When your communication doesn’t belong to you
- Estudio CKS
- Jan 12
- 3 min read
Social media, website, and message control: what happens when your communication depends on external platforms.
For years, we’ve designed brands, messages, and experiences thinking about how they look, how they feel, and how they are experienced. We consider visual hierarchies, user journeys, and touchpoints. Ultimately, we focus on how a brand is built when someone encounters it. However, in the digital world, this exercise is often reduced to a single setting: social media. That’s where everything happens. That’s where the brand lives. Or so we think…
And that’s exactly where it’s worth pausing for a second and asking an uncomfortable question:
How much control do we really have over the spaces where we communicate?
When visibility is confused with control
Social media works. It generates reach, conversation, and closeness. It’s fast, dynamic, and seems enough. The problem arises when presence is mistaken for ownership. Because even though they feel familiar, social media platforms aren’t ours. They are borrowed spaces, with rules we don’t set and that can change at any moment.
A few days ago, at Estudio CKS, we experienced it firsthand. Our Instagram account was hacked. Within minutes, the username was changed to a Chinese name, the profile picture and description were modified, and over 150 messages were sent to contacts who had nothing to do with us. They even asked our followers to follow another account.
It all happened fast. Very fast.
And although we managed to regain access, the experience made one thing very clear:
The control we think we have on social media is fragile.
Borrowed platforms, someone else’s decisions
Investing time, creativity, and strategy in social media is no small effort. Designing content, crafting messages, and maintaining a consistent presence requires real work.
The contradiction appears when all that work exists in a space we don’t control. Algorithms change, reach decreases, accounts get blocked or disappear without much explanation. What’s been built can vanish overnight… It’s not about stopping the use of social media. It’s about understanding the role they play.
The value of building your own digital assets
This is where a key concept in any communication strategy comes into play:
“your own digital asset".
An owned asset is one that doesn’t rely on external decisions to exist. It’s a space where the brand defines the message, the journey, and the experience. Where content doesn’t expire in hours, and where every action adds value in the long term.
In this ecosystem, the website remains at the center. Not as a static or decorative piece, but as the place where everything is organized: identity, value proposition, content, services, and conversions.
The website as a space for design, strategy, and control
Unlike social media, a website allows you to approach communication with depth. Design user journeys. Prioritize messages. Integrate tools. Measure real behaviors. But above all, it allows something fundamental: decision-making.
Decide what to tell, how to tell it, when to tell it, and with what objective. Decide how the brand is presented when someone wants to know more than just a post or a story.
This isn’t rigidity. It’s strategy
Social media and website: different roles, same ecosystem
Framing social media versus the website as a competition is losing focus. Social media is excellent for attracting attention, generating conversation, and increasing visibility. The website serves a different purpose: it deepens, validates, and converts.
Social media invites. The website welcomes.
When that circuit doesn’t exist—when there’s no owned space to support the experience—communication is left at the mercy of platforms we don’t control.
Thinking long-term in a changing environment
The digital landscape is constantly changing. The rules change too. That’s why, rather than putting everything into a single channel, it’s worth thinking in terms of balance.
Use social media, yes. But build your own assets that support the brand beyond any algorithm. Because in the end, beyond reach or followers, the strategic question remains the same: what part of your communication is truly under your control?
And in an environment where almost everything is borrowed, having your own space isn’t a luxury. It’s a decision about communication, design, and the future.
