Tips on Creating & Managing a Street Team
Kevin Morrison
When promoting a concert or special event, the effectiveness of one's street team can be the difference in losing money, breaking even, or making a profit. Wikipedia defines a street team as "a term used in marketing to describe a group of people who 'hit the streets' promoting an event or a product." Their duties include: distributing promotional items and flyers, putting up posters and stickers, and a lot of word-of-mouth promotion throughout community. These foot soldiers, who are mainly volunteers, can be the single most important element to a successful promotion when adequately deployed. Here are a few tips to help you develop and manage your own street team.
The first step is to know and understand the people you are considering to join your squad. This can be achieved by creating a short form for potential members to fill out. Or, you can just setup an initial meeting with each one but be prepared to jot down some notes. The purpose of this is to find out their strengths and weaknesses as it pertains to the duties that will be assigned to them. Find out their level of commitment, likes, dislikes, general availability, and administrative/marketing/computer skills and inadequacies. Look for people with common sense, good judgment, the ability to think on their feet, and some level of expertise or a strong desire to learn. Use this information to place them in a position on the team where their top skills can be utilized. It can also help you determine what new responsibilities you can add to their duties at a later date and who to choose as group leaders.
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