Originally posted here (Spanish)

We’ve forgotten the value of a strategy and have focused solely on “posting.”
The blame? Us, the advertisers.

Between 2013 and 2018, I worked in Honduras, working to make a digital team’s work valued. I entered a country where the “digital strategy” was posting once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once on weekends. Recognizing a real opportunity, we concentrated on giving value to the team’s work like no one else was doing. We created campaigns and communication plans in an interactive world, delivering results for big and small brands. Thanks to achieving business goals, our team continued to grow.

January 2018, I returned to my home country, Costa Rica. Eagerly, I awaited to see an evolution in the digital business. I began to investigate the state of the industry, how results were being discussed, how loyalty was being generated, and how more value was being added to a medium that was no longer new but was now a part of the daily lives of Costa Ricans.

To my surprise, the country I left in 2013 was unchanged. There’s been no change. There’s no discussion about ROI in digital media or tangible business objectives. Vanity KPIs (likes, shares, fans, etc.) are the measuring topics, but what surprised me most was the negotiation system: we pay for 30, 60, or 90 posts per month; if there’s an Instagram account, it’s more expensive; or we’ve given the budget to an “influencer.” But no one talks about bonuses for business results, increased sales, or ways to achieve meaningful goals that could serve as a starting point for concrete actions. In our pursuit of a fee, we’ve let opportunities slip away and reduced the quality of our work to just posting. It’s hard to believe when today we can measure everything, and it’s not just e-commerce that gives me a return.

Are 30 posts a month necessary?

A friend told me that in the US Latin Market, he had managed to put up only 2 quality posts per brand per month, and that this was more than sufficient. My position? Very simple: it’s not about the quantity or quality, it’s about what the strategy needs to solve a problem that leads to achieving a business objective.

What’s a digital strategy?

To begin to understand it, perhaps we should see the interactive world not as something strange known only to millennials. A strategy is a strategy. Period.

In its time, television and radio were new worlds for advertisers. Advertisers had more time to understand them, but today the world has evolved much faster than any planner could have projected.

I feel that all this digital fuss is a simple evolution of media: While TV will disappear as it is, screens will continue to reign. Radio is streamed or listened to ad-free on Spotify, and the once-called quarter-page ads are now on Facebook or Instagram. How are we reacting to this change?

With this understanding, the first thing we should consider is the goal we want to achieve as a brand or service in these media where I can engage with people, generate more than just a one-way communication channel, because yes, today we can converse with people and know what they want and think of us. Before, we only had assumptions and market studies that were months behind.

What can we do in these media to help achieve my strategy and give me a return on investment?
That’s the question we should ask ourselves to set our course once the goal is defined.

Considering these elements and understanding that all of this is a simple evolution of media, and that it’s not about filling empty spaces in a marketing plan, that’s where we’ll create a strategy in a digital world, not a digital strategy.

Advertising strategy, media strategy, and creative strategy have always paved the way for businesses, their growth, and that’s why advertising has been known as the industry that drives industries. In today’s fast-evolving, connected world, we can’t see it as a factory for posts or just paying for the quantity of material placed on social media.

Our work has value, and it’s our responsibility, as advertisers, to make our experience and communication knowledge count in a world that evolves so quickly and stays connected. We need to show that we’re worth more than just 30 posts a month on Facebook.