Michael Obeng Jnr

22/08/2026

� New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! �

21/08/2026

21/08/2026

One of the most valuable conceptual insights I have encountered in my recent research came from Crystal Abidin’s work on visibility labour.

I came across Abidin’s (2016) article while exploring influencer marketing, digital identity, and the growing pressure individuals and brands face to remain visible within contemporary attention economies.

What immediately stood out to me was her conceptualisation of visibility not simply as an outcome, but as something that requires continuous work.

Abidin (2016) demonstrates how influencer visibility is produced through a range of practices surrounding content creation, self-presentation, audience engagement, and commercial communication.

This perspective encouraged me to look beyond the visible Instagram post and consider the labour that takes place behind it. Planning content, producing and editing images, maintaining relationships with audiences, responding to engagement, managing one's persona, and adapting to platform expectations can all become part of the work required to remain visible.

What I found particularly valuable was the way the concept makes invisible labour visible. The audience encounters the finished content but often does not see the time, emotional energy, creativity, relational work, and strategic decisions that make that visibility possible.

Abidin’s (2016) contribution therefore provides an important foundation for understanding how visibility can function as a form of labour within influencer cultures and digital economies.

However, engaging with this concept led me to another question: If visibility requires labour, who are the agents that make visibility possible? The more I explored this question, the more I became convinced that visibility cannot be understood entirely as an individual achievement.

An influencer may create the content, but platforms distribute it, algorithms influence its exposure, audiences amplify it, brands commercialize it, and media or institutions may legitimize it. This led me to begin thinking about Visibility Agents.

This distinction is important because it moves the conversation from “Who is visible?” to “How is visibility produced?” and, ultimately, “Who benefits from that visibility?”

I am particularly interested in four questions: Who gets to be seen? Who performs the labour of making visibility possible? Who controls the conditions under which visibility is distributed? And who captures the value created by visibility?

These are questions we must find answers to.

Reference

Abidin, C. (2016). Visibility labour: Engaging with influencers’ fashion brands and advertorial campaigns on Instagram. Media International Australia, 161(1), 86–100.

13/08/2026

Today I attended Day 2 of the . Something just hit me.

There is often a gap between who we are, how we see ourselves, and how others perceive us.

That gap is the identity gap, the space between our intended identity and our perceived identity.

In leadership, branding, and professional life, closing that gap requires more than looking the part. It requires alignment between appearance, values, behaviour, competence, and the experience we create for others.

Your image may open the door.

Your identity determines what people remember.

Your consistency determines what they believe.

The goal is not to look like the brand you want to become. It is to become the brand you want people to experience.

Need I say more?

"If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter." - Blaise Pascal

12/08/2026

Taking a brand places is ultimately a leadership responsibility.

It requires vision to see where the brand can go, strategy to determine how it will get there, discipline to remain consistent, creativity to stay relevant and courage to evolve.

The brands that go far are not necessarily those with the biggest budgets.

They are often the brands with the clearest purpose, strongest customer understanding, most consistent experiences and the courage to think beyond today.

Your brand should not simply exist.

It should move.

It should move from one customer to another.

From one conversation to another.

From one market to another.

From one generation to another.

And eventually, from being a name people recognize to becoming a name people believe in.

11/08/2026

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in B2B marketing is this:

Not every competitor deserves your attention.

I have seen businesses spend too much time watching what competitors are doing, copying their content, matching their campaigns, and trying to win the same conversations.

But often, the problem is not that you are losing the competition.
You are competing in the wrong room.

The better question is, who are we really trying to influence, and where do they actually make decisions?

B2B social media is not just about posting consistently. It is about showing up where your audience is, creating value, building credibility, and becoming the brand they remember when the buying decision is made.

Your competitors may be chasing attention (attention used to be the most expensive commodity on the digital market, or perhaps in any market).

You should be building influence.