A Look into a Social Media Professional

I had to opportunity to conduct an interview with Katie Pondiscio, the manager of the Barstool Viceroy Program. Though that is her official title, Katie also helps run the College Football (CFB) section. She does the stats and runs the social media for the CFB show. In addition, Katie runs the Nooners accounts, as well as helps produce the Unnecessary Roughness podcast.

I was very impressed to see all that she does within the Barstool company and how a lot of that technically does not fall under her title. She runs the viceroy program, which is the program where college students run their colleges’ Barstool or Chicks Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok pages. She does help out with those accounts as well as all of the other accounts she helps with. So, in reality, Katie helps run hundreds of accounts, which is very impressive. She does have a little help. They have about 15 people on various different account teams/brands. In addition, 6 interns, which 5 ended up turning into full-timers. Katie did mention how most of their interns turn into full time employees at Barstool. She ran the UNC Barstool page and during the summer of her junior year she applied to the intern program. Katie explained how she was denied, but that didn’t stop her from running the UNC Barstool page. She kept grinding at that page and then a position opened up within the company and the boss remembered her name. Katie was offered the positions and then moved to NYC to pursue her career at Barstool.

I asked Katie what her typical day looked like, which she explained like this.

She checks the top posts from the college accounts and then sends out content ideas to both groups. She then starts to answer emails and messages from her viceroys. One of her main tasks in the morning is to make sure if there are any paid posts, that those go out and are set. She then begins prepping for CFB, which sometimes is stat work or prep. She does have to spend a lot of time listening to recaps and analyses of the games and then crunch numbers. She explained how her work schedule is very rigorous and intense. She is in the office every weekday from 8:30am to 6:30pm. Then on Saturdays, she is in the office for a few hours and on Sunday, she comes to the office for a few hours to record the podcast. Later in the interview she did explain how her schedule is her least favorite part of the job. Since she does CFB, it does require her to work the weekends and whenever there is a game. Katie was quick to reassure that she LOVES it, but it does get tiring sometimes, since she doesn’t always have time for her own life. One of her favorite parts of the jobs, is how she gets t works with sports and social media all day, every day. The environment of the office is really relaxed and unlike any other office, which adds to the experience.

I was curious to ask Katie what her favorite platform was, which was TikTok. I was honestly was surprised about this, because I have been reading how other brands do not like it due to the regulations with music and other things regarding the algorithm. She said she liked it the most right now because its quick and easy to consume. She doesn’t have a lot of free time, so when she does she can work by finding content to send out and entertain herself quickly.

I then started to ask Katie more in-depth questions about her job and the accounts she runs.

I was curious to ask about their audience and how they describe their voice.

Katie explained how they want to reach the people who want to laugh and be entertained. “We say how there’s a lot of shit in the world, and we want to be there to entertain through the darkness.” She explained how their target audience is very loose and is all over the age and gender map.

I asked Katie about if her company works with influencers and what they do with that.

Katie discussed how they mainly use their own people as content, like the owner of Barstool, Dave Portnoy or the host/owner of Call Her Daddy, Alex Cooper. They have become influencers and Barstool uses that. However, they have started to dip their toes into the influencer world though. Dave did just start a podcast with a famous TikToker that they hope to gain traction from. In terms of sending merch to celebrities though, they don’t. They never send out merch boxes in hopes the celebrities or influencers wear it. Pretty much celebrities choose to wear the Barstool merch or they have a contract deal with an athlete for merch that they sell and wear. Instead, they devote that money to paid advertisements across the platforms, or billboards for their sports book.

For the final two questions, I asked her what the future of social media is and what advice she has for students looking to get into this field.

Katie thinks that the future of social media will continue to grow and bounce off of each other. Apps are already trying to copy each other. For example, Twitter just added Fleets, which is just a story aspect, like every other platform has already. Katie does think Fleets will become more popular than stories on Instagram or Snapchat. In addition, TikTok will continue to grow and become the number 1 platform.

Katie’s advice was to get your foot in the door of any social media company and show them that you can grind. It is a very demanding and intense job, which your employees need to see, so show it! Make sure to show them your ideas. If you get the chance to talk with one of these companies, make your unique mindset known and share a few ideas on how to expand on a weak area. She kept explaining how most students are afraid to share their ideas, but that is what companies want to hear. They are looking for the new generation of ideas, so share them!

I found this interview to be very informative and gave me a deeper look into the social media profession. I learned that it does have a very intense schedule, but it can be fun if you enjoy what you are doing.