Screenwriter Kelly Oxford Built A Following Out Of Odd Moments From Her Life

Screenwriter and author Kelly Oxford uses Snapchat for storytelling (of course) and sharing life’s funny moments. She spoke with Fast Company about how she built a successful Snapchat brand based on weird life mysteries. “As long as there’s an element of humor, it’s always a hit.”

How did you get started on Snapchat?

I’ve always tried any new social media platform. I’ve been online since 1995, so anything that’s new I always try. I love Snapchat a lot. I’m shocked at how much I love it. My kids got me into it. Within a month of it launching I noticed kids started using it in lieu of texting their friends. I thought that was cool and interesting that they were doing that instead of messaging each other or Facetime-ing. It was more fun to send a funny picture.

What kinds of things do you post?

I started putting out content in little bits of my day. What I’ve liked the most about it is just having different storylines that I can fall back into that people enjoy, whether it’s a mystery—like, I had a package that wasn’t delivered, and it went on for two weeks and I brought people through that. There actually was no package. It had been delivered but the guy left the card anyway. It ended up being a bad mystery but people were caught up in it and needed to know where it was. There are these two guys who walk through my neighborhood every day and they never talk to each other. If I see them anywhere I’ll snap them. Finding things in my day that I think are really funny and weird and sharing them on Snapchat has been my favorite thing. I love to rant about all these national days. Every morning I wake up and it’s some new special day. Where do these things get their money from? It’s National Cookie Day. Cookies don’t have money, where is it coming from? Who is making all the money off of calling this stuff national day?

Which snaps are the most successful?

The things I procrastinate on when I’m working are the things I end up putting on Snapchat. As long as there’s an element of humor to it it’s always a hit. (March 02, 2017) I passed a restaurant where the sign looked like it said “human tasty.” And I recorded it and I had so many people from Los Angeles saying, “Oh my god I think that every time.”

This article is part of our coverage of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2017.