Instagram account @bitch remains anonymous, though this is the profile photo used on all of the ... [+]
Since 2016, Instagram account @bitch has been serving up memes and viral videos for the account’s more than 5.1 million followers, which rises to 5.7 million if their Facebook following is included.
“I mainly started by sharing the content I liked and enjoyed” the creator of the account, who wishes to remain anonymous, told me. “There was no real technology or thought to it at the time except to get the best and funniest things I saw up first.”
In 2017, the owner of the account pivoted to featuring videos 100% of the time because of the increased engagement videos generated. By the summer of 2018, @bitch teamed up with digital content studio and network Collab, which streamlines the process of content acquisition and licencing through processing hundreds to thousands of pieces of content a week on behalf of @bitch.
“Copyright is a major problem on social media so we wanted to be one of the first big meme pages to take a stand on this to help everyday people take their viral video to the next step,” @bitch told me.
We connected with the account creator to get their insight to the content creation process on social media through a simple Q&A session, which is below.
Why do you wish to remain anonymous?
I think that it’s best to stay anonymous on social media because people love @bitch for the brand and the content, and that’s what I truly care about.
What is the process of sharing content? How has that process changed over the years?
I mainly started by sharing the content I liked and enjoyed. There was no real technology or thought to it at the time except to get the best and funniest things I saw up first. @bitch was originally like any other meme account on Instagram where I was posting text and picture memes. However, I had a breakthrough and realized that video content resulted in better engagement with my audience so I decided to pivot in that direction completely in January 2017. Before I started working with Collab, it was all verbal permissions, but once we partnered up we decided to go the route of actually doing all the clearances and licenses in order to give video owners more than just their 15 seconds of Internet fame and legitimizing @bitch as a brand and not just another page in a sea of memers.
When did you start working with Collab? How does that partnership work and could other accounts use them?
Our partnership began in mid-2018, around July. Collab was a company that had the technology and resources and @bitch had the audience and research capabilities so it only made sense to partner up. Collab provides the vetting process and technology for @bitch to aggregate and license the content with their program UNCLE. This process allows @bitch and Collab’s content licensing team to verify video owners as well as getting the proper permissions and rights for us to share and promote the content. Copyright is a major problem on social media so we wanted to be one of the first big meme pages to take a stand on this to help everyday people take their viral video to the next step. Any content account that has an active and involved community is welcome to work with Collab.
What's your favorite part of running these accounts?
The best part about running these accounts is being able to help every-day creators monetize and grow off of something that they never expected to blow up in the first place. Most people don’t know what to do when their video ‘pops off’ on social media, so it’s been amazing to help and guide people in the right direction when it does.
What was the most challenging thing you and your team experienced in the content curation process? What is the most challenging thing now?
The most difficult part about curating content and managing pages isn’t so much the management of the page but being able to find new and fresh content. The Internet is a massive ocean of content and finding that one video that everyone can relate to and share is definitely the most tedious part. All in all, the most difficult part has to be the discovery/research phase to beat everyone else to posting the video.
Have there been any legal issues due to user permissions and how was that handled? What did you learn in that process?
Aside from the usual copyright report and take-downs from companies doing the licensing, I didn’t have any legal issues on my page back then. When I received these marks on my account, I would dispute it with any company or people filing these against me with the permissions that I had requested from the owners of the video. I quickly learned that permissions were great but those aren’t as strong as licenses that allow you to use the video and protect your account. Ever since I partnered with Collab, I’ve learned a lot about the appropriate practices when it comes to curating user generated content. To ensure that I never get in legal trouble, I always make sure to have clearances, parent permissions and legal documentation in place. Through the last year, I’ve learned to treat content and clearances seriously because it’s no longer a world where you can just post what you want without any repercussions.
Why are there two names for the same brand on Facebook and Instagram?
I originally started with the name @bitch and have had it since 2016. These days, it’s a little harder to get unique user names on Instagram so I decided to stick with what I had because it’s hilarious and the word “bitch” is kind of part of the culture now. On Facebook and every other platform, I decided to go with a more friendly user name (Betch) to follow guidelines as most of them won’t permit profanities. Who knows, maybe I’ll go full force with “bitch” in the future.
