I woke up one day to a Facebook post where someone had used me as a terrible case study for a marketing campaign. When I scrolled down to check the comments, people had rained curses on me.
Hereâs what happened.
Before COVID, on a cold, long, Sunday night, I was scrolling through Instagram when I came across a giveaway. The user posted that she would be giving out a sum of 500,000 naira, and so anyone who comments with their account numbers would be picked at random.
I couldnât believe my eyes. That was such an exciting thing to read at a time where the economy was not smiling. As a sharp girl, I had already started calculating how I would spend the 500k if I was picked.
Normally, I donât like to participate in giveaways. I donât like games of chance because I never win. But the money was too much to not try. So I commented with my account number.
If youâre thinking that I shouldnât have commented because it could be a scam (because people pretend to give out cash on Instagram all the time just to grow their followers, and end up not giving it out), please note that this was a time when the economyâs claws had a firm grip on everyone, not trying my luck would be foolish.
But also, if you think that commenting wouldnât do any harm, please know that when you are building a personal or business brand on social media, you should be wary about what you comment on.
Later that night, as I lay on my bed, my mind kept going back to the giveaway. So I picked up my phone to check it out again. It was then that I realized that I hadnât read the post thoroughly. She was actually going to be giving 500k to 50 people. This meant that any randomly picked person would be receiving 10k.
I hissed and dropped my phone.
Two years ago, someone from my Church had reached out to me to tell me about a business idea they had and wanted me to join. It was a Multi Level Marketing business. If youâre familiar with MLM, itâs the usual âbring 5 people and theyâll each bring 5 peopleâ and so on and so forth type thing.
I humbly declined. If there was one thing I hate, itâs having to market things to people that I donât like myself. I still have PTSD from my time working in the bank.
But this someone was really persistent. He would send me text messages, send me pictures of âsuccessful membersâ on WhatsApp, would call me to hear my response. He even went as far as opening a portal for me on the MLM platform.
He was really resilient, not in an annoying way, but in a very determined way. Also, this person was someone I really admired and he had a level of authority over me in the Church. I just kept declining âhumblyâ
One time, I was even invited to a seminar for âdownlinesâ (an MLM term that refers to people you have brought onboard and the people your people have brought on board). After the event, I was still not convinced. I had my focus on something else and not on MLM, but they wouldnât understand.
Another time, this person introduced me to their upline (you understand how the term works now) and said that I was really good with social media. Actually, no he said I was a social media genius and that I could make money in MLM with my skills. The upline advised me to âbetter take the offer now before itâs too lateâ
Letâs just say I was adamant about my refusal. So he let me be.
Thereâs one thing I hate about Facebook, itâs the fact that people will post without thinking, the fact that there are no boundaries and people overshareâŠWow, I guess thatâs not one thing.
Because if thatâs not true, tell me why people who know absolutely nothing about anything will comment their âopinionsâ under a post. People who didnât know why this case study girl was refusing to join MLM would comment with curses.
One of them even said âNa man dem dey depend onâ meaning that they depend on men for money. If only I could wrap my hands around his neck.
Anyway, fast forward to 2 years later, Mr MLM saw my giveaway comment and went to Facebook to use me as an example and a marketing bait to get people on board his campaign for âbring 5 peopleâ
The good Lord sees it all.
Honestly, I was shocked when I saw the post. I didnât think that in my lifetime, I would be used as a bad example on social media by someone whoâs more than an acquaintance. Anyway, I went back to delete my comment, I mean why would anyone try to ridicule me because of 10k?
Iâd give it to the guy though. He was able to tie in his offer at the end of the post and he got a lot of positive responses, because why wouldnât he? His case study was superb.
đ€Łđ€Łđ€Ł
The MLM specialist wanted to make his sales. You just fell in as a right case study đđ.
As for the Facebook commenters, letâs just leave those guys đ