{"id":645,"date":"2017-10-16T15:18:44","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T15:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/161.35.63.92\/index.php\/2017\/10\/16\/street-teams-and-how-to-use-them-part-1\/"},"modified":"2022-06-29T12:28:41","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T17:28:41","slug":"street-teams-and-how-to-use-them-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/draft2digital.com\/blog\/street-teams-and-how-to-use-them-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Street Teams and How to Use Them (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Street teams, beta readers, first readers\u2014there are a lot of names for this group of loyal followers who volunteer to help authors do their work better and faster. Regardless of what you call them, though, a street team can be an invaluable part of your author strategy. In Part 1 of this two-part series, let\u2019s take a look at how to build your street team. In Part 2, we\u2019ll dive into how best to use your street team for world domination.<\/p>\n

What is a Street Team?<\/h3>\n

To make things simple, we\u2019re going to define a street team as:<\/p>\n

\u201cA group of loyal readers, already on your mailing list or already connected to you on social media, with whom you have an established relationship, and who have volunteered to read, edit, and review your work.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

That\u2019s kind of a beefy definition, but it covers all the angles.<\/p>\n

Essentially, a street team is comprised of readers, and particularly readers who already love you and your books. And it\u2019s important that these are loyal readers, because what you\u2019re asking of them takes a certain amount of work on their part.<\/p>\n

Street teams have been a part of the internet marketing landscape almost since the start. In large part, the concept of a street team seems to have evolved from \u201cbeta testers.\u201d In the software development and technology world, a beta tester is someone who volunteers to be a guinea pig of sorts, trying out some unproven and untried version of a commercial product before it goes live, reporting bugs and problems as they encounter them so the developer can fix those and make the product better.<\/p>\n

The benefit for a beta tester is that the product they\u2019re trying out is theirs for free. The \u201cprice\u201d they pay, really, comes down to the fact that they\u2019ll have to put up with some bugs and glitches and other undesirables while testing, and they\u2019re asked to document those bugs and report them to the makers of the product.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s handy for the beta tester, because they get free stuff. It\u2019s handy for the product developer, too, because they get valuable data and feedback from real users, with very low (or no) financial investment or overhead. The users tell the makers what\u2019s right and what\u2019s wrong with the product, and the maker fine-tunes things based on this feedback, eventually releasing a better and more refined product to the public.<\/p>\n

For authors, the process is the same. The author can write their book, and then give it to their street team (beta readers<\/i> in this case), and solicit feedback on everything from the pacing and style to typos and grammar gaffs. Street teams can even provide valuable feedback on the cover design, the book description, and the marketing messaging for advertisements and promotions. And, as we\u2019ll discuss in a bit, they can provide early reviews to help on launch day for the book.<\/p>\n

How to Build a Street Team<\/h3>\n

Building a street team isn\u2019t difficult, but it does take a bit of pre-work. For this exercise, you\u2019ll need the following:<\/p>\n