Hello, marketing professionals. As you continue in your marketing journey, I would highly recommend snagging some certificates from HubSpot Academy. First, they are free, second they are valuable and bring a certain je ne sais quoi to your LinkedIn profile and professional skills.
HubSpot offers many certifications online. I chose to go through the Social Media Certification. Why you may ask! Because we live in a social media world and I’m a social media kind of marketer. To be honest, everything today is social media, and I really wanted to learn more about the topic. This certification gave me great exposure to the inner-workings of Social Media and how to leverage it within a well thought out marketing strategy.
This certificate is not for the faint of heart, it took me several weeks, multiple hours per day, of dedication to get through the content that was broken down in the following areas:
- Lesson 1: Developing a Social Media Strategy
- Lesson 2: Social Media Listening and Monitoring
- Lesson 3: Building a Content Strategy
- Lesson 4: Extending Your Social Reach
- Lesson 5: Using Social Media to Build One-to-One Relationships
- Lesson 6: Digital Advertising: The Basics
- Lesson 7: Measuring Your Social Return On Investment
- Lesson 8: Social Media Essentials for Continued Success
What I really enjoyed about this journey, was how much I didn’t know about Social Media, as a user you think you know everything, but in reality there is so much that goes into it. Some is science, some is art, which is pretty cool. The information was the right level, and it went deep enough to get a great understanding on how to the different channels for business. One of the more interesting lessons was on social ROI. Something that can be used on day 1. Also, another great point of learning was related with governance and social media. Do no harm should be the goal for any social media strategy.
Honestly, there were no dislikes, the course was professionally done. Great content and teachers, with real world experiences. Nice job HubSpot!
The only frustrating part for me was the time commitment, as a working professional I had to be diligent in how I spent my time in order to work toward my certification. Also, I’m not sure why this is not mandatory for ALL students. I think younger students coming out of college would benefit greatly having this type of certification.
As stated above, I learned several things I did not know about Social Media. Below are my top 5 learnings:
- Social ROI – what is it, how to calculate it, and how to use it to measure success and monitor it as a KPI
- Journey-based advertising – part of the basics regarding Digital Advertising
- How to leverage social media to build a more personal (1-on-1) relationship with your customers
- Influencer Marketing – how to use it to take your social media reach to the next level
- Content, content, content – it’s the nuts and bolts of your social media strategy
After going through the certification process, I believe that all marketers could benefit from this program. Things in this space are changing daily, actually by the minute. It’s important to stay current to all that is new. New social media platforms will flood the market, all with their unique value proposition. How we adopt them to attract more customers will be key to any business success. At the end of the day, I’m glad I completed my Social Media Certification, if anythings it has made me more aware of the power of key, targeted, advertising in all the social media channels. As stated before the social media space is a balanced combination of science and art. A great space for data and creative geeks like me.
Lastly, I highly recommend (5) that any and all marketers take this certification. Not only to keep up with the latest trends, but also to enrich their professional portfolio. This journey was well worth it!
You can find me in the following social media channels if you would like to learn more about my experience through this certification. Thank you!
