‘Love Island’ Star Elan’s Brother Runs His Socials. He Gave Me a Peek.

Elan Bibas entered the “Love Island USA” villa with a disadvantage: He was added late, as part of a group of hunks sent to stir things up. But he also has an advantage: his younger brother, Tal, who’s running his social media while Elan’s on the show.

I talked to Tal about his experience running Elan’s social accounts and the business opportunities that have presented themselves since his brother’s time on the huge summer hit for Peacock. (It was the No. 2 most watched original streaming show during its first two weeks, Nielsen said.)

Contestants on the show — and if you haven’t watched, I must recommend it as great summer fun! — compete to find love, or share part of the $100,000 prize with their partner.

Appearing on the show can also be a big business opportunity.

Fan favorites from past seasons have gone on to success as influencers with lucrative brand deals or other entertainment appearances. Cast members from last season will reunite for a new show, “Beyond the Villa,” starting later this month.

As my colleague Callie Ahlgrim observed, the spectre of social media looms large: “The islanders seem hyper-aware of their role as entertainers and competitors, much too preoccupied with how they’re being perceived by an invisible audience to be truly honest and vulnerable with each other.”

Contestants have to give up their phones during their time on the show, which airs five nights a week in near real-time, so some of them have entrusted family or friends to run their social media accounts for that time. Cierra Ortega, an early fan favorite, has her friend MJ Hedderman running her Instagram, who’s been delighting fans with her funny perspective and long captions.

Business Insider talked to Tal Bibas, 22, who lives in London and has been posting to his older brother Elan’s Instagram and TikTok accounts. Elan, 24, grew up in the suburbs of Toronto and now lives in Miami and works in tech.

So far, Tal’s strategy for managing his brother’s Instagram has seemed to work. Elan’s followers have gone up from about 3,000 to 63,000 since he first appeared on the show a week and a half ago.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Were you surprised when Elan told you that he was going to be a contestant on “Love Island?”

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One hundred percent. I think it was a shock to us all. Elan’s a very smart guy — it’s hard to see that on TV, but he’s almost like a nerd. He’s always been a super academic guy and always top-of-his-class. He got out of university, did computer science and engineering and entrepreneurship, came out with a job at a consultancy, a tech consultancy, helping them code and advise. He was doing really well with that. I think he hit a ceiling in Toronto and was really craving to move to a new city. Obviously, Miami comes with the beautiful weather, so that’s what moved him there.

In the past few years, he’s just got this virus to want to do these crazy ultramarathons and running. He formed a community of people in Miami doing that kind of stuff, and a lot of them are content creators within the health and wellness niche. He found that that was quite cool, and he’s like, You know what? Wow, maybe I should start doing this a bit.

So shortly before he got approached to be on the show, he started doing a bit of content around health and wellness, running, self-improvement — things along those lines. I wouldn’t say he had any viral posts or anything like that. Then he honestly just got DMed by a casting director, and that’s kind of how this whole thing happened.

So the casting team reached out to him. He didn’t apply to be on the show?

Exactly.

Oh, that’s interesting. I didn’t realize that’s how the casting works. In terms of his day job, obviously, it’s hard to take a month or two off to go shoot a reality show. What’s the status of his job?

His work seemed to be quite fine with it. They basically said, “You can definitely take on this opportunity, but take all paid time off first, and then everything after that would be unpaid leave.”

Knowing your brother, what’s your reaction to what’s happening on the show?

At first, when I saw him on, I was excited, but I had that weird feeling where it’s just like, “Oh my God, you never know how the public’s going to perceive someone on TV.”

Honestly, I was quite surprised by how comfortable he seemed. I thought maybe he would sound a bit different or move in a different way. Right now, the way he’s acting inside the villa is the exact same way he acts in real life.

Cast members build big social followings during the show, which can lead to all sorts of lucrative opportunities. When Elan asked you to manage his socials, was that something very much at the top of your mind?

I think Elan is not doing this for the clout or fame. Honestly, that’s the last thing on his mind. He loves saying “yes” to opportunities. For him, it’s all about going through this, living through this experience, and just having this bucket-list, once-in-a-lifetime experience to be able to say he did this thing. And through that, to form connections, build relationships, and meet a lot of cool people.

Elan basically said, “Here’s my login details. Do your best to keep things positive and have fun with it. Mostly just let it ride and just see how it goes.”

I guess I have my own strategy for how I want to manage his Instagram. I don’t think he knows exactly that. I definitely see this as not just a business opportunity, but a way to help my brother out. I want to do the most I can to post good content, engage with the audience, and leave him in the best spot for when he comes out to have that seamless transaction of “OK, guys, he’s back.” And it’s kind of that exact brand and audience that he’s known for.

I was studying a lot of the old contestants and seeing what their experiences were via their social presence, and so I was learning quite a lot from just looking at that.

I do have a background also in digital marketing and social media. I worked as an intern at a big influencer-marketing agency in Toronto, so I kind of understand the nuances of how the industry works — I just never thought it would be my brother. It’s been an interesting learning curve.

Have you been approached by brands or business opportunities for him? How are you fielding these incoming things?

I made a separate email account for him for his social accounts. There’s a lot of random stuff coming in there. Going through it and figuring out what’s legit and what’s not takes time. I want to make this process as seamless as possible for Elan so that when he comes out I can say, “Look, I was taking care of everything when you were gone. This is what happened. We’ve got these brands, these people approaching you for these opportunities,” and just go through it with him and see what is the priority right now, what makes the most sense. I wouldn’t say there’s a long list of brands, but there are talent agencies that want to represent him.