I remember making my first Devil's Food Chocolate Cake .  I was around 12 years old and my wonderful mother was trying to teach me to bake.  This was no cake in a box method, it was all from scratch.  She outlined the necessary steps in order to be successful.  Read the recipe carefully.  Make sure I have all my ingredients.  Get out all my measuring instruments.  Then begin the step by step process as outlined in the recipe.  Thankfully I had my mother there while I painstakingly went through the steps.  There was very little room for error, so I needed to be precise.  She gave me some tips as I went along and Voila! I had my first cake.

I was thinking about that this morning and applied it to the continuing debate on how to employ Social Media.  I imagined myself making that cake and not using the right ingredients, not measuring properly, and not reading through and applying the steps outlined in the recipe.  What would I have?  I would have a huge mess, failure, and something that would not represent my Mom very well.

Social Media is no different.  You cannot just jump on the band wagon and throw a whole bunch of ingredients together and hope to have some sort of tangible results!  The recipe is research.  The ingredients are the right Social Media options that will suit your business plan and purpose.  The measuring instruments speak for themselves.  It is important to employ the right amount of any given ingredient.  The steps also speak for themselves.

Is there only one recipe for Devil's Food Cake?  Absolutely not!  They may all have similar characteristics, but each baker has their own unique recipe that fits them.  Social Media is the same.  You need to find your recipe.  You need to measure and you need to take careful steps.  Hopefully you will have a cool Mom to help you along the way. 

Written by Jonathan Saar-- The Training Factor