Kirin King | June 11, 2023

Which certification did you complete?

I chose to complete HubSpot Academy’s Social Media Marketing certification. I wanted to go through this course because the description intrigued me at first. I spend a lot of time on social media. As a consumer I know what I like and what I want to see. I wanted to learn about the other side of social media. Learning how to think from the company’s side instead of just as a consumer was what interested me. 

How long did it take to complete?

It took me a little over five hours to complete this certification. I broke it up into two different days. The first day I spent about two hours working on the material. The second day I spent about three and a half hours between the material and the test.

What did you like best/least?

My favorite thing about this course was “The Varying Shades of Influencer Marketing” and “How to Work with Influencers” videos. The topic of influencers is very intriguing to me. During these videos they talked about how to work with content creators and influencers. They also mentioned how they are able to control what they post. This was very interesting to me because I previously thought that the brand would control what the influencer posted. This course taught me that while the brands may have guidelines, the influencers know their following and can adjust promotional pieces based on what they feel is fit. 

My least favorite thing was the Social Media Calendar Template videos. These felt like a waste of time. While it is important to have a calendar and plan out promotional pieces, these videos just showed one way to do it. They went through an excel version of a calendar template. It felt like a waste because different companies use different platforms/ways of planning. I could have gotten that information in a shorter more to the point video.

Were there any disappointments or frustrations?

I had a lot of frustrations with the quizzes. I would often have to take them multiple times because the platform would say it did not save. These became frustrating and felt like a waste of time. I would have to take a quiz two or three times and refresh the page before it would save. I believe this was a glitch in the program and it became annoying during the course.

What did you learn?

I feel like I learned a lot during this course. Social media has become a large part of marketing. It is important to understand what consumers are looking for from companies. During the course it talked about a few key topics. These topics were

• Developing a Social Media Strategy
• Social Media Listening and Monitoring
• Building a Content Strategy for Social Media
• Social Media Calendar Template Tutorial
• Extending Your Reach on Social Media
• Using Social Media to Build One-to-One Relationships
• Introduction to Social Media Advertising
• Measuring Your Social Return on Investment
• Essentials for Continued Success with Social Media

These topics allowed me to expand my knowledge regarding social media marketing. 

Do you believe this certification program is useful for other marketers?

Yes, I do believe this certification program is useful for other marketers. This course did a great job at explaining the key topics of social media marketing. They also gave key examples to the topics that allowed for real world applications of these topics. I would recommend this course for anyone who is interested in learning more about this form of marketing.

On a scale of 1-5, how likely are you to recommend this certification program to a friend? Why?

I would give this course a rating of 5. I would recommend this certification program to a friend because it teaches you a lot about the key topics involved in social media marketing.