Save for Save

There are those ilk of people that will fart in your presence and pretend nothing, totally nothing happened. And then there are those little monsters on WhatsApp who inbox random people to save their numbers for status views.

They slide in cordially. For a second you might think they are one of your friends whom you misplaced their digits. They are good at attention capturing, they tie your concentration to the first two lines, then hit you with the, “you can save me as moshi ya ugali for status views, I have saved your number already.”

It’s too much work saving a stranger. Unlike Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, WhatsApp is kinda private. We don’t just save strangers numbers nor follow people we don’t know. No, on this green app we prefer staying private with the people in our circle. Having strangers on your contact list is just mysterious and very awkward.

They’ll be there on their status updating videos of them clubbing, hanging out with their squad or at times repost their Tik Tok videos. But all that rarely happens. Actually, they don’t post that.

Most of these monsters are affiliates of the online pyramid schemes, the likes of Crowd1, Earnsmart, Pesa Life… mention them. And that’s what they post on their status. They occasionally mix these status updates with memes to make you glued there. We all love memes, and they know that. At times, they will try to convince that they are making money with the ilk of aforementioned platforms, so that you can get affiliated into the program. ‘Kuomoka’ is the word they mostly use. It’s more like their slogan which means “getting rich”.

It has become common. Young adults; highschoolers and campus students are the propellers and peddlers of this trend.

One’s social popularity is easily measured by the number of followers on your social media. Social media has brought to life internet grinds that have favoured keyboard warriors to the maximum. Influencers have become copious. And the good news is that you only need a good number of followers, amazing content and great engagement to be an influencer.

There are those that are well known on instagram, those that are bigwigs on twitter and those that call the shots on Facebook. They choose where they fit in perfectly.

This could just be one of the trends on WhatsApp for those who can’t structure a brand on the other social platforms. WhatsApp’s Save for Save is the same as Instagram’s follow for follow. Only that Save for Save is a bit aggressive and irritating to some recipients.

The prospect is, most brands will delve into WhatsApp status marketing in the near future. WhatsApp status advertising is a vista that is being introduced slowly by slowly. We will get to a point where brands will be looking for WhatsApp influencers to help them push their sales. But till then, accept the saves, LOL.