Social Media Specialist

This certification is ideal for social media specialists, enthusiasts, executives or anyone wanting to enhance their knowledge in this area. It is designed to help you engage effectively with social media in an overall digital marketing domain. Validated by the Digital Marketing Institute’s Industry Advisory Council, the learning content is industry aligned and offers the opportunity to earn a globally recognized professional certification. Covered within this certification are content creation, content outreach, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, social media, marketing automation and much more.

Why should I earn this certification?

An in-demand digital marketing discipline, this certification will provide you with the latest techniques and tools to effectively engage and influence through social media. A specialist certification, it focuses on the planning, implementation and measurement of your social media strategy.

Through dynamic lectures and case studies, social media experts will take you through the latest techniques for content creation and outreach across all of the core social networks. This will provide you with practical knowledge of how to create best practice paid and organic social media campaigns that foster trust and increase sales.

What will I accomplish?

Upon successful completion of a 3-hour computer-based examination, you will be awarded an invaluable and career changing specialist certification. This will help you stand out from the crowd as a social media specialist and can boost and advance your career.  

Certified professionals will gain the knowledge and skills needed to produce innovative and creative social media strategies that resonate and convert for companies of any size. An internationally recognized certified professional badge will also be available for you to promote on your LinkedIn profile. 

There are ten modules in the program:

• Social Research
• Content Creation
• Content Outreach
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Social Apps
• Social Video
• Marketing Automation
• Strategy & Planning
  

Module descriptions:

Social Research

The Social Research module will introduce you to the key social media concepts and equip you with the tools and techniques required to discover everything about your audience, competitors, cultural and industry trends. You will understand the principles of social media marketing, distinguish between traditional and social media marketing, understand the dimensions of audience research to define the needs, wants and goals of your audience and analyze data and extract actionable insights.

Content Creation

This module will introduce the concept of engaging with and acquiring customers using the creation and sharing of content. It will equip you with the knowledge and skills to resource a content management function, target your audience, select your platform and make use of social listening and competitor analysis.

Content Outreach

You will be introduced to the concept of content seeding and how to use content effectively over multiple social platforms. The Content Outreach module will help you acquire an understanding of how to promote content and the importance of paid promotion for relevant, highly shareable content. 

Facebook

The Facebook module provides you with a comprehensive understanding of how Facebook works as a platform for community building, content marketing and brand promotion. This module guides you through the various aspects of Facebook for Business such as Facebook Ads. You will also be adept in planning and delivering a Facebook Advertising strategy, including KPI monitoring and ongoing measurement.

Twitter

This module equips you with the knowledge of how Twitter operates and the value it represents for businesses as a marketing and promotion platform. You will be guided through each step of using Twitter for Business; from customizing your account to building a profile for your business’ Twitter page. The Twitter module will also teach you how to target specific demographics when building your following.

LinkedIn

The LinkedIn module gives you a comprehensive understanding of the benefits of using LinkedIn for marketing. You will learn LinkedIn-specific features which will help you facilitate campaign objectives and recognize the importance of having a unified brand presence across company and personal accounts, use features and tools to set campaign objectives and increase ROI along with running ad campaigns that reach, nurture and convert customers.

Social Apps

This module will give you core insights into the leading app-based platforms; Instagram and Snapchat. Going beyond basic features and vanity metrics, you will learn how to navigate each platform and discover the features that can be leveraged to deliver real measurable results in unique, creative and interactive ways.

Social Video

The Social Video module will introduce you to the concept of social video marketing and its growing importance for today’s online consumers. Focusing on YouTube, you will learn how to leverage the creative life cycle for audience development and advertising in order to build sustainable communities for lead generation.

Marketing Automation

This module aims to empower digital marketers to automate their marketing processes in the areas of lead management, lead generation, lead nurturing, sales enablement, social media marketing automation and customer evangelism.

Strategy & Planning

The Strategy & Planning module will teach you how to devise an all-encompassing social media strategy using the PROPEL strategy model. You will learn how planning, researching, setting objectives, preparation, execution and learning are the key components of a successful social strategy and ROI.