Cindy Ratzlaff, former VP, Brand Marketing, Rodale
Brand New Brand You blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
The Model
Social media strategy coaching for authors and publishers
The Background
“Going right to the consumer through social media is the new direct marketing,” says Ratzlaff. “But it’s a pretty steep learning curve to learn how to talk to people and have relationships online. It’s so important you get your voice and message right and understand that this is about making friends and having relationships.”
One of Ratzlaff’s clients, for example, is a children’s literacy website with a celebrity spokesperson, but Ratzlaff decided the spokesperson’s persona character she plays, not as her celebrity self. “She always talks to parents, librarians, teachers, and grandparents about reading to children, in character,” she says. “We’ve talked a lot about finding all of the mom sites. All of this can be very laborious and time-consuming, so it’s important to develop a friend- and follower-building strategy and set a time for using it every day.”
Ratzlaff will soon be a licensed social media expert. She’s part of the first class in Relationship Marketing Specialist Mari Smith’s social media certification program. “We’re partnering with other professionals in our classes to do some case studies, in hopes that we’ll have some really exciting things to show publishers going forward,” Ratzlaff says. But publishers should jump in without getting too hung up on metrics. “If you sit and wait until you think [your social media strategy] is perfect,” she warns, “everyone will have moved past you already. There are new players in the field every day. You will be left behind if you wait.”
