Barbecue in the Digital Age

All photos courtesy of www.HowToBBQRight.com

Malcom and Rachelle Reed didn’t know what they were building when they started creating barbecue videos for their HowtoBBQRight Channel over 10 years ago.

“I loved to cook and Rachelle knew just enough about building a website to get us started. But we didn’t really know anything about YouTube. We didn’t know how to edit videos. I wasn’t comfortable on camera. And we only had a $100 flip cam, so the quality of our videos was pretty much terrible.” Says Malcom Reed.

Now Malcom is one of the most recognized pitmasters on YouTube with over 300,000 subscribers and 350 videos to his credit.

“We never thought you could reach so many people through videos, social media and a website. We had no clue. We just enjoyed making videos and wanted to see if we could get better and better at our recipes. So we just kept going. Now we’ve had over 36 million views. It’s really crazy. ”

But HowToBBQRight’s reach isn’t limited to recipes and videos any longer. This year they started the HowToBBQRight Podcast and just released their HowToBBQRight App for both apple and android devices.

“Barbecue has gone digital for sure. Instead of turning on TVs, people are using computers and phones to get their information and their entertainment. And it’s really a great resource for us. We share our recipes and our experience with BBQ and it all helps to build our community and our name recognition – which is really important if you want to have a successful BBQ business.”

And Malcom foresees barbecue continuing on this digital path.

“It’s more personal. There is a community aspect of connecting with someone through social media. When you watch a cooking show on TV, it’s just a show. When you watch someone’s YouTube video you can then leave them a comment, follow them on Instagram and send them a message on Facebook. You just get so much more interaction and I think that is why people gravitate towards it.”

But with social media booming and trends changing so quickly, it might be hard for business owners to know how to capitalize on this “digital age of barbecue”.

“It can be really overwhelming if you let it be. But even the smallest business – with no marketing budget at all – can use digital media to build a brand. You really just have to be willing to dedicate anywhere from 30 minutes a day to a couple hours a week. If you are willing to dedicate your time, you can do it. And after a couple weeks of doing it, you’ll figure it out and it will become easy. Then after a couple months, if you stick with it, you’ll start to build a real following.”

When asked about his social media playbook, Malcom said to keep it simple. “You need a presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Even better if you have a website or a blog. But those are the basics. And you have to check them and respond to questions every day. Then you need to make posts on each channel a couple times a week.”

When asked about HowToBBQRight’s next steps, Malcom says they are going to continue doing what they do best. “Right now we are loving the HowToBBQRight Podcast, which is basically an hour of Rachelle and I talking about what we cooked that week and everything going on in our lives. We’re still making our recipe videos, but we’re bringing on guests and trying out some new styles of videos. Basically, we just want to keep growing and spreading the message of BBQ in a way that is a lot of fun to us.“ You can find Malcom’s video recipes, listen to the HowToBBQRight Podcast or download the new HowToBBQRight App when you visit howtobbq right.com.