When Amy Foley direct-messaged RedCup ACC in Dec. 2020 asking if she could revive the Wake Forest account of the larger RedCup News organization, she didn’t expect much. Maybe it would provide her an opportunity to post some Wake Forest-related memes and get a few laughs. Thirteen months, 293 posts and nearly 3,000 followers later, the junior from Lake Forest, IL. can say she’s done a little bit more. 

After getting the go-ahead, RedCupWake was completely under Foley’s direction. Tasked with growing the brand, she was essentially starting from scratch. Foley reached out to friends Hanna Vasconcello and Jonathan Gharib, both sophomores at the time, in order to help expand RedCupWake’s presence towards TikTok and Twitter. Foley also contacted other RedCup affiliates in hopes of some advice and guidance.

“I’ve tried to model our page after the RedCupCanes’ one because theirs has done so well at their school [University of Miami (FL)],” Foley said. Foley, however, noted that the relationship between accounts is more than just emulation. There is a group chat that the account heads use to bond and work together.

Foley is very organized when it comes to coming up with content to grow the RedCupWake brand. 

“I have a meme notebook where I draw out all my memes,” Foley said. “I normally organize it into like, ‘what topics are relevant’ and then ‘what formats do I want to use’. Then I will try to match them. It doesn’t always work out that way and sometimes I have to go searching.”

Foley admits that while she does not want to just cover one topic, she would like to focus more energy on sports-related content since “that’s what people want to see.” But one of the main challenges she and Vasconcello — who is in charge of the RedCupWake Tiktok account — both face is being the line between “too niche” or “just right”.

“When I was first given the account, I started writing a whole bunch of ideas on my phone of sounds that I wanted to use with certain punchlines,” Vasconcello said. “Ideas would just come from things on campus that annoyed me, caught my attention or made me laugh … most of my Greek Life or sports memes are inspired by friends, though, I’m not really in those groups.”

Foley said that working with various campus groups like TedX or Good Uncle has brought her joy. 

“It was nice to have people recognize me through Redcup Wake, and any way I can help another organization at Wake Forest is always good.” 

Running one of the most popular meme pages on campus isn’t as simple as mocking something up, clicking “post” and watching the likes roll in. And now that Vasconcello is abroad for the spring semester, Foley will have to maintain the account mostly by herself.

“Last semester, I had a little bit of trouble [keeping up] just because I got really busy,” Foley said. “My posting decreased — I’m going to try to change that this semester, because I should have a little bit more time on my hands — but it is a lot to keep up with sometimes. Especially when you have deals with other people.”

“Right now, the main goal for [Foley] is to grow the Instagram account,” Vasconcello said. “She has always had a full schedule on top of running RedCupWake, so I can’t imagine it’ll be more difficult.”

Last year, Foley worked in the Fan Experience & Sales program for the Athletic Department, so attending football or soccer games meant going as an employee, not as a student. Another stipulation was no pregame tailgates or sitting in the student section, both aspects of games she very much enjoyed, and by default, less time spent creating content, sports-related or not. She is still very thankful for all the appreciation she receives, even if she didn’t post as much as she wanted. 

“Matt James commented on one of our posts, Nick Sciba followed me and reposted something on his story. I think A.T. Perry reposted the meme I made of him,” Foley said. “Even though he’s just reposting it, for someone who to say, ‘I spent time thinking about this,’ it’s a nice gesture. So I’m just happy that people like some of the stuff I create.”

As for what’s in store for RedCup Wake for this spring semester, Foley wants to brush up her video editing skills and post more video content. The TikTok will most likely be on hiatus until Vasconcello returns. At some point, though, there will a quick trip down to Office Depot to buy a new notebook.