BEA 2014: Advanced Facebook Marketing by Cindy Ratzlaff
Michael Moccio ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Executive Editor
The world of social media is a scary place, especially for people just starting out. It can be overwhelming to see so many different Facebook pages have 500 likes, 5,000 likes, 50,000 likes, or even 200,000 likes. Questions range from: How can I get there? What can I do to get that many likes? Will I be popular enough? Relevant enough? Enough? Cindy Ratzlaff answered all these questions and more during her panel at BEA 2014, in which she described different strategies and tactics to increase efficacy over Facebook.
She describes Facebook as one of the best “free” tools for social media, as anyone can sign up for it and anyone can learn how to use it. There are paid options, sure, but the real “price” of social media is the time it takes to generate content, strategize, and implement practices. Ratzlaff suggests aspiring social media aficionados make Facebook their HUB and ensure that you can get to everything else through the Facebook page for your page, business, or platform. Blogs—particularly WordPress Blogs—are highly effective in putting up all major content and have your Facebook direct to your blog. Ratzlaff commented that WordPress is exceptional at visibility, SEO, and ensuring your content gets to your audience.
The three main strategies for authors—and anyone looking to promote their platform or product—are threefold:
- Articulate
- Attract
- Amplify
Articulating your message, brand, or mission can be as simple as posting as little as once-a-day. Ratzlaff prefers the 6 AM posting slot, because she’s found that it reaches the widest audience possible. It’s imperative that you resist over-posting and over-saturating consumers with your message—people are prone to “hide” posts, which tells Facebook your page is less desirable. Focus on engaging with your audience, compel them to “like”, inspire them to “share”, and elicit a genuine emotional response that causes them to “comment.”
Related: BEA 2014: Digital Strategies for the YA Market
Attracting a wide variety of people involves combining social media approaches. Popular tools like IconoSquare, Pinvolve.co, and 22Social integrate other social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and live Google Hangouts all on your Facebook page! Consumers who go to your Facebook page like everything in one, easy, accessible place—another great reason to make Facebook your HUB of sorts!
Amplifying your message comes in a variety of ways. Using pictures in every post is one of the marketing world’s go-to social media tips, especially when you edit your images to make them more unique and share-able via tools like Picmonkey, Animoto, Canva, and Instagram. Other tips is included sharing news, asking for feedback on things in development, and giveaways. Ratzlaff strongly urges Facebook managers to treat those who like their pages as the Exclusive fanpage.
Anyone looking for information or who wants to check out Cindy Ratzlaff’s extensive and helpful power points can check them out at slideshare.com/cindyratzlaff and like her Facebook page here.