SMWCR 2019 – Social Media Workshop Costa Rica
SMWCR acronym for the Social Media Workshop in Costa Rica is created to train digital marketers and digital agency media buyers on the correct usage of media buying and analytic tools.
Background
Costa Rica, as well as many Latin American countries, are just now entertaining the idea of entering into the commercial part of Internet.
Costa Rica has entered the technology race, bringing large tech companies like Intel and Microsoft to the Costa Rican market place. Many large international corporations have also acquired various local software development companies.
But that is as about as far as they have gone. Yes, we currently have people developing websites (WordPress based mainly) and Apps, but the e-commerce part of things, as well as advertising, have gone stale. Also, the cost of internet is high, while the quality is low.
The surge in the early 2K years of the gambling, porn and pharma industries helped develop the SEO, Online Advertising and Affiliate areas, but all are directed towards the US Market.
These people, just as I did, learned empirically the Online ropes in SEO and Online Advertising. So we have people that have become experts in SEO and Online Advertising. However, the sites they have generated, are setup to earn money through Affiliates or Adsense.
The reluctance to pay for online advertising by local commerce has occurred for various reasons:
Advertising Agencies reluctance to promote Digital Advertising
Advertising agencies are mostly to blame for this issue. First of all, they get a percentage of the money advertised. So when it comes on deciding on a newspaper ad for $10000 that yields $2000 in fees in one day versus a $2000 banner on a website for a month that yields $400, the answer is easy.
Secondly, when the client demands online advertising they lack the knowledge for measuring results, hence they can not provide an accurate media plan for online advertising. Even though they claim to do it, they focus on Social Media ad buying, which is even done incorrectly most of the time.
In my personal experience, major local brands that have advertised on my websites have been placed through IOs from International Media Agencies. These agencies have gotten the media requirement buying terms from local agencies, who do not know how to do it. Since these are major brands, they usually request information on the media buy that local agencies can not answer or are unable to comply with, due to their lack of knowledge.
Lack of Knowledge in Advertising Agencies
This lack of knowledge comes from the lack of training, starting with the fact that Universities are ill prepared to transfer the accurate knowledge to students. It will take at least 5 more years for the graduating students to get the knowledge so they can go back to the university and transfer that information back to the upcoming graduates.
Digital Marketing agencies created by empirical owners/bosses are trying to change this. Training is done by attending online webinars and courses, and the updated information that is readily available on the web.
According to Hubspot latest study (Marketing Agency Growth Report-Spanish). Every day it is harder to find suitable employees for the required positions.
Lack of Knowledge by Advertisers
Advertisers in general lack the knowledge to request the proper media buy, with the proper requirements. Most are trying to impress their bosses and get caught in the loop of unknowing ad agencies, social media “gurus”, and fake “influencers”.
In Costa Rica everyone and their brother claims to be a “Social Media Manager” and barely manage two Social Media outlets.
People that claim to be “Influencers” have multiplied exponentially, but few are. . Anyone with 10k on Instagram is now an influencer. The whole meaning of “Influencers” has been misused, abused and exploited.
So money is thrown around by advertisers, without any real measurement of success, by unknowing ad agencies, that can not provide factual answers.
The Project – SMWCR 2019
The idea we want to present to you is the creation of a Digital Advertising Workshop Project.
As the aforementioned title indicates, we want Digital Marketing experiences to be exchanged. In this way, we can address the many needs in the industry and accelerate fixing the knowledge gap.
The Concept
We would like the top Digital Media companies to train marketers and digital agency employees in order for them to implement the correct usage of their products in Latin America.
We want to create a one week (twice a year) workshop program, using Costa Rica as the lead country of the project, and then move it to other Latin American countries. Starting with Panama.
The participants will pay to attend the weekly workshop.
Also, company managers at the decision-making level will have the opportunity to meet in a small meeting (10 pax) with the training companies. The purpose of this meeting is for top level management to interact directly with these companies, who will explain the benefits of web advertising.
SMWCR Attendee profile
Digital Marketers, Digital media buyers, Social Media Managers, Community Managers, Marketing Managers, Product Managers, Advertising Agencies.
The companies
- Google. They would train on the use of Adsense, Adwords and Google Analytics
- Youtube. They would train on the use of Youtube Channel creation, Copyright school and disputes, Youtube advertising and Youtube Insights.
- Facebook. They would train on Facebook ads, Business Manager, Facebook and Ads Manager insights.
- Instagram. They would train on Instagram sponsored and insights
- Linkedin. They would train on Linkedin growth and Linkedin advertising and metrics
- TBD Speaker on Social Media Selling
- SEMRush. They would train on SEMRush Pro Tools
- La Nacion. Biggest local newspaper going digital. Train people on media buying in La Nacion Digital
Local coordination
Mercadeo Web S.A. would co-ordinate the logistics for these workshops.