Ramone Martin, East Africa’s Twitter Executive and Adrian Ciesielski, Africa’s Twitter Sales Manager happened to be in the country where they had attended several functions including Safaricom’s Blaze event in Mombasa. This is a week after Twitter suspended many Kenyan influencers without a reason.
Masters of the Universe, Twitter executives, are working hand in hand with Scangroup to identify the accounts of local influencers to suspend to boost Ad-Buying. Scangroup is the agency that made a cameo appearance in Safaricom KPMG Corruption reports.
Early in August, Twitter executives flew into the country to market their marketing department. Twitter has been doing an aggressive marketing campaign, especially in Kenya where they want companies to buy ads from them. Twitter promotes companies and individuals by promoting their hashtags, tweets or boosting their followers.
According to a source that we spoke to, Twitter is targetting government and private sector companies like Safaricom. A Twitter executive going by the name Ramone Martin flew into Kenya to attend a Blaze event organized by Scangroup Agency.
Many Kenyan influencers had been banned before the Twitter executives flew into the country to popularize their ad market.
Facebook remains king in the social media advertising arena because of the reach the social media giant has. According to the latest statistics, Facebook has 7.1 Million active users per month compared to Twitter’s 1 Million active users per month.
Advertising on Twitter is a big mistake and a waste of resources because of low conversion and traffic. Facebook has the numbers and audience. Twitter is for news.
Scangroup has been helping identify social media influencers, compiling a list and forwarding to the Twitter team for permanent suspension over ”Multiple cases of abuse” allegations.
Twitter started by banning the use of Tweetdeck to send a similar message in a move to crack down on influencers that various brands have been relying on to push their messages. This ban wasn’t enough since influencers resorted to scheduling posts from their marketing accounts.
” As Twitter struggles to tap into the Kenyan and other African nations market, they are working hand in hand with suspicious agencies to crack down on influencers. Twitter views influencers as enemies because they believe they should be getting all the advertising revenue’ directly ‘ A local social media analyst told the editor of this website.
”The bad thing with promoted stuff is that the interactions are not genuine. Organic reach and a boost from influencers make everything cool because it has a human touch” adds the social media analyst.
Twitter is also aiming at expanding their marketing gigs to government agencies but as it has always been, there is much to such an alliance. A government will, for instance, ask the Twitter executives to suspend accounts of critics and those they view as critical to them in order to offer them business.
On 20th July, Twitter suspended accounts of many Kenyan influencers and refused to restore them. Appeal efforts were met with the same automated response. These are the names of the Kenyan influencers ScanGroup forwarded to Twitter, to suspend. All this happened in one night!
1.Isaack Cheboiwo ~ zackbiwott
1. Douglas marigiri~ @Dmarigiri
2.Ian James Nezzoh – @NezzohIan
3. Lord Roy- @_lordroy
4. Paul Kiarie – @PaulKiarie_
5.Edwin Tanui- @LordTanui__
4. Ricky Spence- @Ricckyspence
5.Jamlick Kyalo- @jamlick_
6. Mabuka Junior – @mabuka_jr
7. Eldon Langat -@EldonLangat
8. Getuno Kelvin -@Thasiunit
9. Peggy Mwanza-@peggymwanza
10. Kelvin Ng’ang’a -@Lewanjoksi
11. KaranjaThuku_ @karanjathuku254
12. Morris Mutuma. @itsmutuma
13. Julius Omeka @iam_jmeka
14. Gitz – @iGitz_
15. Boniface Ongeri @Boncrazy1
16. Atanas @atanasi_
And many more
Twitter forgets that some of these guys are the ones that made Twitter active and it will be dangerous if the same trend goes on. Real conversations are being killed on Twitter.
One critical question remains, how did all these different guys commit the same violation? Why the same automated responses from Twitter and why were all these guys permanently banned by Twitter, a platform they have been part of its growth on the same day?????
Cyprian Nyakundi is a Kenyan-based blogger who has an interest in politics, governance, corporate-fraud and human-interest stories. Kindly drop me a note if you feel aggrieved on any matter that you would want to be highlighted. WhatsApp: +254710280973 Email : [email protected], or [email protected], [email protected]
