Aloha from Karen Whiting
CAN offers great benefits to readers and blessings to members. It’s good to follow CAN because we post about marketing that others can adapt. It’s also good to see what a group does to glean ideas for your own group.
Let’s chat about how to multiply efforts greatly through team efforts that benefits all the members and blesses others.
In a team effort people share a common goal, have ‘made the team,’ and work together to multiply efforts. I’ve seen this work within a community such as a critique group of writers who become a marketing group for one another as well as with larger organizations for speakers and writers.
1. Content
We create better and more content with a group. I only post once a month on this loop but with many members posting we have new content throughout each week. The content varies because of the special knowledge and experience each member who posts brings.We do have a theme for weekday and that keeps the blog focused.
2. Social media
We share our news with one another (a weekly list) so everyone can facebook/tweet for each other. This gives each of us more to post and gets our news out to many more people than any one of us touches alone. The news includes lots of contests about free books, free ebooks, radio interviews and events where people can meetup and hear authors. It’s better to promote someone else than continually toot your own horn. It brings us together in community. With posting the news on facebook we can add our own comments about the author and chat about what we like about the book. CAN’s facebook page
We have a pinterest board too where authors post books, fun photos related to writing, and more. Again, with a group, there’s lots to share and more members provides more content CAN pinterest board
We also can bring up chats and have our group foster the dialogue to get the topic buzzing.
3. Image is important so build a team carefully
Because we have great authors our team looks great CAN’s website. We are all professionals in the same industry. Retail owners have shared with me that they can immediately trust an author who is a CAN member because they know our standards (CAN includes more than 100 authors all with at least 2 books with royalty CBA publishers). A team needs standards and that’s why people need to apply or try out to be part of certain teams of guilds. For aspiring writers we serve as a goal for you–that one day you’ll qualify to join and will know we are the team that can help you when you do have books contracted in the CBA.
On the flip side, you would not want to join CAN if you are all about promoting music because we are not about music.
But if you are building a team of your own, consider the image you want to project and then figure out what standards will help you meet that. I belong to a few different groups. I am a member of AWSA which is a group of Christian women who speak and write. We focus more on the speaking. I also belong to local writer’s groups where we focus on the writing craft. Each has a purpose and focus.
4. Power for group events
Kathi MAcias and several other CAN authors are planning a southern CA store event for early December. As a group they bring more to the event and make it a blogger event. I’ve done CAN events, including one at the International Christian Retail Show. At a large show not all members can come, but they can all be included. We have bookmarks that list releases of members and these are passed out at events. We have members send books for drawings. AT ICRS members sent in more than $2400 in books and four stores each one a bundle of $600 in books. That makes news CAN in the industry news
Even when I do local events with a critique group we get in the news because we have the power and interest of multiple authors. It offers more fun and interest to the community.
5. Sense of belonging
Being part of an active group helps each member feel they have help. They’re not alone and that’s less overwhelming. We have cheerleaders who encourage us when we are down, facing difficulties at home, or needing advice.
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We benefit the writing and marketing community with content and benefit our members with multiplying promotional efforts. That makes a win-win situation.
