Wilma Inventor-Miranda l April 4, 2023 l Manila Bulletin
What really is an influencer? Most of us like me will likely reply we are far from being an influencer. This is because we see influencers as having thousands and millions of followers. But I was surprise to learn that is not necessarily what an influencer is.
Oxford Dictionary simply defines an influencer as somebody who influences another. Every one of us is an influencer in the life of another person – our family members, the people who work for us, our circle of friends. Somehow, one way or another we are influencing the life of the people around us. In his message last Sunday, CCF Pastor Peter Tanchi, stated that per statistics the most shy person who lives up to 78 years old would have influenced 10,000 lives and a regular person who is 78 years impacts 80,000. He goes on to say that we can either be positive or negative influencer.
Stalin for instance is a powerful influencer but his influence caused 20MM people’s deaths. Hitler is a famous influencer but through him 5MM Jews died and because of him there was World War 2 that resulted in 70MM deaths. These are influencers with corrupted minds who used their power for selfish interest rather than for the good of all.
As financial executive whether you are a Chairman, CEO or CFO of a company, a Managing Partner or Partner in a professional firm, a business owner or entrepreneur – you can be an influencer in your own right. You can use your knowledge and experiences to teach others how to manage their finances – either business or personal finances. There are so many influencers in social media nowadays whose social media content are focused on finances. I remember one speaker mentioning before to closely look at those financial advisers who are giving what they consider “sound financial advice”. Look at their lives – if they can advise others how to grow their money why are they themselves not prospering as they should?
We should be very careful that we are not merely trying to be influencers to promote a product or enrich ourselves. The main goal is to help others by sharing with them our successes as well as our failures. Those around you will see your sincerity and your following will just grow.
Financial executives has knowledge and experiences in their fingertips. In this day and age when the power of social media can be overwhelming we should use it more as a positive tool rather than a bane. When used strategically it can be the most powerful tool in the hands of a person. And the influencer can be very powerful in sending a message across.
Social media can be used to financially educate particularly those who cannot afford professional financial advisors and not just so called “ financial advisors” who had just undergone a few months of training. We have projects in the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) focused on financial inclusion and as Chair of the Ethics Committee one of our goals is to reach out and share the experiences of our financial executives on ethical issues in the market place which could include ethical issues in the use of social media.
We are distributing books for free to the different schools and universities in the Philippines with our recently published book “ETHICS: ENDURING OR EVOLVING?”. By including students, we are trying to be influencers in their lives before they set foot in the corporate world or in business that they will be able see the reality that is waiting for them there and how to handle it.
The vast majority of students are active in social media. Digital 2023 Overview Global Report shows that the average age of social media users is 24.9 years old. With the popularity of Tiktok and its viral trends, it is not surprising that Gen Z, together with their selfie techniques, comprises the most significant demographic of social media users, with 30.6% of total users aged 18 – 24 years old.
We can be a positive influencer in the lives of these students by the use of social media. Instead of them relying purely on knowledge imparted in these social media channels we can teach them through the vast experiences of our financial executives’ members who had gone through different financial environment scenarios. And there is nothing more convincing than the actual experiences one has gone through instead of just bullet points shared by some top influencers for instance in TikTok or YouTube who can even be younger than their followers.
This may take a lot of our time and effort and this is a big challenge considering that all of us are busy in our own fields but the legacy we leave behind by helping these younger generations and even our peers learn from each other will be a greater reward which we can bring with us through the years.
The goal is not to become an influencer for more money and for popularity but to use the same social media tools to influence the world for the better good of all those whose lives we touched. The popularity and the financial gains can just be a by-product not the ultimate goal in itself. With or without these material gains, helping others develop not only financial management but better ethical practices (for instance in the use of social media) is by far the best reward we can ever receive.
*** (Wilma Miranda is a Managing Partner of Inventor, Miranda & Associates, CPAs, Chair of the Ethics Committee of FINEX, Treasurer of Negros Outsourcing Services, Inc., and member of the Board of Directors of KPS Outsourcing, Inc. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of these institutions.)