of your books.
We then turned to his ARC readers. You rely on these people to provide some of the first reviews to help put your book on the map. Most of them said yes. Those who declined felt that they didn’t have the time to give the team the attention that it deserved. We appreciated their honest answers. After all, we want people on the team who are dedicated to promoting the author. To our surprise, many people who declined became unofficial members of the Street Team with strong support for Sylas.
I’m sure you’re starting to ask yourself, what does a Street Team do? I will share with you what we’ve done.
First we researched the most popular hashtags that pertained to the book such as #sciencefiction and #youngadult.
Once we agreed on a list, we asked the street team to use them on each of their posts for consistency in marketing. We also reposted one another’s videos to reach more of our followers.
Sylas shared artwork for the book with the street team for their posts on social media.
Being the multi-talented man that he is, Sylas also created videos for his less tech savvy members such as myself. The more talented members created fantastic videos of their own.
We developed a schedule for posting videos for the team that ramped up the closer we got to the release date.
Members also showed up to support Sylas whenever he had interviews on social media.
Another thing that Street Team is expected to do is review the book, preferably on Amazon and Goodreads no later than release day. Book reviews on their social media pages are welcomed as well. It’s how we found two of our Street Team members.
Street Team members can also hype up the book to friends, family, and other readers.
Team members were also given a sneak peek of the book cover. Sylas provided a video and pictures of the cover with missing puzzle pieces to announce the upcoming cover reveal. We then showed up to support him in the interview with the big reveal. We then posted the cover on our social media pages.
Some of the ideas that we researched were promoting the book to book clubs and working get it into libraries and books stores. We weren’t able to do that this time around, but we’ve got 10 books ahead of us so anything is possible.
By now you are probably wondering, what’s in it for the Street Team Members? Aside from the pure joy promoting some of our favorite books by one of our favorite authors, here is a list of perks that Sylas provided for us:
- Advance electronic copies of the book
- Exclusive written content on some back stories of our favorite characters
- Access to him for interviews on our social media platforms.
- A $20.00 discount on merchandise
- Autographed copies of the paperback version of the book.
If you are starting a street team of your own, I hope you found this article helpful. Good luck on your future endeavors!
From Sylas Seabrook:
Having a street team has been a fun part of the ride. When Niecey suggested the street team, I was willing to try anything—and I still am—to promote sales. It required a bit from me that I’d like to share.
- Schedule interviews and create a shared calendar.
Exposure is always good. - Create video content
This took by far the most amount of time. I created 2-4 videos every week. These were videos without sound that I shared on the Discord channel so that team members could post them and choose the music to play. - Funding
Offering the $20 discount on merch was expensive, and it may not be in your purview at this point. I didn’t get many takers on this offer, so your mileage may vary. - Distribute the e-book early
Get this into their hands. People talk about their current read, so the sooner you get people reading it, the sooner they’ll be proactive in communicating about it. Besides, who can promote a book they’ve never read? - Communication & Management
It’s important to work with your coordinator to maintain the health of your team. If people are confused or frustrated or any other thing, the coordinator is most likely to know about it and provide you with an opportunity to correct it.
Also, not everyone who signs up for team membership fully appreciates the work it takes to be a team member and it can be overwhelming for some. It’s important not to frustrate these people by removing them from the team and letting them know that you appreciate their support and hope you keep supporting them, but you don’t want the team schedule to have a negative life balance for them.
It takes some work, but having a street team is very much a blessing and I look forward to working with the fantastic Niecey and fabulous street team members of Team Trib.