Be Careful About What You Constantly Flex Online For Profit
Your audience is not the only ones watching.
I don’t know about the other countries when it comes to regulations when people flex their assets online but in Indonesia, showing off your assets will not only grab casual viewers but the officials as well.
And if they catch you doing shady stuff to get those fancy assets, you’re in for a treat.
About a month ago, the Indonesian officials did whole background research on one of the infamous influencers, Indra Kenz, dubbed “Anak Sultan (The Sultan’s child, usually it means that you are super rich)” and found that he has been scamming people for quite a while now. He was known to be flexing on social media, such as saying how “cheap” Dior products are and buying Tesla in the middle of the night.
His followers were following his way of ‘investing’ and it turns out that the application that Indra used was a total scam and he had constantly been promoting gambling online, which is strictly illegal. But what’s worst, the application was designed to instantly fail for anyone who invest there and Indra would steal the money.
Thus, after 2 years of his terrible schemes where people were losing half of their life savings, the officials finally confiscated all his assets (including his Youtube channel) and sentenced him to jail for 20 years.
“It’s not about the money, it’s about sending a message.”
After that incident, Sri Mulyani, the Indonesian finance minister, gave a public statement about this flexing incident:
“We love it when someone on social media shows off the account number, ‘my account is the biggest’. As soon as someone flaunts ‘I have a few billion’, one of our tax officials says ‘yes, we’ll come later’.” — Sri Mulyani, 2022.
This indirectly told all of us, especially tech-savvy millennials or Gen Zs like me, to be careful what we flex online and our financial records will be thoroughly checked.
In other words, honesty and ethical financial records are encouraged.
The Attraction to Flex Culture
Before Indra Kenz was caught, he was interviewed by the biggest Indonesian Podcaster on Youtuber, Deddy Corbuzier. Deddy asked Indra why he was constantly flexing, and this was what he said (and I paraphrased it):
“I post flex contents because I got more followers and views.”
As you can see, he did it because he obtained a lot more attraction by flexing.
And this case has also been common all over the world as well, where people flexed their assets and earned a lot more followers as the result.
I won’t name the people I know who constantly flex, but I think you may be familiar with this as well. They are commonly found on social media, where they are constantly bragging about their assets to elevate their status. Most of the time, they said that they got the money from either trading, cryptocurrency or building online businesses.
Except that some were not truthful about their incomes and scammed their followers for profit instead.
Coffeezilla, an internet detective Youtuber, has been catching scamming influencers left and right. Some were in jail, and some took their contents down since they were caught lying.
As you can see, when one boasts their asset online, it got people curious about where they get it from.
And people would investigate where their income came from.
But we couldn’t blame the influencers for doing what they did because the audience was intrigued with those types of content. And in digital marketing, the more the likes of that content, the more the marketers would create those types of content.
And sadly, people who flexed more got more likes than people who don’t.
The toxic bubble of social media
Social media isn’t what it once was back in 2010.
It used to truly be a place where people can connect with everyone all over the world. No business intervention, no status chasing.
Just a place to connect with everyone.
And then, BOOM!
Everything changed, the golden age of the internet seems to be over. Businesses got on social media, rules were implemented on creativities, and platforms turned more into social statuses than a place to connect.
But in their defence, I also can’t fault the social media people because more and more people are coming in. And when there are more people, rules must be implemented.
Then again, some users didn’t feel safe opening the platform anymore. Some people were either detoxing or deleting them for good, and there were information and news that said that these things are addicting.
If it’s bad for adults, imagine what it’s like for kids.
Most people online, at least from what I see especially in the financial sector, seem to grasp the infamous quote from the Wolf of Wallstreet pretty well:
“Sell me this pen.”
The concept of this phrase, as you may have known, is to meet the demand of the market. A cool concept to teach sales.
Except that it has been used a little too much in the financial industry to the point shady business was able to come in.
I would’ve preferred if they used it in a manner that doesn’t hit the core of people’s insecurities such as financial freedom, but what do I know about this sector? Investment banks are probably doing this, though I’ve never seen where they would do it to the point they were flexing.
What does this mean for influencers?
I really can’t say much for influencers since I am not one.
Most influencers I’ve seen on social media were either professional models, to begin with, or not growing in the social media world as their professional career.
And the ones who did grew their careers via social media, I can’t really say since I don’t really know the premise of their jobs. Some did it to expand their business, and some did it for fame and followers.
But some did create great content like Mr Beast.
Mr Beast, who created some kind of a fear factor type of content, involved money a lot in his videos.
His type of flex was giving away money rather than showing it off and his type of business is honest rather than shady. So even if the government did look for him, he may already have shown his taxes anyway and his assets were gained from honest work.
He also seems like an honest guy, it’s no wonder people had no ill feelings toward him and would gladly follow him.
Then again, marketing is all about showing how great your products are
This is why I can’t really blame influencers for doing what they do because it’s part of marketing.
I don’t like ads myself, but I understand businesses' positions to sell themselves and get their brands more recognition.
I made it a habit now that if there are salespeople offering me flyers or soliciting me on the phone, I’d at least listen to them or take their brochures. I too was once a salesperson and reaching a target sales isn’t easy.
And still, perhaps the best way to sell to people, at least from what I think is unique, is the infamous quote from the Wolf of Wallstreet:
“Sell me this pen.”
Perhaps it did come from a somewhat villain of the movie, but he did have a point when it comes to sales.
Meet the market demand with the supply you are offering.
But most of all is to be a problem solver for society.
Conclusion
With that said, I think if more influencers could aspire like Mr Beast, perhaps people would feel more comfortable viewing their content.
But please.
When showing off your content, make sure they are your honest work and not targeting people’s deepest vulnerabilities to the point you’re scamming them.
Your audience is not the only ones watching.
