Promoting a small business on Facebook should be relatively straightforward. Take a photograph of a product, describe what is being sold, provide the price or relevant details, and tell interested customers how to order.
Yet through my work with micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and other groups learning digital marketing, I have observed that creating a simple business post can become surprisingly complicated.
Some entrepreneurs combine numerous products into a single promotional graphic, filling the available space with photographs, descriptions, and prices.
Others prepare elaborate posters that resemble printed advertisements, even when a straightforward product photograph might communicate their offer more clearly.
Some participants have attended digital marketing training but have yet to publish a business post. These experiences have made me reflect on whether we are making digital marketing more complicated than it needs to be.
Consider a food entrepreneur selling burgers, fries, nachos, and other snacks. Rather than featuring individual products, the entrepreneur may arrange everything into one colorful poster.
The intention is understandable. They want potential customers to know the variety of products available.
However, when everything competes for attention, customers may struggle to identify what is being promoted, how much it costs, or what makes a particular item worth ordering.
A photograph highlighting one appetizing product, accompanied by a clear description and ordering instructions, may serve a more immediate purpose.
The same challenge appears in other businesses. A furniture seller might upload several photographs showing different angles of a table or cabinet. While these images help customers examine the product, they may leave important questions unanswered.
Does the furniture arrive assembled? How difficult is the assembly process? What does the finished product look like in an actual room? Showing the product from unpacking to assembly and final use could provide information that customers find more useful than additional promotional graphics.
This does not mean that every post should feature only one product or that professionally designed advertisements are unnecessary. A catering package, product bundle, or grocery promotion may be better presented together.
What matters is whether the content serves a clear purpose and helps customers understand the offer. Sometimes, entrepreneurs concentrate so much on what they want to show that they overlook what customers need to know.
These posting practices existed long before generative artificial intelligence became widely available. Businesses were already using templates, collages, and elaborate promotional layouts to attract attention.
However, the growing availability of AI-generated photographs, professionally written captions, and sophisticated videos raises another question. Are we unintentionally changing people’s expectations of what a social media post should look like?
Today, someone scrolling through Facebook may encounter advertisements that appear professionally produced even when they were created using readily available AI tools. This can be empowering because entrepreneurs now have access to capabilities that previously required specialized skills or substantial budgets.
At the same time, I wonder whether constant exposure to polished content may cause some people to question whether their own photographs and words are good enough to publish.
I cannot conclude that AI is responsible for this hesitation. Entrepreneurs face different circumstances, including limited time, connectivity, competing business responsibilities, and uncertainty about what customers want.
Nevertheless, it is worth considering whether the increasing sophistication of digital content creates pressure to meet standards that ordinary users may not need to meet in the first place.
Another concern is the difference between learning digital marketing and actually practicing it. A participant may understand why businesses need an online presence, recognize the importance of photographs, and learn how to write captions.
Yet when asked to create and publish a post independently, that knowledge may not immediately translate into action. Knowing what makes a good advertisement is different from having the confidence and opportunity to create one.
This distinction has implications for how we design digital marketing training. We often introduce participants to content strategies, design applications, video editing, AI tools, and platform features.
These are valuable skills, but introducing too many possibilities at once can overwhelm beginners. For someone operating a small food stall, the immediate need may simply be to photograph the day’s available products, communicate the price and location, and respond to customer inquiries.
Instead of measuring training success primarily through attendance or knowledge assessments, we could also examine what participants can accomplish independently.
Can they take a usable photograph, prepare a clear caption, publish their own post, and answer an inquiry? Can they repeat the activity without relying on a trainer or an AI application to do everything for them?
These are practical indicators of capability, although whether the activity eventually generates sales would require separate evaluation.
AI can play a constructive role in this process. An entrepreneur could use it to identify missing information in a caption, improve the clarity of a message, or explore different ways of describing a product.
But the technology should support the entrepreneur’s judgment and communication skills rather than become a prerequisite for publishing. A message written naturally in Filipino, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, or another language familiar to local customers may be more relatable than a polished but generic advertisement.
There is also a practical cost to content creation that deserves recognition. Many microentrepreneurs personally manage purchasing, inventory, production, selling, delivery, and customer service. Asking them to produce sophisticated content regularly may be unrealistic.
A simpler approach that they can sustain may create more opportunities to communicate with customers than an elaborate campaign they can only prepare occasionally.
Perhaps this is where digital marketing education needs to evolve. Rather than immediately demonstrating everything technology can produce, we should begin by helping people accomplish something useful with the resources they already have.
Once they can publish a post, observe customer responses, and identify what can be improved, more advanced tools and techniques become easier to appreciate and apply.
The growing sophistication of AI-generated content should expand opportunities for participation, not make people feel that their existing abilities are inadequate. Professional-quality production has its place, but it should not become the perceived minimum standard for communicating online.
For entrepreneurs taking their first steps in digital marketing, progress may begin with something far less elaborate: a clear photograph of a real product, an accurate description, and a simple invitation for customers to inquire.
The more important question is not how sophisticated their content looks, but whether they can confidently create, publish, and improve it themselves.
