Marketing Is Not a Formula, but a Recipe.

This was hard to get through to the engineers I often worked with who don’t like any grey area. Just because X + Y = Z for some companies, doesn’t mean that’s the same variables that lead to success for another company.

I like to think of marketing more like a recipe. There are a million ways to make chocolate chip cookies. Yes, chocolate chip cookies have the same basic ingredients, but what are you adjusting to make them stand out and be the best you’ve ever had? Are you adding more chocolate chips? More sugar? Less sugar? Throw in some peanut butter for fun?

This is especially evident in social media management. Yes, there are some fundamentals you should follow in every plan, but what are you changing up to set yourself apart from your competitors? Is your audience not engaging with your good ole’ chocolate chip recipe? Maybe you need to switch it up and bake a cake to gain their interest again.

Alright, I’ll stop with the baking metaphors and give you a real example I’ve come across.

Two companies I worked for struggled with reigning in the number of social media accounts that were popping up using the company’s name and whatever location/region who felt they needed to open an account to communicate to employees. In both situations, corporate didn’t know who was running each account, and the admins were using it as a form of internal communication (which in a worst-case scenario could be a security issue).

Company A felt it was best that they only have one official social media account so they could control the messaging and move internal communications to other avenues.

Company B, on the other hand, needed these regional accounts to recruit potential employees. Each location had different needs and ways they needed to communicate the company’s message, so it resonated with the local culture.

For Company B, we created a global social media council so we could get everyone on the same page messaging wise, reduce workload by sharing assets and determine which locations had a real need for a separate account.

Two companies, same problem, different recipes for success. Don’t get set in your ways of what you know has worked before but use it as a building block for new ideas.

This is an excerpt from a guest blog written for Digital Detroit by our Founder and CEO, Sam Roberts. View the full article here.

Hustle Marketing has been recognized as one of the Top Detroit Digital Marketing Companies by DesignRush