Recetas de Rechupete is much more than one of the leading blogs in Spain about cooking and gastronomy. Since it was launched in 2009, it has evolved into a content company with many other projects in hand.
The key? Effort, hard work and, among other factors, the creation of a loyal community of online followers that accompanies the project on all the digital platforms where it has a presence. I had the opportunity to interview Alfonso López, creator of “Recetas de Rechupete” for my fifth book., “Followers. How to create an online community of followers”, where I collected part of his statements. Now you can read the full interview.
-How did you create Recetas de Rechupete in 2009?
It was something that came about by chance: my partner doesn’t like to cook and I used to prepare what he had in a lunch box for work (in Madrid coming home for lunch is mission impossible) and my colleagues started to ask him for recipes. They were not strange things, I made simple dishes, from all my life. She gave them my email, but at one point the requests were enough and we thought of putting it in a blog. That’s how it started, as a way to pass the time.
–How was the community of followers created and how is the relationship with them?
Well, it was a transition from my personal Twitter and Facebook profiles (the social networks that existed at the time) to the Recetas de Rechupete brand, we also created a Facebook group (before there was no company profile) that went very well. Sharing what was being uploaded to the blog, no more, because the first 3 years of the blog were a hobby and little time was dedicated to it.
When we realized that the blog could be something more, we gave great importance to the community of followers that grew rapidly, because social networks were not subject to the brutal algorithms of today, everything was a little different. So we used Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest as a showcase and dissemination of a blog, with photos, without video.
With the entry into YouTube in 2013 we started with video, adapting the videos we were making for Facebook and Instagram. We grew very fast, with thousands of followers, we currently have between all social networks more than one million followers. Now we are present in all social networks.
Our social networks are the showcase and the medium in which our content will find diffusion. We have a strong bond with our followers, especially with an anti-algorithm group who are loyal and come every day to see our content. It is also important to feed them and interact with our followers, that they feel identified with what you do and how you cook at home, we have a very familiar relationship. And it is true that each rrss is a world and different, but we adapt without problem.
-What have you achieved in these years of work?
Well, we have managed to have a content company through everything we learned with the creation of Recetas de Rechupete. We are 12 people working for Recetas de Rechupete SL, to which belong several blogs (not only cooking) and we create external content and manage social networks of brands and companies.
Within the brand “Recetas de Rechupete” we have 9 books published with Larousse, two of them are our own. Some other recognition in the form of an award, which is always appreciated, because it means that you are on the right track, everything helps.
And above all, the most important thing, a brutal recycling, learning daily and adapting to changes. We have a clear strategy to achieve some objectives and that each project we have launched: “Recetas de Rechupete”, “Recetas para mi bebé”, “Slides Carnival”, “Little Big Artists” and “AmigasTOP”, also participating in other companies, contributing our experience, in Ya Vino Club, Connectif or Voicefinder.
–How have you adapted to the new uses of the Internet? For example, users consume the Internet mainly on mobile devices, when you started it was mainly on desktop… how have you evolved?
Trying to keep up with what we understand will be trending and how our followers will use our blogs. We quickly saw that mobile would succeed and we released the version of Recetas de Rechupete for all mobile devices in 2011, very early if we compare ourselves with the competition. Whatsapp sharing buttons, yearly design changes, incorporating SEO, UX design, CM and sales to the team made the difference. We grew very fast and this gave us the opportunity to make money and reinvest it back into the company. In fact, since we became a company we have never distributed profits, that money is to improve our platforms, we always use our own funding.
-What are your next projects?
Thanks to a great team, we can think of new business models without having to be 100% on each project. What my partner and I are doing now is managing and launching new projects (we have two now in mind, but they are not yet executed).
We also participate in Zebra Venturas as partners, being a Venture Builder (startup factory) is dedicated to the creation of new companies that I’m sure will help a little bit to make this world a little better. 2023 comes loaded with a lot of illusion and little things.
