Raising Your Brand’s Social Game: Madison Hits the Airwaves on WOYK

Senior Brand Manager Madison Hitz joined Gary Sutton on WOYK this morning to talk social media and dropped a few lessons every small business owner should hear. 

? Social media doesn’t have to be complicated. The overthinking is usually the hardest part. Madison’s take: start simple and build from there. 

? Show, don’t tell. A testimonial or a behind-the-scenes clip builds more trust than any tagline ever could. And yes, sometimes “behind the scenes” means the unexpected stuff, too. 

? Educate your audience. A quick tip or bit of advice can be just as engaging as a big announcement. 

Want to hear how one quick, off-the-cuff video racked up thousands of views in a single day for Gary? Catch the Madison’s interview on Gary Sutton Show or listen to the transcript below. 

Transcript

Gary: And with that, this morning, we welcome in here Madison Hitz from SparkFly. Good morning, Madison. How are you?

Madison: Good morning, Gary. How are you doing today?

Gary: I’m doing well, now that you have been skewered publicly in your first effort here on our show. But no, it’s great to have you aboard. Madison does a great job.

She and Colin over there and Lucas here, who’s doing the filming of this this morning, do a great job over at SparkFly at Shipley. But earlier this year, I decided, actually late last year, I decided that I need to become more hip. Mark and I needed to get more and more stuff out there on social media.

We were doing some, but not a whole lot. So I sat down with Madison and Colin, and we started to talk about how you do that. And I felt like Rip Van Winkle waking up after a 20-year nap.

Because you started saying, well, you know what? Instead of putting your daily question out there every day written down, why don’t you put it out there in pictures and in your voice? And I said, what?

And I can do that? So all of a sudden, now they’ve created a monster where I do this stuff. Why don’t you do little podcasts when you go to places?

Like I do now. I walk into places. All the stuff that I used to make fun of, now I do.

But we welcome you this morning, Madison Hitz. Good morning.

Madison: Thank you. Good morning. Good to be here.

Gary:  So we got together. What were your thoughts the first time you said, this guy’s a loser. There’s no possible way he could do this, right?

Madison: Oh my goodness. No, no, not at all. Honestly, I was so excited to be able to work with you just because there was so much opportunity and so many fun things that we would get to work on together, especially the video opportunity.

Gary: Yeah. And we’re a company. I mean, Mark and I are part of a company here.

We like to be associated with the revolution and all that, but we’re trying to get more and more listeners all the time to enjoy our show and take part. And so that was the point that with our multimedia approach that you now must take, I think, in the present day to be really candid about it. This was a piece that I felt was missing and we’re not there yet totally, but we’re working on the social media.

I think it can be overdone. And yet at the same time, your job and what you guys do with me is help to create some of that balance and some of those opportunities to get the word out there in other ways. Talk about that a little bit.

Madison: Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the things that was the most exciting with sitting down with you or really anybody is being able to explore the possibilities and opportunities of what they have available. So for looking at your social media, for example, we saw that there was an opportunity for video.

We saw there was an opportunity for you to be able to showcase your awesome personality and have people see that outside of just text form. And once we started doing that, the examples and seeing the results were amazing. It was like overnight, the difference in just being able to see little things, whether it was your question of the day, being able to interact with that from a video form or some of your most recent stuff of seeing, hey, Gary went out to dinner or out to lunch.

And I was like, actually, I’d love to do that. That’s awesome. And you relate to things, I think, a little bit better when you have an opportunity to mentally relate via video versus just reading it.

Gary: I think one of the things that I have learned is the stuff that people think is interesting. I went into a restaurant one night and I just shot a little quick one minute thing. I think it was South County Brewery.

I just, I shot this one little thing where I said, I’ll do this at Christmas time. They were decorated and I thought, okay, I was doing this off what Madison and Colin had taught me. And I’ll just make a little video and I’ll put a little voice to it.

And I just scoured the room and I put it up. 8,000 views that day. 8,000 views.

I’m more like the guy that owns it writes me and says, thank you so much. But I hadn’t thought about that, that people are really interested in little things or getting to know things. You know, I used to laugh in the old days when you’d say, I’m getting up, I’m brushing my teeth, I’m eating my breakfast, I’m going off to God knows where.

And I thought, that’s so boring. But now you look at it and you say, oh, I ate this dish tonight that’s really unusual. And people jump in on that kind of stuff.

So people are looking at the everyday things we do, which has given me a new insight there, Madison, I didn’t have before.

Madison: Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s a way that you can be relatable with your brand in every day, where you don’t necessarily have to be talking about, you know, your show or your brand or any of those things to just necessarily be in front of people, be in front of the community. You know, like if you see a video of somebody going out to lunch, your immediate reaction is, oh, I’d like to try that. I’d like to see that.

Gary: Yeah, someone will say, like the other night, I did one of some fireworks that we’re going to be putting up here in a couple of days. And I put up a little thing that night. I was across the street here at the Cotto building.

And I was up on top of the roof. A friend has a place over there. And we were up there taking pictures.

This is beautiful. And I’m looking at seven different fireworks displays around the whole York, Harrisburg area. And then the one down here at Wellspan Park.

It’s funny when you put something that people will react. So it is part of, I guess, the conversation that you’re having with people.

Madison: 

Yes.

Gary: And I think that’s a really important aspect to really talk about.

Madison: 

Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, you kind of hit the nail on the head there with that, where conversation, especially when it comes to social media, is so key because it enables, you know, your viewers or your customers to really get an idea of who you are as a person or who you are as a brand. And I think that is so important because it gives you the opportunity to interact with your customers.

And it also, you know, gives you an opportunity to show kind of behind the scenes element. One of the things that we love to do at SparkFly is show, like, behind the scenes, you know, elements, especially when they’re fun. Like, for example, we were filming a couple of weeks ago and we had the drone out.

And we had a raven that started attacking the drone. The raven was not a fan of the drone being there. But it was kind of almost what you were talking about a little bit earlier of, you know, some funny moments that end up being great stories, is it was something that was completely unrelated, but it ended up being a fantastic story and a fantastic story for that client as well, that while we were filming their video, a raven attacked the drone.

Gary: You know what else is interesting is that people love to see you, I think, sometimes in moments that they don’t see you in normally.

Madison: Absolutely.

Gary: Like, they see, they hear us every morning on this and they’ll see the little video I put up in the morning and things like that. And sometimes videos that we’ll do. But they see you in a video where you’re doing something they normally would not have seen you do.

Madison: Yep.

Gary: If you’re playing golf, or if you’re taking a walk, or if you’re in an embarrassing situation like flushing the commode of the friend’s house and then you’re getting six inches of water in the basement. No, but, you know, seriously, in things where you normally are not pictured in that setting. Is that a fair look?

Madison: Yeah, I think also because it kind of goes back to being relatable. You know, like, if you are having dinner at a place that somebody else likes, or if you’re golfing and somebody else relates to golfing, it just enables your viewers to relate to you on a separate level. And then also be able to feel a connection as well, outside of, like you said, that regular every day, every day to day that maybe you wouldn’t necessarily know about that person.

Gary: One of the great things that I’ve learned in this last year of social media has been this. It helps me to relate to other generations, and it helps me to relate to other ways of thinking. And that takes you out of your comfort zone.

You know, as we get older, we can tend to be the guy that lives in the house that takes the kids baseball and rolls under our lawn. You know, we tend to roll into a very narrow kind of thing sometimes. Not everybody, but I’m saying we can tend to move in that direction and insulate ourselves from other things.

What this does, it helps me to kind of be on guard every day for different things. And I kid at the beginning, I said, we’re taking 30-year-old eyes and putting whatever eyes, kind of look at the world. And I think it really helps me to understand things from more perspectives.

And I know I feel a little bit more refreshed. I know Mark feels refreshed every day when I do that. But no, it’s just the idea is it opens up your horizons a bit.

Madison: It does. And I think it helps you start to think of other ways that you can present yourself and other ideas of things you can do. You’re thinking outside the box.

You know, you’re not just having to think, okay, what am I posting in content form? It’s, hey, you know, what if I create a quick 10-second video of me feeding the ducks or of me going shopping or of me going out to dinner or any of those things? And it just really helps you relate to your customers and also helps you think of different ways that, you know, you can just kind of have fun with what you do every single day.

Gary: You’re referring to last week when I played golf and I was feeding Rick.

Madison: I absolutely am. I really enjoyed Rick.

Gary: Rick is a goose. He’s a white goose out of our club at Regents Glen. He lives on the fourth hole.

And he comes when you call his name. Hey, Rick. He’ll come on over.

And then you always have crackers or bread or something like that for him, which apparently is bad for ducks. But I, you know, I feed him anyway. But he’ll come over and eat it right out of your hand.

And I caught a breakfast with Rick. And we just had a little fun with that. But, you know, it’s amazing how many people want to see that.

And they go, oh, you know, you, I’ll tell you what, you put it, you put a pet into a video.

Madison: You’re good.

Gary: I told Mark, we ought to be sitting here doing a video every day of our show, holding a kitten. You know, I mean, people would do it just for, I remember that, what was that show used to be on Cable 4 all the time about your pets. And it was the highest rated show on Cable 4 because people wanted to see dogs and cats all the time.

So you do something like that. So let me ask you this question, Madison. For people who are listening this morning who have businesses, you know, and we know small business is the backbone of America, and especially here in New York, we’re a big place for small business.

Is there a list of things you can do outside of doing SparkFly? Is there a list of things you can do or that you should do for each business that kind of works for social media, a 10 commandments or whatever number of commandments it would be that would kind of work for them in terms of getting started if they wanted to expand that particular part of their business?

Madison: Yeah, absolutely. So I think the biggest thing to think about is that when it comes to social media, you don’t have to make it as complicated as it seems. And I think a lot of times with social media, it seems complicated.

It seems like, well, what do I do? How much do I post? What do I post?

And ultimately, the best advice that I can give is to just look at it from a fun lens, where if you think about from a weekly perspective, what ultimately do you, what is the message that you want to get across? The biggest thing is, you know, instead of telling your customers or your viewers what you do, it’s show them. Show them an example.

Show them a testimonial. Show them, you know, you and your team having fun, because that’s going to create trust. That’s going to be relatable far more than just saying, you should trust me because.

And I think, you know, another thing is education. It’s so important to educate your viewers, whether it is on something that they may not know, or maybe it’s something that you think they know that you can just give them advice on or give them tips and tricks on how they can be better at it. And that can be for any brand.

And then I think that, you know, the last thing is just fun. You know, kind of like we’ve been talking about on the show, it’s figuring out how you can express what you do in a fun, engaging way, whether it’s having your team members, you know, get together and start singing an old Paul McCartney song, which I am very familiar with. My dad was a big Beatles fan.

Gary: Thanks for mentioning it. Your dad was a big Beatles fan.

Madison: He was, but yeah, I will tell you.

Gary: We don’t feel any older now.

Madison: But I could probably sing every word to the Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da song.

Gary: Oh, yeah.

Madison: Every word. I even have the claps now.

Gary: You want to give it a go?

Madison: No, not live. That’s later.

Gary: Okay, very good.

Madison: But no, and I think that just have fun with it and just know that the biggest thing is to be present, to post often, and to just make sure that at the end of the day, you’re giving and you’re showing a part of yourself that you would want your customers to see.

Gary: Wow. That’s a great way of saying it this morning. And yeah, so anyway, if you want a brand, there are some ideas for you today.

We’re working on it all the time. Madison and Colin are going to kind of be regular parts of our show from time to time as we update you on different things that are going on, trends that are happening, different kind of branding that’s happening. But what they’ve done for me is they’ve helped to give me a we perspective to the show, a different generational perspective, if you will, a different angle perspective.

Mark does that every day, but it adds to it when you have people outside of your own generation way outside your own generation helping to do that. And it does give us a chance to have a little bit more fun with you every day and also provide different ways that you can reach us and communicate with us on social media. And we really appreciate it.

Madison, great to have you in this morning.

Madison: Yes, thank you so much.

Gary: Now, I will expect that you are going to get down to Augie’s.

Madison: Hey, I know there’s two doors now.

Gary: Way to go.

Madison: I’m already leveled up.

Gary: You do all this complicated branding, now you know that there’s two doors in the central market.

Madison: I know that when you walk in, you have to not just assume that it’s closed. You keep walking.

Gary: There are actually four doors to the central market. It’s a big square building. I don’t know.

See, but no, it’s easy to do. It’s easy to miss that.

Madison: I won’t mess it up next time.

Gary: I know you won’t. I know you won’t. You’re a quick study, but no, in all seriousness, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

Madison: Thank you so much.

Gary: It’s been great. And great having you and Lucas here in the studio with us to talk about branding, because a lot of businesses, you’re looking to get more customers. You’re looking, in our case, looking to get more listeners, but you’re looking to get more people walking to your door.

How do you do it? You had some ideas there this morning, right here in the Gary Sutton Show. Don’t forget, you can check a podcast of our show on WOYK on YouTube later on today.

After the show, if you want to go back and say, what were all those points? Go back and take a listen to them again, and you can jot them down. Madison, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

Madison: Thank you, Gary.

Gary: Looking forward to seeing you and Colin in the future.

Madison: Absolutely.

Gary: We’ll take a break. We’ll come back with more right here on the Gary Sutton Show, where it is 7:49am. Bye.