John: Thank you for listening to the John and Heidi Show. We got a special guest joining us right now. We have Bryan Scott, he is the owner of Rockstar Marketing. Bryan, how are you sir?
Bryan Scott: I'm doing wonderful, thank you!
John: Well, I'm excited to visit with you. You've got a really interesting business that you have and this is something that 20 years ago, wouldn't have made any sense at all. But nowadays, it makes so much sense.
A lot of people have businesses that are on social media and there are a lot of people that you work with that are household names that people have all heard of. You kind of help them make sure that their social media and their marketing is working well. So, first of all, what got you interested in doing this? How did you get into this business?
Bryan: Well, I'd tell you I was in the Air Force for 20 years and while I was in, we got real heavy into electronics and computers and so forth. About 1996 I built my first website. We started doing a little search engine optimization which is getting businesses on the front page.
We built this horrible looking website [laughter] and everything is popping up, horrible music, it was so ugly, I wish I still had a copy of it. We thought it was cool but we couldn't find it in search engines, I think it was Web Crawler and Yahoo which was primitive back then. We couldn't find it.
Then there was a guy that I knew who had a website that was just nothing but a white background with content and he was showing up everywhere. That's what kind of sparked our interest in Search Engine Optimization. We've got this cool looking website, but we can't find it, and it's not showing up. So we kind of got into the search engine optimization.
Then about 2004, it was the bands we worked with, the Kentucky HeadHunters, an older group. We started doing some primitive social media with Digg, Technorati, Propeller, and MySpace and some other older sites. That’s when we started getting into Social Media.
That was about 12 years before I was going to retire. I just kept telling myself, you know, me being a network guy, and a security guy, I realized, I don't want to do this when I retire, so I kind of just stuck it out, kept with this, and that's what pushed us in.
John: Awesome. Well, I wanna say thank you for your service to our country and the air force. Thank you very much for doing that. How long were you in?
Bryan: Oh absolutely. 20 years, that's when I retired.
John: And then you kind of mentioned one of the groups that you worked with, Kentucky HeadHunters and there are some folks right now that definitely know that name. But there are some other names that you worked with that folks are going to know as well. Who are some of the more well-known customers that you guys worked with at Rockstar Marketing?
Bryan: Well, I'd tell you. Richard from the HeadHunters has a son, his name is John Fred Young and he is in a band called Black Stone Cherry. So we spawned from the HeadHunters into doing all of Black Stone Cherry's stuff. We work with Alex Raymundo who is a comedian and Latino King of Comedy and his brother Ron White.
John: We have heard of that guy.
Bryan: ...They own a Tequila company together called Number Juan Tequila, Great, great, tequila and great company. We work with the guys and run the personal sites for Five Finger Death Punch. We also work with NFL players, NBA players, UFC fighters, and just all kinds of wild and crazy people.
John: I bet that's going to be exciting when you pick up the phone and you get to talk to somebody's big celebrity that you see on tv. You see them all over the place, and you guys get to help them with their social media. That's got to be pretty darn cool.
Bryan: It's great, it's great. Yeah, we talked to different celebrities every day. And what's really cool is that we never know it would be fancy people we work with. [laughter] So, that's what makes it so much better.
John: It is. Now, a lot of the people that are listening right now have completely different issues than Ron White or Kentucky Head Hunters. If maybe there's somebody listening that has a small business, and they're going, you know, I'm not trying to get somebody to find my comedy on line but boy it sure would be nice if they could find my small business online. Do you work with businesses as well?
Bryan: Oh absolutely, we work with small, but lots and lots of small businesses. That's what runs this country. So, we absolutely love helping small businesses. There is so much that they can do on their own where they don't have to hire a company and I would highly recommend that they look at their audience, look at who they need to be selling to.
If they are selling to a younger generation, you might want to look towards Snapchat and Instagram. If they are selling to a little bit older group, they definitely have to kill it on Facebook. Twitter, we tell-- [laughs] this is funny, we tell people unless you're Kim Kardashian, don't put a lot of emphasis on Twitter.
Stick with Facebook. Facebook is the big boy. Facebook has got tons and tons of money. They got tons and tons of PhDs and staff to keep that company going so they're going to be around as the big boy. Focus your efforts on Facebook, look at Instagram, look at Snapchat, definitely, definitely, definitely look into video.
70% of all internet traffic by 2017 is going to be video. So definitely, definitely look into Youtube. Push your videos on Facebook. You don't have to have a big production with these videos. What you need to do is use iPhones and android devices because they have phenomenal cameras. Shoot some video with your iPhone and put it out. Talk about your business and in the end, make sure you have your URL for your website in there, then make sure that you give us a call and give them your phone number, just make sure use these platforms definitely.
John: Now the video that you are talking about, it doesn't have to be like a studio and a director and all of that stuff. You could - like you were saying - you could use your smartphone or a tablet and you could get really good quality video doing that can't you?
Bryan: Absolutely, and that's what we recommend because small businesses don't have big budgets. They can't go hire a company to come up with a really expensive video. What we would recommend is make a series, okay. It's your business, one day talk about this product, the next day talk about another product. Keep putting videos out there. You're going to generate new leads, and you're going to generate fans, and people are going to come in and buy your businesses and services. Definitely use video as well. Video is very very hot.
John: I was at an event where there was this guy that was talking about how he was utilizing video and social media. What he did was he went on to his own website and looked at the frequently asked questions and then hit record on a tablet and he just talked into the thing answering those questions because [laughs], as he put it, he said, you know we're too lazy to read these days. So he said, I just went through my own frequently asked questions and I, I answered those for people and it worked out really really well for me, Which I thought was a really smart idea.
Bryan: Absolutely, Something I learned just the other day, and this is funny, that people, let me see, how did they say this, humans is just in the last ten years have shorter attention span than a goldfish.
John: Oh yeah. I wouldn't doubt that.
Bryan: So, make it quick. [laughs]
John: And that's a really good point because there are some of these videos-- my son - I love my son dearly - but he has what he refers to as his novel statuses on Facebook, and even his own dad, that's me, I hate to admit it Troy, I don't read them all, I want to, I'd love to, but I don't have time.
There are times he'll have this thing that's like 15 paragraphs long. I read the beginning then I start scrolling and I read the end. [laughs] But if we can keep it short and sweet, that's gonna probably help a whole lot better isn't it?
Bryan: Absolutely. Keep it super short and sweet. Yes sir. A little technique that we use when we push out to different clients is after you have a satisfied client, ask him to do a video testimonial.
John: Oh yeah!
Bryan: Yeah, Then put that out. If you want to-- if your clients accept, you want to run some Facebook ads, get that testimony, and target your client base using Facebook, with some Facebook ads and push that testimony out to the people that you want to come to your business.
John: That's really a cool idea.
Bryan: Yeah, Nice little technique. It doesn't cost a lot. However much your business can afford, Do it, Absolutely.
John: So now, when I do a video, I know it doesn't have to be done in a studio but do I-- is there a good rule of thumb as to-- any editing at all? Because on my tablet, I can hit the little scissors button and I can cut off the beginning and the end so you don't have to see me reaching over and hitting record. Should you take that stuff off or is it okay to just leave that on or...
Bryan: You can do that, if you have the knowledge, if not, I'm sure that you know somebody in the business. Give it to an 18 year old kid, I'm sure they can do it. Every single young kid knows how to use an iPhone or an android device. There's tons of apps where you could do editing and so forth. Hand them these videos, and say,hey can you clean this up for me a little bit, I'm sure that they will.
John: If there's a business owner listening right now that's not on social media, should every business be on there or are there some that probably shouldn't be?
Bryan: Mandatory. Every single one that you know even if they have so much business right now that they can't handle more, it's branding. Get it out there for at least [branding?] so it's mandatory. Like we said a minute ago, make sure that you're hitting the right people.
Don't spend tons and tons of your time on Twitter. You can get what are called social signals from Twitter, but for the most part, stick with Facebook. Facebook is-- you'll do right by Facebook. Look into Instagram. Make sure that you're hitting video and just get in there and learn it and do it.
John: Now I've gone on somebody's profile before. I had somebody that wants to be my friend and they'll click on there, as I'm friending them. If it's somebody that I know, of course I'll accept them, but if it's somebody that I am thinking now, how do I know this person? And I'll click- and I'll always look to see, where do they live, and where do they work.
But I've clicked on those before where I've clicked on where they work, and it'll take me to a page that's just not even really the page for that business. Sometimes, that's because their business doesn't have a page. However, sometimes the business has a page, but it's taking me to a different one. How can a business go in and make that migrate over to their actual real official page?
Bryan: Well, what you need to do is after you have your personal account, then you need to go in there and visit your business page and for branding purposes. If let's say your business is called, Smith Chiropractic, what you want to do is across all your social media platforms, try to get one name across all the platforms.
Now, remember you're going to run into limitations for Twitter and Instagram on how many characters. So put some thought into that before you go for your names. Try to use the same names and brand yourself across the board.
John: Very good idea. So that way you're not saying "I'm Smith Chiropractic here, and Smith Chiro here, and always Smith C over here, so [laughs]
Bryan: I'm sayin' it [laughs], sometimes it's hard but just put some thought into it before you start naming things.
John: Again, visiting right now is Bryan Scott. He is the owner of Rockstar Marketing. Now, if maybe somebody listening is going, "Man, that was a lot of info in a short amount of time. I want to know more about this." How can they get a hold of you Sir?
Bryan: Well, you can always contact us. We've got a 1-800 number on our website. We've also got our local number on our website. Our local number is 8505423091. You can always go to Rockstar-marketing.com, that's our website, we're in the process of building a new website, our old one is 4 years old, so it's time for us to build a new one.
John: Well, the one I"m on right now looks pretty darn good. So I think it looks sharp.
Bryan: Yes sir.
John: You could see some of these cool clients that they get a chance to work with on here too. Some of the images, I see it like Five Finger Death Punch, and there's couple called Lex and Terry, the Kentucky HeadHunters and lot of big names on there. So you guys got to be pretty darn proud of all the fun stuff you get to do.
Bryan: Oh we do. We do, Whenever anybody we work with could come in close, we always go out to them, we always go out to see them, and we get to hang out with them on their buses and what they don't realize is we're giddy. [laughter] I mean, this is so cool.
Yes we work with them, but like I said earlier, we're big fans of all these people. And it's so fun getting to do what we actually love doing. So it does mean’s it’s not like work.
John: I can tell that you like it, and I appreciate the fact that you took some time to give us some little secret inside info here as well on the program today. Thank you for doing that.
Bryan: We just wish, we had tons more time. I'm the talker. I could talk for hours [laughs]
John: It's been a lot of fun. Again, our guest today has been Bryan Scott, he is the owner of Rockstar Marketing and again, the website is Rockstar-marketing.com. Go check that out, there's a lot of cool stuff on there. Again, Bryan, thank you for chatting with us today.
Bryan: Thank you all so much for having us on here.
John: Glad to have you. And we'll certainly have you back on again. I know you guys have fun things and the works all the time so looking forward to maybe catching up again down the road.
Bryan: Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. We love to come back and thank you so much.
John: Again, Bryan Scott, Rockstar Marketing, the website once again Rockstar-marketing.com. Thank you for listening to the John and Heidi Show.