I had another opportunity earlier this week to see Scott Linabarger knock an audience’s socks off. We were on the same program at BJC Healthcare, an annual gathering of communicators and marketers (and others) from throughout the sizable St. Louis-based health system. Scott’s presentation focused on all the things he was told not to do when developing social and digital media plans. He helped his employer, The Cleveland Clinic, succeed by ignoring much of that advice.

As Scott spoke, I thought about my JazzFest trip to New Orleans, where Michele and I stayed with our old friend, Charles Pizzo, who now provides social media services to New Orleans restaurants. He told us much the same thing; that he tried doing what conventional wisdom suggested would work, then started experimenting to find an entirely different approach to success.

Scott’s experience covered a lot of practices we’re told we should take for granted. For example, he said, everyone advised him to post Facebook updates only once or twice a day. More than that, he was told, and you’ll annoy your fans. Instead, six or eight updates appear on The Cleveland Clinic Facebook page every day. They’re coordinated to the time of day. At 1 a.m., you may find a post dealing with sleep disorders. First thing in the morning, it’ll be a post helping you lower stress as you plan for your day.

Don’t, they said, post on weekends. The Cleveland Clinic does, usually talking about recreational activities that are good for you. (Who says? Scott wonders.)

Don’t, they insisted, post just a tease and a link. People will be upset that you made them click through to get any information at all. The Cleveland Clinic posts a single line and a link and gets hundreds of thousands of views, along with engagement like shares, likes and comments that any company would envy.

These days, Scott is hearing that you must have an image in a Facebook update yet his text-only posts are getting up to 10 times the views of those with images. Go figure.

As for Charles, as he geared up his new restaurant social media venture, Whet Appetites, he researched optimal times to post. A guide from Hubspot suggested weekends are best for Facebook posts, although the report did encourage experimentation. “In my experience, weekends are the worst time to post about restaurant clients in New Orleans,” Charles told me.“Analytics show the best time to be Monday - Friday, 7 a.m. to noon, the time when most people in this market plan dinner and weekend activities.” (Charles posted the photo below featuring Michele at Mother’s during our visit to JazzFest. Note the number of likes and share.)

Conventional wisdom for restaurant marketing also points to coupons, discounts and other offers, but through experimentation, Charles found it resonated with his audiences if he posted photos of food. “Hands down, food porn sells,” he says. “While I mix it up with people shots to show human interaction, nothing sells like a close up of some delicious-looking food.” And his clients are reporting “a direct correlation between social media marketing and register rings.” For example, one client registered a bump in sales of one of its tastiest dishes that wasn’t selling well until the photo of the item appeared on Facebook.

Charles still recommends figuring out what the conventional wisdom is, “Yet, what’s best for any particular client or business segment is something you have to study and gauge.” He adds that he didn’t wait around to develop longitudinal metrics. Instead, he just started to get a feel for what worked by keeping an eye on comments, shares and likes.

In addition, Charles agrees with the conventional wisdom that a photo album, picture or video in a Facebook update generate higher degrees of engagement—exactly the opposite of what Scott found for The Cleveland Clinic.

So do your homework, review the studies, review what the experts think. But consider all that just a starting point, a benchmark from which to begin experimenting. It’ll be only through your willingness to break the rules and try things that aren’t supposed to work that you’ll find the sweet spot for the unique combination of your messages and stories, your customers’ interests, the best timing and the most engaging approach.