October 10, 2025 • 16 mins
Running social for StubHub sounds like the dream gig—and Jay Schwedelson gets the inside scoop from Caity Bransby, who actually does it. From her start as a college student pitching her school’s first Instagram account to leading social for one of the biggest event brands on earth, Caity shares what it really takes to “move at the speed of culture,” build a career from your phone, and stay cool under the viral spotlight.
Best Moments:
(01:34) How a college Instagram experiment became a career running social for StubHub
(07:05) “Always be posting”—why action beats perfection every time
(11:40) What “moving at the speed of culture” really means when you work for a major brand
(14:56) Why Caity keeps her hands on the creative wheel instead of hiding in meetings
(18:10) The secret to viral posts: follow instinct, not quotas
(23:14) How active community management keeps StubHub top of mind with fans
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to do this not that,the podcast for marketers. We share
quick tips, things you can doright now, and then we add a little
bit of chaos at the end ofevery episode. We also keep it short,
like this intro. Let's checkit out. We are back for do this not
that podcast presented byMarigold. And we legit have somebody
here that's cool. Definitelycooler than me, but that's not saying
(00:23):
much, but she's actually cool.So Katie Brown Ransby's here. Who
is she? She's amazing. She isthe head of social media for StubHub,
and the only reason she's onis because she promised me free tickets
to any event I ever want to goto for the rest of my life. And all
the listeners. No, that's notthe case. She is crushing it. Running
it. Running social at StubHub,and they're an incredibly cool brand,
(00:46):
and we're going to dig intohow do you get this incredibly cool
job and how does it actuallywork? Is it all just one giant party
when you're running social fora cool brand like subhub? And, Katie,
thanks for being here. Welcometo the show.
Yeah, thanks so much forhaving me. I'm stoked to be here.
This is going to be amazing.I'm just curious about something.
Do you. This is so off script,but because you're at StubHub, do
(01:07):
you just. Every weekend you'relike, I'm going to another event.
I'm going on. I'm going to geta ticket. I mean, is that your jam?
Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I'ma total, like, concert junkie, so
I love music. I go to a ton ofshows. I'm getting more into the
sports world. I'm definitelymore of, like, surfing fan, so I've
been learning a lot moreabout, like, football and basketball,
(01:28):
and I've been going to more ofthat. But a big part of the job is
going to shows and going toevents and capturing content. So
it's like 50% of what I do formy job.
No joke. Now your job got evencooler. I want to be you. And I get
older, but I'm already old.All right, so let's back up here.
You got one of those jobs,people listen like, oh, my God. I
(01:49):
do social media for a B2Bboring plumbing supply company. I
want to run social at StubHub.That sounds so much cooler. So take
us through. How did Katiebecome Katie? What did you do?
Yeah, I mean, I actuallystarted working in social media when
I was 19 years old in College.I got to college at Cal State Long
beach, and I was like, whydoes the school not have an Instagram
(02:10):
account? And I went straightto the office of enrollment, and
I was like, hey, guys, I'llrun an Instagram account for you
guys for free. Like, I justwant to. To start doing this. I feel
like we should do this forstudents. And so I did that all through
school. And I even had somementors. And this was like, 10 years
ago. I just turned 30. I hadsome mentors who were like, don't
(02:32):
work in social media. Like,it's not going to last. Like, you
should work in out of homemarketing. Oh. Like, I don't know.
Like, I really like this. Thisis, like, really fun. And so I just
continued to pursue socialmedia marketing. I also felt that
it was one of the only careeroptions where I saw that, like, young
people could move really fastbecause you're. You're native to
(02:55):
the platforms and you're seenas an expert, even though you're
the young person in the room,which was, like, pretty rare to find.
And I was lucky enough once Igraduated to start work at the Honda
headquarters. They're based inLos Angeles, like the car company,
and they have some really coolprograms. They have some something
called the Honda Stage, whichis their music program. And I helped
(03:15):
them run that. And so Istarted to get some entertainment
experience. I started postingfrom concerts and things like that.
Started to understand kind ofthe flow of covering live events.
It all started from there.From there, I went on to work at
NBC. I worked on live eventsand scripted shows and unscripted
(03:35):
shows there. Got the absolutehonor of working on the Olympics
last year. And that, like,really set the bug off. I was like,
okay, I only want to do liveevents. Like, I'm. I'm tired of marketing
TV shows. I just want to dolive events. And so that was kind
of the trajectory.
That's amazing. I love that.And so if I'm out there listening,
there's one of two thingsgoing on. Somebody's like, well,
(03:58):
I'm at Ohio State. Theyalready have a social media account.
It's very active. I can't tellthem I want to run social for them.
Or somebody's like, you knowwhat? I'm five years deep in my career.
I want to run social for acool brand. So is there. What if
you're a regular person, youwant to break into running social?
Is there anything you can do?Should they just harass you on LinkedIn
(04:18):
and ask for a job?
I think social is so cool.Because anyone can get started in
it. I have been on teams whereI've hired someone because they run
an incredible, what we callStan account, where they just love
a TV show and they make greatmemes about it and they build their
own audience. And so that'salways My advice, is just start posting.
(04:40):
I think I should get ittattooed. Like, always be posting.
I always say, always beposting. And it's just about like,
yeah, finding a niche andstarting to run accounts. Like converting
your personal accounts intobusiness accounts, seeing what it
looks like on the back end sothat you can speak to it. There's
so much opportunity to dothat. And I know a lot of brands
(05:00):
who will hire people based offof some of those accounts. Like,
I know specifically that likeBleacher Report does that they find
fan run sports accounts thatare performing really well, they
figure out who's running themand they offer them jobs. So that
is just the easiest way and isto start doing it.
So is it almost like if you'rea design person having a portfolio,
(05:21):
like if you go in to try toget a job for a social media role,
and if you yourself can't say,this is the accounts that I'm running
and here's how we're crushingit with these accounts that it's
like a non starter. Likethere's no proof that you could actually
do what it is that you can do.
Yeah, absolutely. Because Ialso think a lot of people think
they want social media jobsand then they do the actual work
(05:41):
and they're like, whoa, thisis a lot. So someone can come in
and say, I've already done itand I like doing it. And here's my
example of how I've done it.Well, it's like perfect, you know
what this role entails?
So what does the role entail?I mean, do you just walk in and say,
hi, this meme is funny, let'sput it on threads. I mean, what do
you actually do?
Okay, well, first of all, youcame into a meeting and you told
(06:04):
me to put something onthreads. Red flag.
I'm not getting hired.
Okay. I was like, why are youactive only on threads? That's crazy.
No, I'm kidding. No. The wayto kind of get your foot in the door,
I think, is to really start todo social production work. Like,
that's really what we'redoing. We're talking about, we're
(06:25):
talking about filming thingson your phone, editing them on your
phone, adding in captions,adding in knowing, like, what a good
hook looks like. How to getpeople in the first couple seconds,
how a caption should beformatted on each platform so that
it's optimized for both SEO,but also, like, makes sense culturally.
That's like, the. Probably thebiggest part of it is just like that
(06:46):
that creative know how. Andsome of that can be taught, like,
the editing can be taught, butthe gut feeling of, like, this is
really cool and it's going todo well. Really, like, comes with
practice. And I think alsoit's just inherently a part of, like,
a social media manager's skills.
So the way that we connectedwas that you. I put a post out, you
(07:09):
put a post out, whatever. Andthen you said something to me that
stuck with me ever since. Yousaid, you know, when you're in social
media or marketing in general,you have to move at the speed of
culture. And you wrote that ina comment. And I was like, ooh, that
really resonated with me. AndI guess what I'm curious about, and
this is for everybody outthere that's doing marketing. So,
you know, to your earlierpoint, you have to put content out
(07:31):
there that's gonna resonatewith people about what's going on
in the moment right now. Thething that's everybody's in, like,
the mindset. But how do youactually do that? I mean, you're
StopHub's big company, right?How do you be like, oh, this is really
a hot thing. This happened onthis reality show, whatever, and
we're gonna put out this thingabout it. Like, do you just have,
like, you could do whateveryou want? Like, how do you move that
(07:53):
fast?
Yeah, I mean, virality is notmagic. Like, it's definitely moving
at the speed of culture. LikeI said in that. In that comment,
it's about knowing fandomsthat are currently happening, so
knowing what massive fandomsare driving fan conversation for.
Like, a good example is thatthe Summer I Turn Pretty is a super
popular show right now, and alot of people are talking about it
(08:15):
specifically on TikTok, whichtends to skew female, tends to skew
younger, and so does thedemographic of that show. And that
means that now you haveaccounts like the Steelers football
account, making the Summer ITurn Pretty jokes, because that's
what people are talking abouton that platform. So it's really
a combination of understandinga platform, understanding of fandom,
(08:35):
and also timing. A lot ofsocial media managers, when you ask
them, like, that exactquestion, they'll just say something
like, well, I'm like,chronically online, or like, I have
Brainworms. I'm always online,but I do think there's more science
to that. Like, I am alwaysonline, but I'm also always thinking
about, okay, I see a trendingconversation. When did this conversation
(08:56):
start? Why is it happening?And then is there an angle that I
can find? And I have to findthat angle in, like, the next couple
hours? Like, I can't wait. Ithas to happen right now.
So when you're, like,overseeing Social for subhub, are
you yourself still in it interms of, okay, we got to get together
and we want to post this, ornow you got people, they're doing
(09:16):
all this stuff and they'rebringing it together, and then you're
like, that one's good, thatone stinks. Or, you still got your
hands on the wheel, trying tocreate stuff.
I got my hands on the wheel,and part of the reason why I left
working at NBC is that I hadjust gotten promoted to be the director
of Social at NBC, and I feltlike my hands were leaving the wheel
because it's a massivecorporation, and the majority of
(09:37):
what you're doing is sittingin meetings and talking about strategy.
But truly what I love ishaving creative output every day.
Like, I love to actually bethe one filming and making content,
too, right alongside my team,so I can lead by example. And I also
know what's going on. So Ithink a big part of it is trusting
that your team understandsculture and trends. Like, if someone
(09:59):
brings something to me and Ihaven't seen it before, which is
very rare, but if I haven't, Itrust that they are onto something
and that they should run withit. But for the most part, like,
I think that that trust comesbecause they also trust me that I'm
in the weeds and I see what'sgoing on. I think it's, like, it
was nice of you to say at thebeginning that I'm cool, but it's
(10:20):
so important when you're insocial that you are cool in a sense
that you know what's going on,because you have to have that scale
of saying, we shouldn't dothis. People are going to think this
is cringy. They're going tohate this, or, we should do this.
It makes sense for our brand,and that only comes from also having
your hands on the wheel.
So when you are talking aboutalways be posting right, And I don't
(10:44):
know if that extends to yourbrand, but if it does, are you looking
at a certain volume? Like,say, okay, on a weekly basis, we
got to put up 10 stories, sixTikToks, nothing on LinkedIn, like,
is there. Like, this is therules of the road. This is the volume
we got to put out. Because atthe very least, this keeps us in
the conversation.
(11:04):
It's a good question. So a bigpart of my job is also analytics.
It just naturally comes withworking in social because everything's
measurable. And I'vedefinitely gotten stuck in the position
of saying we need to do acertain amount of posts every week.
And what I find that leads tois less quality content because you
tell your team, okay, we needto do this many posts this week.
(11:26):
And so they're like, allright, I have to come up with something
even if there's nothing goingon. And for me, quality over quantity
always. And so the way I haveit structured right now is, yes,
always be posting. Like, let'sjust keep that in mind. But there's
no quotas per platform. It'struly what. What's going on right
(11:46):
now. And what do we think isfunny? I mean, sometimes we'll go
to a show and we're there,we'll send our social producers,
we're there to capturecontent, and we'll come out of that
show and, you know, nothingthat interesting happened. Like,
the artist did, like, whatthey've been doing every night. So
we'll do, like, one post andit might do okay. And then sometimes
we'll go to another show.Like, this past weekend, we were
(12:07):
at the Chapel, Rowan's openingnight of her tour, and there was
this hilarious moment whereshe sees, for lack of better term,
she sees her butt on camera sothat she forgets that she. That her
butt is out because she's,like, hilarious. And we. We got a
post 10 times about thatbecause it's hilarious. And now it's
going viral. So truly, there'sno quota. It does come. Comes down
(12:28):
to instinct and knowing when amoment's going to be big and then
just capitalizing.
So, all right, I have a superrandom question. So sometimes I'll
put stuff on my Instagram,whatever, and there'll be a brand
involved, and I'll tag thebrand or I'll hashtag the brand or
whatever. And I would say,never has the brand interacted with
(12:51):
my post. I never gotten a likeor anything or whatever. So when
somebody out there is like,oh, my God, I went to the subhub,
we got the tickets there, bestconcert. And then they tag you or
put you as a whatever isthere. Just do brands just not care
about that or what goes on?
I care a lot. So I started mycareer by being a community manager
(13:13):
and that's for me the most funpart of a social media job, the responding
to fans and building fandom bygetting that banter with them. And
so I have people on my teamwho dedicated. They are just looking
for mentions of StubHub everyday and they're also looking for
things that are going viralthat we can just comment on. One
of our big strategies is justto comment on things and be a part
(13:36):
of conversations so that westay top of mind. So if you mention
StubHub, you'll at least get alike from us. But you might get one
of our community managers inthe comments, like telling you, so
glad you had fun at theconcert. Like, it looks so lit or
whatever. Um, and so we reallytry to be there. That's a big part
of our strategy and I've seena lot of social brands do that these
(13:57):
days. Um, there's a bit of aturn towards it, especially with
TikTok and the way thatTikTok, the comment section is just
such a fun place to be and youcan get so much engagement from comments
there. So it's definitely abig part of our strategy.
So obviously you all spend alot of time on Instagram and TikTok,
but do the other platformsmatter? Does LinkedIn matter? Does
Reddit matter? Like, are youalways trying to be everywhere or
(14:19):
only those two things?
Yeah, it's a good question. Ithink each platform matters, but
they each have a differentobjective. They can each achieve
different things. And my goalright now is broad brand awareness
with Gen Z. And that'sprimarily happening on TikTok, Instagram
and YouTube shorts with shortform video. And that's where all,
all of my efforts focused. Imean, I think there's totally reasons
(14:43):
to be on Reddit and onFacebook and on threads like you
mentioned earlier, orLinkedIn. But right now that's not
where I'm seeing traction forour brand. So I'm not putting as
much energy towards it. But ifI had all the resources in the world,
I'd be everywhere all the time.
But I do think it's importantno matter what anybody out there
is, marketing is go where youraudience is, go where the people
(15:05):
are that you're trying toreach. Because it doesn't help you
just to be everywhere if yourpeople aren't there. So that makes
a lot of sense. Okay, we, wegot through all this really fast
and so listen everybody, ifyou want to connect with Katie, I'm
going to put her LinkedIn inthe. In the. In the show notes, and
then she's going to blow up.And she's like, why'd you do that?
But her name just, you know,spells is C A I, T, Y and brands
(15:27):
B is B R, A, N, S, B, Y. Sheruns Social at StubHub. Everybody
go out there right now andhonor Katie and buy a ticket to something
random. That's what you wantto do. Katie, any other parting words
for everybody?
No, just always be posting.
I'm gonna get a tattoo. Alwaysbe posting.
Yeah, I love getting grouptattoos. Let's do that.
(15:48):
Oh, I love it. Amazing. Well,you're awesome. Thanks for being
here and I really appreciateyou doing the show.
Cool. Thanks for having me. Itmeans a lot.
You did it. You made it to theend. But wait, the party is not over.
Listen, I want to keep hangingout. Subscribe to this podcast and
if it wasn't the worst podcastyou've ever listened to, give it
(16:08):
a five star review. Why not?But you know what? I want to do even
more with you. Go togurumediahub.com and we can partner
there. You can find out aboutall of our free events, all of our
stuff, and if you're epicallybored, go to jschweddelson.com and
we could stay connected. Youcould find my newsletter and everything
else I got going on. Thanksfor being here and hope you subscribe.
Welcome to do this not that,the podcast for marketers. We share
quick tips, things you can doright now, and then we add a little
bit of chaos at the end ofevery episode. We also keep it short,
like this intro. Let's checkit out. We are back for do this not
that podcast presented byMarigold. And we legit have somebody
here that's cool. Definitelycooler than me, but that's not saying
(00:23):
much, but she's actually cool.So Katie Brown Ransby's here. Who
is she? She's amazing. She isthe head of social media for StubHub,
and the only reason she's onis because she promised me free tickets
to any event I ever want to goto for the rest of my life. And all
the listeners. No, that's notthe case. She is crushing it. Running
it. Running social at StubHub,and they're an incredibly cool brand,
(00:46):
and we're going to dig intohow do you get this incredibly cool
job and how does it actuallywork? Is it all just one giant party
when you're running social fora cool brand like subhub? And, Katie,
thanks for being here. Welcometo the show.
Yeah, thanks so much forhaving me. I'm stoked to be here.
This is going to be amazing.I'm just curious about something.
Do you. This is so off script,but because you're at StubHub, do
(01:07):
you just. Every weekend you'relike, I'm going to another event.
I'm going on. I'm going to geta ticket. I mean, is that your jam?
Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I'ma total, like, concert junkie, so
I love music. I go to a ton ofshows. I'm getting more into the
sports world. I'm definitelymore of, like, surfing fan, so I've
been learning a lot moreabout, like, football and basketball,
(01:28):
and I've been going to more ofthat. But a big part of the job is
going to shows and going toevents and capturing content. So
it's like 50% of what I do formy job.
No joke. Now your job got evencooler. I want to be you. And I get
older, but I'm already old.All right, so let's back up here.
You got one of those jobs,people listen like, oh, my God. I
(01:49):
do social media for a B2Bboring plumbing supply company. I
want to run social at StubHub.That sounds so much cooler. So take
us through. How did Katiebecome Katie? What did you do?
Yeah, I mean, I actuallystarted working in social media when
I was 19 years old in College.I got to college at Cal State Long
beach, and I was like, whydoes the school not have an Instagram
(02:10):
account? And I went straightto the office of enrollment, and
I was like, hey, guys, I'llrun an Instagram account for you
guys for free. Like, I justwant to. To start doing this. I feel
like we should do this forstudents. And so I did that all through
school. And I even had somementors. And this was like, 10 years
ago. I just turned 30. I hadsome mentors who were like, don't
(02:32):
work in social media. Like,it's not going to last. Like, you
should work in out of homemarketing. Oh. Like, I don't know.
Like, I really like this. Thisis, like, really fun. And so I just
continued to pursue socialmedia marketing. I also felt that
it was one of the only careeroptions where I saw that, like, young
people could move really fastbecause you're. You're native to
(02:55):
the platforms and you're seenas an expert, even though you're
the young person in the room,which was, like, pretty rare to find.
And I was lucky enough once Igraduated to start work at the Honda
headquarters. They're based inLos Angeles, like the car company,
and they have some really coolprograms. They have some something
called the Honda Stage, whichis their music program. And I helped
(03:15):
them run that. And so Istarted to get some entertainment
experience. I started postingfrom concerts and things like that.
Started to understand kind ofthe flow of covering live events.
It all started from there.From there, I went on to work at
NBC. I worked on live eventsand scripted shows and unscripted
(03:35):
shows there. Got the absolutehonor of working on the Olympics
last year. And that, like,really set the bug off. I was like,
okay, I only want to do liveevents. Like, I'm. I'm tired of marketing
TV shows. I just want to dolive events. And so that was kind
of the trajectory.
That's amazing. I love that.And so if I'm out there listening,
there's one of two thingsgoing on. Somebody's like, well,
(03:58):
I'm at Ohio State. Theyalready have a social media account.
It's very active. I can't tellthem I want to run social for them.
Or somebody's like, you knowwhat? I'm five years deep in my career.
I want to run social for acool brand. So is there. What if
you're a regular person, youwant to break into running social?
Is there anything you can do?Should they just harass you on LinkedIn
(04:18):
and ask for a job?
I think social is so cool.Because anyone can get started in
it. I have been on teams whereI've hired someone because they run
an incredible, what we callStan account, where they just love
a TV show and they make greatmemes about it and they build their
own audience. And so that'salways My advice, is just start posting.
(04:40):
I think I should get ittattooed. Like, always be posting.
I always say, always beposting. And it's just about like,
yeah, finding a niche andstarting to run accounts. Like converting
your personal accounts intobusiness accounts, seeing what it
looks like on the back end sothat you can speak to it. There's
so much opportunity to dothat. And I know a lot of brands
(05:00):
who will hire people based offof some of those accounts. Like,
I know specifically that likeBleacher Report does that they find
fan run sports accounts thatare performing really well, they
figure out who's running themand they offer them jobs. So that
is just the easiest way and isto start doing it.
So is it almost like if you'rea design person having a portfolio,
(05:21):
like if you go in to try toget a job for a social media role,
and if you yourself can't say,this is the accounts that I'm running
and here's how we're crushingit with these accounts that it's
like a non starter. Likethere's no proof that you could actually
do what it is that you can do.
Yeah, absolutely. Because Ialso think a lot of people think
they want social media jobsand then they do the actual work
(05:41):
and they're like, whoa, thisis a lot. So someone can come in
and say, I've already done itand I like doing it. And here's my
example of how I've done it.Well, it's like perfect, you know
what this role entails?
So what does the role entail?I mean, do you just walk in and say,
hi, this meme is funny, let'sput it on threads. I mean, what do
you actually do?
Okay, well, first of all, youcame into a meeting and you told
(06:04):
me to put something onthreads. Red flag.
I'm not getting hired.
Okay. I was like, why are youactive only on threads? That's crazy.
No, I'm kidding. No. The wayto kind of get your foot in the door,
I think, is to really start todo social production work. Like,
that's really what we'redoing. We're talking about, we're
(06:25):
talking about filming thingson your phone, editing them on your
phone, adding in captions,adding in knowing, like, what a good
hook looks like. How to getpeople in the first couple seconds,
how a caption should beformatted on each platform so that
it's optimized for both SEO,but also, like, makes sense culturally.
That's like, the. Probably thebiggest part of it is just like that
(06:46):
that creative know how. Andsome of that can be taught, like,
the editing can be taught, butthe gut feeling of, like, this is
really cool and it's going todo well. Really, like, comes with
practice. And I think alsoit's just inherently a part of, like,
a social media manager's skills.
So the way that we connectedwas that you. I put a post out, you
(07:09):
put a post out, whatever. Andthen you said something to me that
stuck with me ever since. Yousaid, you know, when you're in social
media or marketing in general,you have to move at the speed of
culture. And you wrote that ina comment. And I was like, ooh, that
really resonated with me. AndI guess what I'm curious about, and
this is for everybody outthere that's doing marketing. So,
you know, to your earlierpoint, you have to put content out
(07:31):
there that's gonna resonatewith people about what's going on
in the moment right now. Thething that's everybody's in, like,
the mindset. But how do youactually do that? I mean, you're
StopHub's big company, right?How do you be like, oh, this is really
a hot thing. This happened onthis reality show, whatever, and
we're gonna put out this thingabout it. Like, do you just have,
like, you could do whateveryou want? Like, how do you move that
(07:53):
fast?
Yeah, I mean, virality is notmagic. Like, it's definitely moving
at the speed of culture. LikeI said in that. In that comment,
it's about knowing fandomsthat are currently happening, so
knowing what massive fandomsare driving fan conversation for.
Like, a good example is thatthe Summer I Turn Pretty is a super
popular show right now, and alot of people are talking about it
(08:15):
specifically on TikTok, whichtends to skew female, tends to skew
younger, and so does thedemographic of that show. And that
means that now you haveaccounts like the Steelers football
account, making the Summer ITurn Pretty jokes, because that's
what people are talking abouton that platform. So it's really
a combination of understandinga platform, understanding of fandom,
(08:35):
and also timing. A lot ofsocial media managers, when you ask
them, like, that exactquestion, they'll just say something
like, well, I'm like,chronically online, or like, I have
Brainworms. I'm always online,but I do think there's more science
to that. Like, I am alwaysonline, but I'm also always thinking
about, okay, I see a trendingconversation. When did this conversation
(08:56):
start? Why is it happening?And then is there an angle that I
can find? And I have to findthat angle in, like, the next couple
hours? Like, I can't wait. Ithas to happen right now.
So when you're, like,overseeing Social for subhub, are
you yourself still in it interms of, okay, we got to get together
and we want to post this, ornow you got people, they're doing
(09:16):
all this stuff and they'rebringing it together, and then you're
like, that one's good, thatone stinks. Or, you still got your
hands on the wheel, trying tocreate stuff.
I got my hands on the wheel,and part of the reason why I left
working at NBC is that I hadjust gotten promoted to be the director
of Social at NBC, and I feltlike my hands were leaving the wheel
because it's a massivecorporation, and the majority of
(09:37):
what you're doing is sittingin meetings and talking about strategy.
But truly what I love ishaving creative output every day.
Like, I love to actually bethe one filming and making content,
too, right alongside my team,so I can lead by example. And I also
know what's going on. So Ithink a big part of it is trusting
that your team understandsculture and trends. Like, if someone
(09:59):
brings something to me and Ihaven't seen it before, which is
very rare, but if I haven't, Itrust that they are onto something
and that they should run withit. But for the most part, like,
I think that that trust comesbecause they also trust me that I'm
in the weeds and I see what'sgoing on. I think it's, like, it
was nice of you to say at thebeginning that I'm cool, but it's
(10:20):
so important when you're insocial that you are cool in a sense
that you know what's going on,because you have to have that scale
of saying, we shouldn't dothis. People are going to think this
is cringy. They're going tohate this, or, we should do this.
It makes sense for our brand,and that only comes from also having
your hands on the wheel.
So when you are talking aboutalways be posting right, And I don't
(10:44):
know if that extends to yourbrand, but if it does, are you looking
at a certain volume? Like,say, okay, on a weekly basis, we
got to put up 10 stories, sixTikToks, nothing on LinkedIn, like,
is there. Like, this is therules of the road. This is the volume
we got to put out. Because atthe very least, this keeps us in
the conversation.
(11:04):
It's a good question. So a bigpart of my job is also analytics.
It just naturally comes withworking in social because everything's
measurable. And I'vedefinitely gotten stuck in the position
of saying we need to do acertain amount of posts every week.
And what I find that leads tois less quality content because you
tell your team, okay, we needto do this many posts this week.
(11:26):
And so they're like, allright, I have to come up with something
even if there's nothing goingon. And for me, quality over quantity
always. And so the way I haveit structured right now is, yes,
always be posting. Like, let'sjust keep that in mind. But there's
no quotas per platform. It'struly what. What's going on right
(11:46):
now. And what do we think isfunny? I mean, sometimes we'll go
to a show and we're there,we'll send our social producers,
we're there to capturecontent, and we'll come out of that
show and, you know, nothingthat interesting happened. Like,
the artist did, like, whatthey've been doing every night. So
we'll do, like, one post andit might do okay. And then sometimes
we'll go to another show.Like, this past weekend, we were
(12:07):
at the Chapel, Rowan's openingnight of her tour, and there was
this hilarious moment whereshe sees, for lack of better term,
she sees her butt on camera sothat she forgets that she. That her
butt is out because she's,like, hilarious. And we. We got a
post 10 times about thatbecause it's hilarious. And now it's
going viral. So truly, there'sno quota. It does come. Comes down
(12:28):
to instinct and knowing when amoment's going to be big and then
just capitalizing.
So, all right, I have a superrandom question. So sometimes I'll
put stuff on my Instagram,whatever, and there'll be a brand
involved, and I'll tag thebrand or I'll hashtag the brand or
whatever. And I would say,never has the brand interacted with
(12:51):
my post. I never gotten a likeor anything or whatever. So when
somebody out there is like,oh, my God, I went to the subhub,
we got the tickets there, bestconcert. And then they tag you or
put you as a whatever isthere. Just do brands just not care
about that or what goes on?
I care a lot. So I started mycareer by being a community manager
(13:13):
and that's for me the most funpart of a social media job, the responding
to fans and building fandom bygetting that banter with them. And
so I have people on my teamwho dedicated. They are just looking
for mentions of StubHub everyday and they're also looking for
things that are going viralthat we can just comment on. One
of our big strategies is justto comment on things and be a part
(13:36):
of conversations so that westay top of mind. So if you mention
StubHub, you'll at least get alike from us. But you might get one
of our community managers inthe comments, like telling you, so
glad you had fun at theconcert. Like, it looks so lit or
whatever. Um, and so we reallytry to be there. That's a big part
of our strategy and I've seena lot of social brands do that these
(13:57):
days. Um, there's a bit of aturn towards it, especially with
TikTok and the way thatTikTok, the comment section is just
such a fun place to be and youcan get so much engagement from comments
there. So it's definitely abig part of our strategy.
So obviously you all spend alot of time on Instagram and TikTok,
but do the other platformsmatter? Does LinkedIn matter? Does
Reddit matter? Like, are youalways trying to be everywhere or
(14:19):
only those two things?
Yeah, it's a good question. Ithink each platform matters, but
they each have a differentobjective. They can each achieve
different things. And my goalright now is broad brand awareness
with Gen Z. And that'sprimarily happening on TikTok, Instagram
and YouTube shorts with shortform video. And that's where all,
all of my efforts focused. Imean, I think there's totally reasons
(14:43):
to be on Reddit and onFacebook and on threads like you
mentioned earlier, orLinkedIn. But right now that's not
where I'm seeing traction forour brand. So I'm not putting as
much energy towards it. But ifI had all the resources in the world,
I'd be everywhere all the time.
But I do think it's importantno matter what anybody out there
is, marketing is go where youraudience is, go where the people
(15:05):
are that you're trying toreach. Because it doesn't help you
just to be everywhere if yourpeople aren't there. So that makes
a lot of sense. Okay, we, wegot through all this really fast
and so listen everybody, ifyou want to connect with Katie, I'm
going to put her LinkedIn inthe. In the. In the show notes, and
then she's going to blow up.And she's like, why'd you do that?
But her name just, you know,spells is C A I, T, Y and brands
(15:27):
B is B R, A, N, S, B, Y. Sheruns Social at StubHub. Everybody
go out there right now andhonor Katie and buy a ticket to something
random. That's what you wantto do. Katie, any other parting words
for everybody?
No, just always be posting.
I'm gonna get a tattoo. Alwaysbe posting.
Yeah, I love getting grouptattoos. Let's do that.
(15:48):
Oh, I love it. Amazing. Well,you're awesome. Thanks for being
here and I really appreciateyou doing the show.
Cool. Thanks for having me. Itmeans a lot.
You did it. You made it to theend. But wait, the party is not over.
Listen, I want to keep hangingout. Subscribe to this podcast and
if it wasn't the worst podcastyou've ever listened to, give it
(16:08):
a five star review. Why not?But you know what? I want to do even
more with you. Go togurumediahub.com and we can partner
there. You can find out aboutall of our free events, all of our
stuff, and if you're epicallybored, go to jschweddelson.com and
we could stay connected. Youcould find my newsletter and everything
else I got going on. Thanksfor being here and hope you subscribe.
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