Melissa Ben-Ishay, co-founder and CEO of Baked by Melissa, believes in a flexible approach to social media, favoring spontaneity over strict strategy. She engages her TikTok followers by casually filming herself cooking in her kitchen, sharing everything from dinner recipes to desserts.
Rather than adhering to a rigid content plan, she listens to her audience and responds to their preferences, allowing her content to evolve naturally. This laid-back approach has paid off, with some of her videos, like a salad recipe, going viral and garnering millions of views.
Ben-Ishay is part of a growing trend where founders of small and medium-sized businesses adopt influencer roles to personally connect with their audiences. These founder-influencers are now common, particularly in direct-to-consumer brands, where authenticity and relatability help drive engagement.
For Ben-Ishay, combining her roles as a CEO and influencer has been rewarding, enabling her to merge her business and personal interests while maintaining control over the brands she collaborates with. Unlike traditional influencers, she doesn’t rely on these collaborations for income, which gives her more freedom to be selective.
Interestingly, Ben-Ishay’s success on social media happened almost by accident. During the pandemic, she started posting cooking videos on her personal TikTok account to familiarize herself with the platform. To her surprise, her personal content performed better than the videos shared on her company’s account.
This led her to experiment with posting her culinary content on Baked by Melissa’s TikTok account, which resulted in a viral hit with millions of views. This unplanned success further solidified her approach of not having a formal strategy, simply responding to audience engagement.
Ben-Ishay’s content creation process involves dedicating one day a week to producing several recipe videos. Although she now has a social media manager to assist with editing, she initially handled everything herself, underscoring the hands-on nature of her role.
The key to her success lies in authenticity and responding to audience feedback, rather than meticulously following a pre-set plan. For her, social media is about experimentation and connection, rather than a formulaic marketing approach.
When it comes to the potential ban of TikTok, Ben-Ishay remains unconcerned. She believes that change often leads to new opportunities and isn’t worried about how her business would fare without TikTok.
While acknowledging social media’s potential negative impact on mental health, especially for younger generations, she is confident that Baked by Melissa will continue to thrive regardless of the platform’s future. For her, adaptability and resilience are the true drivers of success in an ever-changing digital landscape.
