Tips for Building your Author Street Team by SASS #ChaBooCha

Hello, Chapter Book Challenge participants! My name is Jo Michaels, and I’m an author, book blogger, radio show host, and all around tank of knowledge from which you may syphon information. I’m also part of a lovely team of women who’ve come together to help support struggling authors. 

Today’s topic is street teams! We hope you find it useful.

Have you ever wondered what a street team is? Ever wanted to create one for yourself and didn’t know how to go about it? Well, the ladies of SASS (Struggling Author Street-team Services) have put their heads together to come up with a few handy tips that’ll have you well on your way to street team bliss in no time.

If you’re ready, get your notepads out and let’s get going!

You need to make sure people are aware that they’re joining a street team. some may not have a clue what that means. There’s a short tutorial below, prepared by a member of SASS, but the rules are up to you. You need them promoting. That’s why you created a street team. You need that support to get your name out there so you can carry on writing!

Be firm with the rules.

Write a description to make it clear it’s a street team not a fan group! Then think of what you want from them. It may seem harsh, but at the end of the day, if they don’t like it they can leave. You will then know who your proper fans are and work from there. Post on your author page asking if anyone wants to join to help spread the word.

Use incentives like ARCs, team previews, team inputs! One author asks her team for their opinions on titles and covers. When you have a fan knowing you value your readers’ opinions, it makes them more willing to help spread the word.

While some of your members may be well versed in the workings of street teams, there will be many who don’t.  Below is a quick guide to help you get started.

Here’s how you can go about setting your street team up for success!

1. Come up with a catchy/clever name.

2. Create your group on facebook and plug in your description.

3. Ask folks to join your team and add them as friends.

4. Create albums of photos in your group for each of your books and upload teasers, covers, and banners. Be sure and put a buy link on the description of each and every one.

5. Come up with an incentive plan and stick to it.

6. Lose the fear of asking for things. This is your street team, they’re there to support you, the writer. If they don’t, they miss out on all the goodies.

Your street team should:

1.  Have an album on each of their devices where they save all your covers, banners, and teasers.  For quick and easy sharing, they should always have these handy.

2.  Keep an eye out for competitions on Facebook pages. These are usually book blogs who offer to change their profile picture/banner to the winning author’s cover for a week so it's visible to all that visit the page—some also offer author spotlights. All will usually be quite clear what they are after, and the usual ones are detailed below:

2a.  Covers - book covers only, some blogs allow you to add buy links if you have them

2b.  Banners - banners only, be careful though as some blogs run banner competitions where they use 3 covers to make a banner so keep any eye out on the description

2c.  Teasers - teasers are images with book quotes to draw people in

2d. Tag - just tag the authors name (which is why it's important you’re friends with one another)

Most of these contests are won by "Mr. Random selects," so authors with smaller street teams have the same chance as those with larger. Some, however, are "most likes no dups" so basically your team should check whether you have a post. If you do, they should like that post instead of duplicating and diluting the amount of likes. Each time your team posts for you, make sure they tag you, too. Some contests award extra likes if the author likes or comments on the post! Some blogs will have the stipulation that you must be a follower of the blog to enter, so make sure you and your team members like the page.

3. Throughout the year, some pages will also run reader awards, when these are posted they will be "most likes wins.” Watch out for those, and enter your street team so they can win, too!

From time to time, you should donate prizes to top performers. Things like e-books, signed books, gift cards, and swag go over well, just make sure you have a way to track the incentive.

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About SASS:

SASS is a group on Facebook that helps promote new Indie authors (those with less than 3k likes on their pages) and helps numerous authors whip their street teams into shape. They also run blog tours, cultivate reviewers, and do all things bookish (there’s even a member that makes book trailers). Oh, and they do it all pro-bono. So, if you’re having trouble with your street team (not creating, but with the management of it all), feel free to contact the administrators on their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/SassifyYourself Oh, and we’d love a like, if you feel so inclined to do so. You can also follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SassPromotions

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Give-away

Today's give-away is The Indie Author's Guide to: Building a Great Book by Jo Michaels. If you are a signed-up member of ChaBooCha, all you need to do to be entered into the drawing for this book is comment on this blog post. Winners will be selected from a random number generator on March 31st at noon (GMT).