We recently connected with Matt Rouse and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Matt thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?

People are still giving out advice on traditional social media and new media properties without understanding how those applications and networks have changed. There systems no longer work on engagement and no amount of posting images and text is going to get you the distribution you need to grow a business.

Matt, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

After working as a contractor for some of the largest companies in the world, such as Intel, and Nike, as well as many other industries, I broke out on my own, building websites, running digital ads, and doing search engine optimization work for small businesses. A few years in, I merged my web design and advertising business with my current business partner’s eCommerce and merchant processing business and we start Hook Digital Marketing.

After a bit of a slow start, I studied everything about startups that I could find and discovered the idea of selling in your own backyard first. This led to business networking and eventually to crowdfunding my first book, called Crush SEO in 2015. Eight years and 5 books later, as well as moving internationally from the west coast of the USA to the east coast of Canada during Covid, which I wouldn’t recommend, I now manage two marketing agencies for small businesses, and do consulting for marketing groups and entrepreneurs, and speak at events and associations.

While other businesses are feeling the pinch of inflation and recession, we’re busier than ever. This is because of our multi-channel strategy based on networking, partnerships with people and AI systems, and content creation using a model I call, PEERtainment, named after my latest book on the subject.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

The social media environment has changed and traditional social media is losing our collective attention. Networks that focus on broadcast-quality entertainment and media, but with content created by our peers are the new social media. YouTube Shorts, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, Patreon, Amazon Live, Podcast Streaming, and parts of traditional social media, like Reels on Facebook and Instagram, or Pinterest Video Pins are examples of what I describe as PEERtainment networks. Peer-created entertainment networks.

The democratization of broadcast media is happening now and building a social media strategy based on static images and posts is a losing strategy. Networks and applications have changed what they value, and “engagement” is no longer the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) it was in the past. Audience Retention, and a few other factors, are now what drives almost every media platform, social or otherwise.

An interesting twist on this topic is that people are flocking to AI systems like ChatGPT to write their social media posts and blogs for them, but when we all do the same thing, how can we stand out? If you can learn to understand how story structure works in modern peer-created entertainment, you can partner with AI system to create a win-win for your business and the platform. This is the only way to get distribution of your message.

If ChatGPT can give you social media post ideas, generate the text, and Dalle-2 can give you the image, what does it need you for? You think social media is crowded now? Now that anyone can post automatically with a subscription that costs less than your lunch, the party is over. Peer-created entertainment is the way to escape the incoming flood of automated content.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

When the pendulum swings a lot in one direction, it also swings back just as far.

As AI-generated content becomes the norm, “influencers” are pushing products as miracle cures they’ve never even tried before, and the curtain is being pulled back on the camera tricks and face filters… people don’t believe what they see online anymore The pendulum swinging back is trust and connection. This could be your biggest source of new clients as it is for us.

We are a digital marketing agency and we get most of our clients from networking and referrals. Why is that?

It’s because we partner with AI to be more efficient, and use the time we save to meet more people in person (or virtually but face-to-face) and to do networking, catch up with our contacts, build partnerships, etc. We create content that highlights the things our customers care about, but also shows our opinions, our faults, and our humanity. We build trust.

When someone watches one of our videos, reads a LinkedIn post, or listens to our podcasts, they know it’s real. They know it’s ME. And they know that we are working in the trenches, researching, testing, and doing the work before we’re giving advice.

When everyone can be an “expert” by telling ChatGPT to write an article about something, you need to be an opinionated expert. You need to be a voice people can trust. You need to meet with real people so that they know you are real. If you aren’t trying to create media and partnering that with an in-person strategy, you will have people asking themselves, “but who is behind the curtain?”

The new Wizard of Oz is AI, only now everyone has access to it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://matthewrouse.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattmrouse/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/hookseo
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/PEERtainment-Golden-Social-Media-Over-ebook/dp/B0BXB2NZQH/

Image Credits
Photo by Craig Brubaker. PEERtainment cover by Matt Rouse.