What I Learned About Business From an Anonymous Celebrity Gossip Account on Instagram

Those who know me best are surprised to learn that I am a fiend for celebrity gossip. I am fully up-to-date on the latest with Jason and Olivia’s split and the special salad dressing; I know Leonardo DiCaprio’s social calendar (a lot of Spain, a lot of Gigi Hadid). It wasn’t always this way. I was sucked into the anonymously run celebrity gossip Instagram page @DeuxMoi, and I couldn’t be happier about it. I also think it can teach us about business.

Most brands claim to have an online community, but actually, just foist content and hashtags at barely engaged followers who scroll idly by. For those of us running B2C consumer brands, DeuxMoi is the best example I can think of that is creating a community online. Shockingly, it has created a mini empire primarily with Instagram stories that disappear in 24 hours. Here are some best practices inspired by DeuxMoi for our companies’ social strategy. 

1. Create a sense of exclusivity: During its early period, DeuxMoi was a private account you had to request to join, ostensibly because its gossip was (and still is) unverified. This created a digital version of a speakeasy: You had to be one of the cool kids who knew where it was to even have a chance at getting in. 
2. Let the audience lead: DeuxMoi is the most audience-generated account I follow. The topics and the content the account highlights are all generated by the audience, who become deeply invested in the account because they aren’t passively consuming but actively co-creating. 
3. Develop storylines: The account has a series of inside jokes (NYC’s boyfriend, “Safe Sex,” “your boss”) that won’t make sense to newbies. That feels counterintuitive to building an audience, but these inside jokes’ recurring themes create deeper engagement with the existing audience, leading people to tell their friends to follow.
4. Follow a calendar: I used to think a brand social media calendar was a shortcut to managing a social media manager’s time by making the job super clear, but DeuxMoi taught me that a social media calendar can engage the audience. For example, the account’s “Sunday Spotted” celebrity sightings feature has become close to what used to be called “appointment TV” for followers of the account. 
5. Go multiplatform: After the Instagram account had been well established, DeuxMoi expanded into offshoot Instagram accounts (@revealmoi), podcasts, email newsletters, and selling swag. The sequencing matters: Establish a beachhead first and focus on doing one thing well, and only after you’ve done that, use the following you’ve created to meet people in other places where they are.
6. Develop and use your voice: Bad brands try to be everything to everyone and water down their voice and bury their point of view. Good brands know what they are and know even more what they are not. DeuxMoi knows it is a celebrity gossip account, and it doesn’t apologize for it. Your business is not a celebrity gossip account and should know that. Whatever you are, lean into it, and don’t be afraid that it won’t be for everyone. That way, like making friends, the people who like you for who you are can find you. 

All of this is a lot of work. DeuxMoi has said it takes four hours per week to curate its Sunday Spotted feature alone, a reminder to be grateful for (and elevate) the social media managers in our lives. As we build our consumer brands, if we are serious about building a real community we should think harder about the strategic costs and benefits of doing social media right. The rewards are clear: What started as a joke account for a handful of friends is now known as “DeuxMoi World,” and just got a book deal with HarperCollins.

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