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Nigerian singer, Chike, recently made headlines for transferring a whopping ₦1 million to a Twitter troll who accused him of gaining fame through late singer Mohbad. In response, Chike sought to silence the hater by requesting his account number, after which he promptly sent him ₦1 million and tagged him "Hunger Boy."
His action immediately sparked various reactions from Nigerians across social media, with many condemning him for rewarding the troll's bad behaviour. Some social media users further questioned the absence of Chike’s management in the matter.
In the ever-evolving world of entertainment, the role of talent management has proven to be crucial. While artistes are often the public face of their brands, the behind-the-scenes work done by their team is essential to sustaining and growing their careers.
On the heels of Chike’s controversial money moment, I spoke to some experts in talent management, inquiring into the reasons why managers would find the need to take over an artiste’s social media.
Okiki Oyeyiga, who has worked with social media influencers like Kitchenmuse, explained that management gets involved in order to consistently post a specific type of content and ensure the page remains active.
She said, “We ensure the social media page stays active, and we also ensure what is posted stays in line with the brand image the talent needs to be perceived as.
“Most times, the talent may want to post something contrary to the brand image the management wants the brand to be positioned as at that point in time. Therefore, it is very important that there is someone on ground to check in on that," Okiki explained.
Korie, who manages Nigerian artistes like Magicsticks, also emphasised the importance of managing the perception of talent, stressing that one post can change the view of an artiste if perceived wrongly. For managers like himself in the Afrobeats scene, it’s better to protect the brand.
He explained, “Sometimes, it’s to manage perceptions of the talent online. because one tweet or post can change the tides for an artiste. With Afrobeats audiences so volatile, it’s better to protect the proverbial “bag” or brand by applying discretion.
Korie also offered a different perspective, highlighting that management also steps in because celebrities may be unable to spot opportunities for collaboration or business expansion by themselves. He cited an example with the iconic American singer, T-Pain, who later on realised that he missed out on life-changing opportunities because he did not look in the “requests” section of his Instagram.
He also explained, “Sometimes you take over an artistes social media to communicate vital information as and when due. This is because things change quite quickly sometimes and it’s important for management to be adaptive, sometimes independently of the artiste.”
Baba Joe, who manages artistes like Badman Niko, also explained that management must step in to prevent the star from going out of context or out of the pre-determined script.
“What an artiste will do that would make me take over his social media is probably going out of context,” he said.
“Let’s say we are rolling out a project and we have a particular theme that we have. If the artiste goes out of context or the script we have, then his social media might be taken over up until the point where we have passed the message we want to at that particular point in time. When this is done, the artiste can always regain access to his social media,” he added.
Onah Uzonwanne, who has managed names like Toyosi Etim-Effiong, strongly debunked the perception that an artiste can be “locked out of their social media” by the management. She stressed that there is mostly a consensual relationship between the management and the star, adding that social media passwords are always provided to the star.
“The social media manager is under the directive of the talent managers and the celebrity in question. But there’s always an agreement with the talent manager and celebrity on how best to handle a situation. If there is a legal battle, then lawyers are involved first before anything is done online, because truly, anything you say or do can be used against you,” she divulged.