Kim Chiu
“Think twice before you post anything,” said actress Kim Chiu when asked to share with Inquirer Entertainment some of the lessons she has learned from being a social media influencer.
Only this year, Kim received intense bashing, especially when she posted a comment on Instagram trying to compare the implementation of the National Telecommunications Commission’s cease and desist order against ABS-CBN to classroom rules. This later became known as her “bawal lumabas” post.
As a result, Kim said she would now reread her captions before uploading them, “because bashers are always on the lookout as to what mistake I will commit next. I’m really very careful now. You don’t know how people will perceive a single post, no matter how well-intentioned. Baka nega na ‘yon.”
Kim has also taken the effort to learn as much as she can about her followers. “They are between 18 and 34 years old. They are mostly girls and are interested in fashion and lifestyle,” she pointed out. “They follow me because they want to know what I’m doing. That’s why I share with them some of the things I’m busy with, like my fitness routine. I also remind them to take their vitamins, especially now that we’re battling a pandemic.”However, she is also careful to maintain some privacy in terms of what and what not to post. “My goal in being active on social media is to inspire people. I show them who I really am. I try to share with them how I’m coping with the pandemic,” she explained to Inquirer Entertainment. “But I don’t post everything I do, only those that I think help spread social awareness on certain issues.“Also, I never try to change my personality to please my followers. I post what I feel like posting. There’s no one to tell me what not to post. I usually share stuff when I’m happy,” she declared.
Kim Chiu
Kim has a large following on Instagram (9M followers), Twitter (1.7M followers) and YouTube (1.7M subscribers).
Kim said her work in “Love Thy Woman” and her female costars have greatly helped her cope with depression caused by the bashing and the tragedy that befell ABS-CBN employees.“I’m lucky that I didn’t have to deal with these issues alone. I have these people to cheer me up during what I consider the darkest point in the history of ABS-CBN,” she said. “I’m glad that we have each other. We feel the same sadness. We draw strength from each other. It would have been more difficult if we just kept our feelings to ourselves, so we discussed them. We had heart-to-heart talks.”
Now that “Love Thy Woman,” which ran for almost a year, will air its final episode on Sept. 18, Kim tried to recall her memorable experiences on the set. “We did this with so many restrictions due to the pandemic. There were scenes that we couldn’t do. The whole experience wasn’t ‘normal’ at all,” she recalled. “We had to fix and clean our things on our own. There was no one there to help us memorize our lines. But we helped each other while on the set; kinaya naman.”“Love Thy Woman,” which also features Eula Valdez, Sunshine Cruz, Ruffa Gutierrez, Xian Lim, Zsa Zsa Padilla, Christopher de Leon and Yam Concepcion, is seen Mondays to Fridays at 2:30 p.m. on Kapamilya Online Live. INQ