Viral Power: Risky Social Media Behavior in Kenya
Gathathai Mwangi MSC(Fin),CPS(K),CIFA(III)
Collections Manager at Kifedha Ltd
It all started when the NYS scandal was exposed last year. Kenyan on Social media worked tirelessly to ensure that justice has been delivered. Before then, there were other call of justice, but this was the turning point. When Waiguru resigned, Kenyan on social media took all the credit and crowned themselves the ultimate judges. It was evident that their contribution to justice could not be ignored any longer. Before long, the issue of Chase Bank came to light and these ultimate judges did not disappoint. The CBK governor acknowledged the herd effects of the social media and pleaded for responsibility. The trend setters have brought other fraud cases into the limelight. But interesting to know, the people who call the shot do so from an informal conversation that cause ripple effects.
The so called social media industry started in the 2000s with following platform coming to online; Wikipedia in 2001, Hi5 and MySpace in 2003, Flickr in 2004, YouTube and Reddit in 2005, Facebook and Twitter in 2006, WhatsApp in 2009, Instagram in 2010 and Snapchat in 2012. Social Media has brought about global connectivity as now it’s much easier to communicate with and around the world within a matter of seconds. It has not only helped people connect, but also because of huge numbers of usage, companies and brands are using it for advertisement and promotion. Users are using it to search for good deals from their preferred brands, while companies are target growing their customer base to boost sales.
The media ability to have multiple users interacts with one status update have given it much power. “Repostâ€, “Like†and “comment†have made it easier to trend a topic especially a negative one. When these abilities are added to a huge number of users, it makes it more powerful. In the days before social media, frauds were exposed through print or broadcasting media. It was easier then to contain damage as negative publicity would be countered by positive one. It is now difficult for companies to contain negative publicity once it starts to trend. Although companies can track negative statements and address them within the media, but once it fall on hands of public the damage may not be contained. We have had insiders, who leaks confidential information, damaging the company's public confidence like Imperial Bank case. Employees, as they engage their friends online, may end up damaging company reputations unknowingly. Because of the informal nature of conversing tone of social media, well-intentioned writing on the media may be misinterpreted.
Jeff Wilson, a Partner at Sensei Marketing, argues that social media equips an average person with four empowering bad behavior factors;
(1) No Guilt
(2) The Mob
(3) Relative Anonymity and
(4) No Accountability
Diamond M.L (2015), observed that whistle blowing is vogue currently in social media and it need to be nurtured as it can assist in the early detection and prevention of wrongdoing. But before you publish information, that you purport to be exposing the company, Diamond suggest asking you the following questions;
- Am you absolutely sure of the facts in this issue? What is your evidence, and can you gather more evidence to make the case more compelling?
- If you am using crowd sourcing to gather data or allowing the public to provide information directly on your website how can you authenticate it to ensure it is as clean and correct as possible?
- What are the consequences of exposing this issue, both for the individuals concerned and for wider society?
- Who are your sources? Can you trust them? How can you conceal their identity? Will they be in danger if you expose the issue?
- If our society or market is already unstable, will revealing the issue lead to even more violence or harm rather than less?
- How can you ensure your message does not get taken out of context, or twisted to mean something it wasn't intended to mean?
This media have a powerful amplifying effect. But like any technology, we can decide to use it for good or evil. Indeed there is no better and defined way yet of how to expose fraud using social media. Regardless, researches and case studies of how the acts have impacted the market in past can help. Trying, improving, experimenting on it, with time we will build a good whistle blowing social media strategy. It’s upon the whistleblower to aim before they shoot. Social media, as they rightly put it, is not a magic bullet which you can fire and immediately hit your target. That social change is tough to achieve especially corruption, so deeply ingrained in political and business culture all over the world. You have to simply stay positive, stay on the ball, and stay safe.
As Monga from Rutgers Business School said ‘in the big picture, social media helps consumers weed out the companies and individuals who deliver good products and services from the one who don't, making the economy more efficient.’ But we have to be cautious not to negatively use the media to burn down our economy. It’s good to have in mind that company you are trying to bring down is source of living to ten thousands. That listed company is owned by parents and friends of people who you are bringing it down. That manager will leave and get another job elsewhere but investor who is innocent loses their investment. Lastly, that company well being is of importance than our influence in social media. Let us all be responsible.
@gathathaimwangi