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Hello and welcome. My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the podcast and I'm making today's recording at home, so you will hear some noise in the background. Now today we're going to be looking at whether renting a LinkedIn profile is good business practice. Again, I repeat, the question we're going to be looking at today is whether renting somebody else's LinkedIn profile or renting another person's Instagram profile or you know,
whatever. Is that good business practice? Now before we continue, remember if you'd love to connect, you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. All right, now let's look at some definitions before we continue because some of you will hear like a renting LinkedIn profile. What is that? When did that one start? What does it mean? So picture this, you're a business person. Well, most of us listening to this podcast right now, you know, we are business people or we intend to be in business at some point in the future.
And of course, especially in these days of social media, all of us are looking for more clout. We're looking for more audience, we're looking for more engagement. We're looking for more opportunities to talk about our product or our service, to promote the things that we do. We're all looking for it. Let me not allow you even myself, I'm looking for more clout. So this is what some people think. You're looking for more clouds.
You now see that somebody else has maybe like 15,000,000 followers, you know, on their LinkedIn handle. You check yourself. You now see that you you only have like 200 followers on your profile. You know, it's normal profile envy. You know, it happens because me, I have like I have 3000 yeah, I have about 3000 followers on on LinkedIn. And then I look at some of my contemporaries and I'll select 15,000 and I'll say chat, I'm on see audience.
So it happens. And you know, I'll be honest in the beginning, I used to be ashamed about this, ashamed of the size of my podcast. You know, I would like because right now I have about 3000 subscribers on Spotify. Total downloads is like 40 something 1000, but it was one of my guys, you know when we started together. He does mention casual wanted that he is a 13 million downloads. In my mind I was like what downloads like what you know, so all these things happen.
So I'm looking for more clubs. Somebody has 15,000,000 followers, you have 200 followers. So you know come up with a brilliant idea. You know say guy, you have 15,000,000 followers. So you know what, let me give you some small coins. Let me give you some money. I will now take over your profile for a limited time. You know, one week, one month, one year, whatever. During that period when I am controlling your profile, I will now have the opportunity to sell or promote my product, promote my service to your 15,000,000
followers. After the deadline don't reach like that one week, that one month. I will now give you back your LinkedIn handle. I'll be how you see her. So that is 1 relationship that people are doing nowadays online. You, you have the audience. Me, I want to access that audience. I have the money. So we approach you man to man, woman to woman. Gentleman agreement. Give me control of your profile for XYZ period of time. Let me see if I can sell to your audience.
So that is what is called LinkedIn renting. Some of you will be shocked, and to be honest, I was shocked when somebody approached me early in the year with this arrangement. That's the first time I knew that this was happening. I say, yeah. Then they rent a social media handle like, I didn't know, but I've been approached twice already. So I figured, look, it's time for me to make this episode because it's possible that some of you doing a good job at what you're doing.
Eventually you will get to that stage when you have some kind of audience. Like I mentioned, I am at 3000 right now on LinkedIn. So I assume that that's the reason why I've been proposition twice this year. So eventually you 2 you will get to that stage where you have 3005 thousand 10,000 and somebody will come and proposition you and say how far. Let me rent your social media handle. I'm doing this podcast episode now so that when that time comes and people start to proposition you, you'll be able to think about things the right way.
Is this name pure? Should I go ahead? What's new for me? I want to make sure that we're thinking about these things in the best possible way. So now, First off, let me answer the question. Let's start with the question. This thing renting another person's LinkedIn handle or social media handle. I don't know if they do it for Instagram and Tiktoko because you know, I've killed all my other social media candles. So I'm only on LinkedIn.
That's why a lot of times, you know, the things I'm talking about are LinkedIn related related because that's the one that me I'm seeing on the day-to-day because I'm here. So is this a good practice? Because I've been seeing posts about it and I've been propositioned twice. So I know that this thing is already happening. Now the answer about whether it is good or not, I would like to give you a straightforward yes or no answer.
But anyway, let me just try and be objective. But I'm sure that as I go on, you get a sense of where I fall on the matter. So whether this is a good practice or not depends on the number of factors. Number one, it depends on ideal audience #2 it depends on Linkedin's official terms of what's it called, the terms of reference. I'd be terms of operation, terms of something, something, sure. You know when we first download the app and then you scroll,
scroll, scroll. And then at the bottom they say click on I agree. And then you click on I agree. So what are in Linkedin's terms? Then another thing we need to consider is long term trust and credibility in your own brand. That's the brand of the person who has the handle and then the brand of the person who is trying to rent the handle. We'll look at that and then we're going to look at online best practices for security because even though these things are intangible assets, your social media accounts, your e-mail, you know, whatever, they still are digital representations of you and they still contain lots of information about you that people can use or people can harvest to now call and do some anyhow, anyhow things somewhere in the future.
So we also have to be looking at this. So for now, this is where my thinking on the matter has evolved. Let's look at ideal audience, let's look at the LinkedIn terms. Let's look at long term trust and credibility, all these brand effects. Then let's try and look at online best practices for security. So let's try and look at these things now, one by one. At the end of the day, you will now decide whether this is a good deal so that when you reach that level where you have 5000
followers and somebody says, boy, how far now or go, how now you have 5000 followers, what's up? Let me give you that one, M Give me control of your profile for one week. Let me see if I can sell something. If I can sell, good. If I can sell, no problem. After one week I'll give you your profile back. So you see now whether you have all the information to be able to make the best decision for you. So ideal audience, too many people are paying attention to the size of the audience.
So now two people have approached me because I have now hit above 3000. So they are thinking OK, this guy don't get following therefore we can approach him. But it's not a matter of just the size of the audience. Sorry about the chickens in the background. You know I'm living in, you know how Niger people can be now. So they say no rearing of animals in this place. But I know keeping pets in this estate officially when we're coming in, they said no pets.
My wife was even happy because my wife doesn't like animals. But as we moved in, now we see that, oh boy, he's free for all in this place. People have dogs, people have cats, people have chickens, people have Peacocks. The only thing I've not seen here is cow and goat, where everything else is here is even rumor that somebody has pet snake. But that's the society that we live in on the news, in channels TVI think was like last month did not one guy in Lagos, the guy has pet lions in a residential area.
And so that's what we see on. So don't vex that chickens are growing up. My windows. Yeah, my neighbors have chickens. Yeah. What was I? OK, so it's not just the size of the audience. Now it's about whether the thing that you want to sell, whether I put it, whether there's resonance, whether there's relevance, whether it's targeted, there needs to be a match between the audience and the thing that you're selling or the thing that you want to promote.
So it's not just how big is the crowd, but is there a connection? Is there a Nexus? Is there a reasonable link between the audience and then what you want to sell? So let's say one day I get to that stage where my following or LinkedIn is, let's say 15,000,015 million followers. Of course, you guys who've been following me for a while, you know that all I do is business content strictly. But let's say somebody looks at me like this guy has 15,000,000
now. So let me approach the guy, let me rent the profile. Well, let's say the person now who wants to rent my profile, what they sell is lactation supplements. The reason why I'm saying lactation supplements is because, you know, it's the most unrelated thing I can think of at the moment. So let's say lactation supplements. Lactation is how do I produce OK Lactation is how do I describe it now OK? Lactation is a normal process.
You know that the female body goes through after pregnancy so that it can produce milk, you know, for babies. So I have 15,000,000 followers, but I do only business content. Somebody wants to rent my profile, but the person sells lactation supplements. So the kind of mathematics the person will be doing will be like this. The person will say this guy has 15,000,000 followers. So that means anyhow, anyhow there must be a couple of mumsies in the audience.
So therefore it will be worth it. Let me approach this guy, give him money, have access to his profile. Then over the course of like one month, I should be able to sell lactation supplements to his audience because anyhow, anyhow somebody that has 15,000,000 followers anyhow Shah brand new mothers must be inside there. Now, is this a reasonable assumption? The answer is yes. There's an assumption about 15,000,000 followers definitely do be a few moms is there?
They have just given birth by the way, is also a stretch. What are the probabilities that within my audience they are mum sees? And not only that, there are brand new mothers that have lactation issues because it's not every single woman that gives birth that has lactation issues. There's a woman who give birth and the thing just flows. It flows like a river. And then there's a woman who give birth and then they struggle.
Some of you will be asking how do you know about all this? I know about all this because don't forget I'm a parent. Sure. You've heard them running in the background now, back in the days when they were tiny, that diaper stage, that's where my eyes became open, you know, to all the things that women have been suffering when it comes to motherhood, you know, because when you're a kid now, you know, life is just going on, OK?
But then you get married, your friends get married, and then you're having kids. Some people are not having kids. For those of us that having kids, you have some issues, you know, things like that. So, yeah. So just one of these things that women go through. So please, mothers who are listening to the podcast right now, you know, we value, we respect you. And for those of you who went through lactation issues, I know it's it's stress.
It's it's really, really, it's really, really tough. And our prayers are with you. You know that you will go through it because it can't be a nightmare when you want to feed your baby, but you're not producing enough. The baby is crying now. Your in laws are not be looking at you somehow like, you know, isn't on breastfeeding. Everybody breastfeeds. Why are you behaving like this now? You're behaving you're doing to dismiss men.
You're behaving like you're a fine girl. That isn't all just milk. Go on and unleash. So you understand that women in those situations are going through lots of mental language. But anyway, the Lord is your strength for those of you brand new mommies out there. And it's so back to my example now. So the guy will be calculating this guy has 15,000,000. Any which way, there must be some brand new moms, is there? So is it a reasonable assumption?
It is, by the way, it's also a stretch because how do we know there is nothing that you can say. There's nothing from all the things I talk about on the podcast. There's no way that you can guess if there are mothers in my audience and how many mothers they are in that my 15,000,000 audience. So in this scenario, now if you sell lactation products, instead of looking for somebody that has 50 million followers and you're just trying based on probability, you're better off targeting another person who has a profile.
Maybe the person only has 500 followers, but at least not followers because of the kinds of things that the guy or the girl talks about. You know that a person's followers are post Natal mothers. That's a monster when unborn. So those women now you know, now you now know that there's a strong chance that you will find your ideal audience there, even though the size of the audience is smaller. I know some of you disagree, but take it from me, very, very assigned to the is it a way to go and meet that person that has 50 million followers?
And then you try your luck, but the person talks about unrelated content, which is business. Go and meet the person that has 500 followers. But you know that that person talks about these sorts of things. Are you a mother? Are you a brand new mother? Are you suffering this? Are you going through those challenges? You're better off going to that other person that has 500 followers because you know that that 500 your target audience,
they are there. The reason why is this? Because if you go where the ideal audience is, you're going to achieve lots of benefits #1 traction will be quick. If you're trying to sell lactation supplements to an audience where I normally talk about business, business will be hard. In fact, the first time you start selling your supplements, people will be like, what is this? I came here for sales and marketing. Why is this guy talking lactation?
Don't be confusion. Somebody will now check which podcast am I even listening to yourself. But then if you go to the place where the person is talking to mothers who have just given birth, the thing flows. As a natural consequence, you will gain traction. Your sales will move quicker. You're also going to be able to figure out if there is traction for this idea, if there's market demand because it's possible that lactation is a big issue amongst women in Nigeria.
But maybe they're already some traditional remedies like people say kunu, kunu yada, that's the kunu that you make with groundnut that is enough to solve lactation issues. So maybe there's already local remedies on ground. They're already working, so there's no need for you to come and come up with your new lactation vitamin. But these are the kind of questions that you'll be able to answer very quickly if you go to the ideal audience is the ideal audience that will tell you like, ah, this thing truly,
truly this thing is a blessing from God. We have been trying everything. He has not been working. This is your vitamin now, Baba. It is only when you're with the ideal audience that you will know. We call all these things traction. Some people call it product market fit, some people call it market validation. Whatever it is that you call it, the idea is just do people like this thing? Do they need this thing? How many people need it?
The people that even need it, how quickly do they lap it up? Do they buy quick, quick, quick, or do they waste time? We need to figure out all this information because that's now what will now tell us what the next stage, whether this is a good idea to now throw money behind it and invest time to try and build this business and let this thing blow. It's from going to the ideal audience that you get all the information that you need so you can start approaching investors who say you know what, I have this milk lactation or vitamin,
this thing works. We've tried it. This is the sample size. This is whatever I now need XYZ so that we can scale to XYZ. You know, so this is the benefit of no matter the business that you are involved in, it's not just big community, big community, big community. It is relevant community, targeted community. That's where you should be looking at first. All these benefits I'm talking about, this is qualitative data, qualitative data, good quality data that you will now know is my business working or not.
So don't be looking at the person that has 15,000,000 followers, but you're not sure whether your target audience is there. Instead, go to the person that has 500 followers and you know for a fact the audience is there because of the things that the content creator is talking about and because of the kind of things that people talk about in the community. So summary, don't focus on the size of the audience. Be looking at whether it is your ideal audience.
Of course, the people who are trying to rent my profile, the moment I discovered that that's what they're doing me, I just once I know that is what they want, I just ignore them. I don't continue the conversation at all because I'm not tech savvy. I don't know how somebody you know how if I type too much or if I click on something before I knew it bombed. If I Jack my profile so me I do even follow up on that conversation.
Once I know that and is where this person is going, I just lock up. But if I was brave enough I'll tell them you know why you're approaching me. Go and approach someone else based on what you sell. I don't think there's any link with what it is that you do like those people who are into crypto, AI, algorithmic trading, and then they'll be approaching me on face value. There's nothing that says my community is into AI, my community is into algorithmic trading, my communities into forex, like nothing.
If you look at the podcast and look at the list of questions I've answered, do you see AI and algorithmic trading there? If you check my LinkedIn handle and you see the kind of comments that I put up, do you see anything AI algorithmic trading there? But for some reasons, these boys keep approaching me. Only I approach somebody that you see that there is some interlink, some connectivity between the audience and what it is that you're selling.
So it's not the size of the audience, but whether this audience is ideal. Then the next thing now is LinkedIn terms. Now, whether we like it or not, all of us. Well, most of us, to be honest, myself, I'd even read it. It's just as I'm doing and you know, there's a problem. I'll now go and check whether the thing violates LinkedIn terms or not, but it's a term as part of Linkedin's terms of service. You can't sell your profile, You can't write your profile because LinkedIn goes through the problems, the hassle of trying to verify that it is you.
Like LinkedIn has been sending me messages like, oh boy, verify yourself, verify yourself, use your passport. So I tried it, but I still need a passport that has a microchip. So maybe after I renew my passport, I can now verify. So they go through all this trouble. LinkedIn is telling you, oh boy, verify or girl verify. So when they verify that it is you, they don't like that you now take this profile. I hand over to somebody else.
So if they verify me now and they are now carrying my profile and I give it to Emmanuel getting big, LinkedIn will be upset though. Like whose profile is this? Is it Tabishima or Abby? Is it Emmanuel getting B? LinkedIn doesn't like it. These are the kind of things that gets people blocked. They'll now suspend you, delete you from LinkedIn. Do delete the two of us, me, they'll delete me. Emmanuel getting big, they'll delete his profile too.
So it's against LinkedIn terms. So even if you want to do this kind of thing, just know that As for LinkedIn, O was against their terms. For Instagram, for TikTok, I can't tell you because I haven't researched it and I'm not on those communities. So excuse me, but for LinkedIn it's against their terms. Then long term cross time credibility. Let's look at things from the renter. So you take time and you build an audience.
That's somebody like me. I've taken time and I've built this audience. I've been podcasting for 5:00-ish years. I've been on LinkedIn for longer. So the small audience that I'm managing, the small of you that I've gathered around me is because people know me. You like me, you trust me, You expect to hear certain kinds of things from me. So why would I take all these hard work I've done over these five years and then sell out?
Why only for somebody should now be selling things that you wouldn't sign up for? Because like I've said it, if somebody says come and take 15,000,000, OK, you have 15,000,000 audience, therefore we'll pay you 15,000,000. Let's give you a profile for one year. Let's try and sell our lactation supplements. Lots of you will bounce. Some of you will be confused and maybe you might stay, but lots of you will bounce that I didn't sign up for this.
Lots of you say I didn't sign up for this. Lots of you who listen to this podcast are men. Now for the women who listen to me, they don't come here because of personal issues. They come here because of business issues. The women will say I didn't sign up for this. Yes, I'm having issues like dating, but you know, that's not the focus. The focus is on to increase my business. I will lose trust with my audience. I will start hemorrhaging followers.
My followers will leave. So for the renter, is it worth it? Think about it, long term, long term brand, long term trust, long term credibility. Is it worth it? I really don't think it's worth it. I really don't. So summary, I'm sure you figured out where I'm heading there. In my own opinion, don't rent your profile to anybody. That's my own opinion. So you might say the money is good, but I really don't think it's worth it.
Do not rent your profile to anybody. That's why when these people approach me and I figure out, oh, is where this guy is coming from, I just lock up. Now let's look at online best practices for security. These people are saying we will rent your handle. So we'll still give it back to you. You hand over control of the profile to the person now because it always involves control. It's not a matter they're not saying you will keep the handle.
We will give you what you want to share or we want to post you. You will now be posting. It always involves them having control. They'll be signing in or your profile. So for those of you who think is good practice and ask you a couple of questions, how do you know this person is not going to steal your identity? Especially now that LinkedIn verification is through passport. So that means your passport details are online.
LinkedIn has access to your passport details. You now give this person access to your profile. They can see your passport details, name, date of birth, Popsy's village, what else? Spouse's name, everything about your life. They not have access to it. How do you know they won't steal your identity? How do you know they won't clone your identity? Which is the reason why I don't even talk to these people. How do you know they're not going to take your identity and then engage in fraud?
If they're engaging in fraud, I don't like it. While they have control, How will you stop them? So let's say they said want to sell lactation products and it's OK, no problem, give me money. They start. But I now realize that actually Zebo that they are selling, they're using my profile to sell EBO. How will I stop them when they now have control over my profile? How you know how you stop them then? Assuming everything is OK, how do you know you will get back control of your profile 100%?
How do you know they're not going to install Trojans or viruses? Forgive me, I'm not tech savvy, but you understand what I'm saying. How do you know they're not going to install something that would give backdoor access to your profile? In fact, maybe even backdoor access to your device so that by the time you take your profile back and you log in using your own phone, bam did not have access to some things on your phone.
How do you know? Honestly, is this worth the risk? My own opinion, this profile renting thing sounds like a very bad idea. So even if you want to rent my profile for 50 million naira, you give me quote hard cash now 50 million naira. I mean, I would lie, I'll be tempted. But if you won't change the fact that 50 million naira will finish soon. We know how Nigel nowadays is. We know 50 million naira will run out. What about my reputation on my credibility?
If it becomes damaged, I'll not have to start again another five years to start building. What it is that the small thing that I've built so far, given the thing that I've built self is nice. If I've started reaping the rewards, I'll not have to start again because of what by all I'll be temperature. 50 M is not bad, some of you say, is it not just profile? Bring the 50 M now, by the way, I'm just guessing. I don't know how much it is because like I said, I've not entertained any conversations with these people.
So I don't even know how much that we need to pay. But The thing is, I doubt to even be good money self. So have you been approached? Is somebody trying to rent your Instagram handle or your LinkedIn handle or your TikTok handle? These are kind of questions you should be asking yourself. The money self is worth it. When I consider any possible damages to my brand and what I've been doing, all of this, is it ethical? Does the social media platform allow this?
Think well about it now. If you're the one approaching people because you want to collect their profile, you want to rent it, ask yourself, is there a match with the audience? Those of you who have been approaching me, I mean, check it now, see what your profile says. The profile says algorithmic trading platform, AI, something, something, something. Why are you approaching me? Did you see anything AI in my own profile?
What makes you assume that my audience wants to listen to the thing that you have? Is there a match with the audience? If there's a match, is the audience problem aware? Problem aware are people who are in the thick of it. They know there's a problem. And so because of that, they're looking from pillar to post to find a solution because there are some others who have lactation issues, but there are some of them who say, you know what?
I can't go and kill myself, my dear, let us go and buy baby formula. I won't kill myself. That kind of mumsy. She's problem aware. But is she seeking a solution? As far as she's concerned, baby formula is a solution. She will just cover up. Stop stressing herself. Don't go and buy formula. Don't load up. Buy 6 cans a week. I say baby is crying or my dear, take this bottle. Shock his mouth does it. So it's not even that there's a match with the audience.
Is the audience problem aware? Are they seeking a solution? These are the things you have to ask before you try and take over somebody else's profile or try and engage with another person's audience. And then even if you want to rent somebody's profile, what are the chances that you can make enough conversions to justify your investment? What are the chances that enough people will buy to make sure that the money that you spent renting this other person's LinkedIn handle is worth it?
You also have to consider if the platform, if LinkedIn or TikTok discovers this and they decide to block the two of you, they block you, they block the other person. How are you going to recover from this? What other channels do you have in mind to gain access to markets and customers? These are all the questions we should be asking ourselves. Both the person who wants to rent out the handle, the owner of the handle, and the person who wants to buy the handle.
Rent the handle for a while now, why are we looking at this topic today? The reason why I wanted us to look at it is not just because, you know, this is a practice that is out there, but it's because there are lots of you who are looking at online collaborations. It might not be renting, it might be collaborating. Let me pay this person. So I can be posting on the person's page, or the person will be posting certain kinds of things on my behalf, or we'll collaborate on one or two projects and hopefully some of the people's audience will now become my own.
So even if we're not looking at things from the angle of renting somebody's profile, all the principles that we're talking about, it still applies when it comes to online collaborations. So even if you don't want to run profiles and you're trying to do something that is legal or ethical or permissible, like getting people to post on your behalf or doing before I left Instagram, you could do collaborations on Instagram.
Like back in my wedding photography days, I could partner with an event planner and partner with a makeup stylist and maybe a cake Baker, and then we do a themed shoot and then, you know, Instagram will say that it's a branded collaboration. So those things are allowed, but the factors are the same before we do our online collaboration. Ideal audience, our audiences, are they the same? There's no point in me collaborating with someone else if the person's audience and my own audience or the person's business interests and my own business and interest not in Gomos together.
If not in Gomos, there's no need for this collaboration, even if the person has 15,000,000 followers, because on the face of it, no linkage when it comes to audience, no linkage, no point. Then also consider the terms of the platform Instagram are used to, well, while I was there, used to allow for branded content, branded collaborations, you know, stuff like that. You know, I hear that there's some platforms I hear that later on LinkedIn start, sorry,
Instagram started restricting how those things worked. But you know, I was never good on my Instagram game. So I don't know and I also hear that what's it called? What is another one? This one that is for pictures Pinterest that Pinterest also has restrictions on some of these things. But you know, my Pinterest game, in fact, my Pinterest game was was we if I had no game when it came to Pinterest, my Pinterest game was 0.
So Instagram game was rubbish. My LinkedIn game was 0. So Bobby, asking yourself what do the platforms say are permissible? Then you also have to think about long term trust and credibility in your brand. So me as a wedding photographer, the person has 15,000,000 audiences. But let's say the person is a relationship guru for instance, but the person is relationship guru, but the person's specialty is is a divorce and ending unions.
Yes, because there are people like that. They are gurus who are relationship gurus but who also strongly believe in divorce and promote what is it called, you know, like Safeways for divorce and stuff like that. As a wedding photographer, my own focus is joining people. Should I be collaborating with somebody who you know, doesn't make sense even if the person has 15,000,000 followers, Should I be doing branded collaborations with this person?
So long term trust and collab credibility, of course, if you're doing other kinds of collaborations, then online practices, you know, for security doesn't really apply. But you can see that these are the things that we have to consider before you rent out your profile or before you approach someone to rent that profile or before you collaborate in any single way. These are the things to consider. But just in case you haven't got it, let me repeat it again.
In my own opinion, this is a very bad idea. If somebody has said please rent me your Instagram handle, it is tempting. I don't think the offer is going to be good, but assuming the offer is going to be good, I really don't think it is a good idea. The dangers far outweigh the the rewards in my own opinion. So like I said, if somebody gave me 50 MI said I can handle my profile, I won't lie I will be tempted because 50 M will solve a few problems but I doubt they will.
I'm not there yet, you know, only have 3000 followers. Maybe when I have, who knows, 250 million followers, maybe that's when people will approach me with good money to rent my profile. But anyway, yeah, if the audience is ideal, if the social media platform allows it, it was going to build long term trust and credibility for your brand and there's no threat to your online security now. OK, sure, no problem. Whatever it is that you want to do, go ahead and do it.
Watch out my own. I think it's a bad idea. So thanks for your time and attention. Remember, if you'd love to connect, you can call SMS or WhatsApp me on 08064662140. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you. I'll catch you guys later.