Street Teams - learn from the Pros

I have just been wandering about the web looking at info on Street Teams for my seminar talk.

Amanda is the expert at these as she ran them for a while - but she's not here!

Fancorps have long been a leader in providing these services to major brands and artists alike and I noticed that they offer a free pdf for download that explains their service.

I'm not suggesting that you need to hire them (although you could - I have no idea what they charge), but just reading their pdf tells you a lot about how they think an online street team can spread the word about your music - and so you can apply that thinking to setting up your own team.

Start off by emailing your fan list and ask them to sign up again to a separate list (any decent email service like those we recommend in our Fan List posts can do this) and then give them assets to use, tasks to do and street team only rewards for doing so.

Give it a go.

Read the Fan Corps concept here.

And get the pdf to inspire you here.

How to run an online street team

Thanks to @Buzzsonic for this and for making me have a good look at the Fan Manager site that it's on - loads of great advice.

This piece is all about creating street teams online - something that Amanda is a bit of an expert on seeing as that's how she started out in the Music Biz.

The entry below will cover everything you need to know about online street teaming in this new digital era.  Although physical street teams are still important and relevant for many hard touring bands, online street teaming is becoming much more prevalent.  Here is why…

1) It has never become so easy to reach tens of thousands of people in just a few minutes. In today’s ADD culture, people want instant bite sized bits of information. People are tuning out billboards and traditional advertising and are much more willing to listen to a recommendation of a new track, video, or concert from a friend.  This is why platforms like Twitter and Facebook are so important today

2) People are becoming more Green and online marketing leaves absolutely no carbon footprint. There is nothing more disheartening than seeing handbills and other marketing materials littering a venue, plus there can be fines for blatant disregard of public property. 

3) The technology is developing at such a rapid pace and sharing content is a seamless process now.  The power of fans to create viral sensations through word of mouth is unparalleled and traditional media is struggling to keep up with the change.  The power is back in the hands of the passionate fans out there.

Here are our tips on how to get this done right…

Read the piece here.

One of the things that I love about this piece is that these guys do this day in day out. The advice is on their own site, so you can look around and see exactly how they do it for real.

Have a look at the tools that they use for each artist and how they have a page of assets for street teamers to use - it's genius. I especially like the hosted fliers and banners and media players which have Facebook share and Twitter Tweet buttons and Forum BB code - as you can see in the screen grab above.

All you have to do is point your street team to the asset page and they can share your band's stuff directly from there.

I will be copying this method!

 

Superfans and how not to upset them

If you are relying on your superfans to promote yor music, which is a perfectly accetpable thing to do, what are they expecting in return?

Generally some of your time and attention and some privileged access - but what happens when and if you do become succesful, at least partly thanks to their efforts, and you can't give them that time and access?

In his column for a Seattle Weekly blog, singer and songwriter John Roderick gets to the heart of the tension between superfans and musicians. Together, they walk a thin line. Superfans do work on behalf of the groups they love. Only to find themselves neglected or taken for granted down the road.

New fans come along and the group isn't able to give them the access they crave. Superfans get disappointed. They're happy to see groups grow and gain more traction. Yet, all of the sudden, if they deem themselves to be mistreated, they start to second guess that show they booked and the cookies they baked.

Read the insightful piece here.