We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Scoggin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Amanda, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
At Christmas each year, with the exception of the past few years due to the pandemic, I do a project through my page and my Instagram called Christmas Belles. My followers nominate someone in need during the holidays, and we take over behind the scenes. I collect donations for anything they could possibly need from clothing to appliances. From Christmas trees to Christmas dinner! One year I was able to provide a mom in need with a full washer and dryer set thanks to a local appliance store! Another year I got the “IT” toy for a little boy who was sure he wasn’t even going to get one toy.
I coordinate with the person that nominated them to get into their house whilst the family is out and we quickly move the donated items and gifts in. So when the family returns, it is truly as if Santa Claus has come! I have never been able to be present at one of these homecomings but I can imagine their faces filled with joy and wonder as they enter a home, now overflowing with delicious food and beautifully wrapped presents. I recall one family in particular, living in a hotel and in dire need of baby items. We supplied them with about six months’ worth of diapers in various sizes, baby clothing in a range of sizes, toys also toys for the other children, and some clothing for them and momma. This family was given grocery and restaurant gift cards so they could eat. We also got Mom a massage! They were so surprised and grateful!
It is honestly my favorite time of year. Posting memes and joking around with people all year is great but fulfilling Christmas wishes is honestly the cherry on the cake after a long year especially when it has been a challenging year for everyone. If you know a family in need this holiday season, please feel free to come and nominate them on my page! Confessions of a Snarky Southern Belle on Facebook and d@snarkysouthernbelle on Instagram.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My page actually started as a fan page for my blog www.snarkysouthernbelle.com which has sadly kind of fallen to the wayside. I still do post on occasion but since my success seems to be more on the Facebook page and Instagram I have begun to devote my efforts there. My goal is to make people laugh, to feel good every day. I do this by sharing memes and sometimes inspirational things. I share details about my life, like reels of my daughter doing goofy dances, or the recent news of the passing of my grandmother. Sharing my pain with my followers, allows them to share their pain with me and it fosters a closeness and a sense of community. I like to share pictures of far-off places and label them “Bucket List” so that all of us can dream a little and on occasion, I share a picture of a “Random Hot Guy” (RHG) for my female followers who are my larger demographic. I caption every meme with a snarky comment and I am very picky about the memes I choose to share. Everything has a Southern take on it because I am Southern but the page is truly international with fans from all corners of the globe. There is a fair amount of cursing so if that’s not your thing, this is not your page, but don’t worry I will bless your heart.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of doing this is the followers by far! I have this extended family of people from all walks of life, of all ages, and from all over the planet that have come to genuinely care about me and my daughter. They step up when I put out a call for charity or if I say I am feeling down they are right there to pump me back up. If I have a big event coming up that I have chosen to share with them, they remember it and are right there with me cheering me on. It’s amazing really. The reverse of that is I have gotten to know them too and they share things with me. One I can think of specifically lost her daughter to cancer and she thinks of me as a kind of surrogate daughter. We’ve never met, but she’s followed me since I started my page over ten years ago and has grown with me, watched my mistakes and ups and downs, my sense of humor reminds her of her daughter and so she just says I’m her daily dose of her daughter. I am pleased I can give her that, it isn’t much but it is something.
I have a lot of strange little “small world circles” within the Belle universe, so many of my followers know each other in some way or are connected somehow. It’s weird they’ll see someone comment and then say “I didn’t know you followed this page!” One of my followers made the wedding cake for one of my best friends, and then she’s friends with several other followers who were all bridesmaids in each other’s weddings. The twists and turns just keep happening all the way through my follower list, even, I couldn’t figure them all out.
My followers love updates about my daughter who turns seven on May 3rd, and they have followed her all her life. She’s honestly one of my most popular posts, it helps that she’s cute. I have worked hard at fostering a sense of community or family. I block people who cause disruption and make hurtful comments really quickly, we don’t need that kind of negativity. My page may be snarky but it’s about positivity overall. I want you to laugh and heal and my amazing followers support that.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Technically I am still building my audience. I mean, do you ever stop building? Can you ever get too big? For me, it’s just been being consistent. Consistent posting, consistent branding, consistent messaging, consistently being there… you have to comment back to the comments you are getting. That means all of them, which can be daunting if you get a lot of comments but it’s doable. Just take one comment at a time. Try to further the conversation if you can or at least make each comment unique and on-brand. In the beginning, I bought ads to help spread the word and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. It helped me gain an international audience. Now mostly, I get likes by shares and hashtags. Though the importance of hashtags is dwindling; I still use hashtags religiously. Anytime one of the platforms you are using introduces a new feature, use it! Like when reels became a thing jumping on that bandwagon was a way to skyrocket your audience. Facebook and Instagram love it when you use their new features and they push those pages to the front of the line so more people see them. If a certain song or topic is trending talk about it or play it, instant hits. Look for trending hashtags and see if you can’t use that somehow on your page, instant hits. Every hit is a potential follower. 
Contact Info:
- Website: www.snarkysouthernbelle.com
- Instagram: @snarkysouthernbelle
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SnarkySouthernBelle/
- Twitter: @snarkysouthernbelle
Image Credits
Amanda Scoggin