Brand Certifications to Make You a Better Social Media Marketer

As new technologies are being introduced in the workplace, the skills needed to make the most of them are changing as well. Playing catch-up has proven to take a toll in the job hunt, as current employees and recent graduates struggle to find the skills required to stay competitive.

Nearly eight in 10 middle-skill jobs now require digital skills here’s what you can do to bridge the gap on your own.

6 online marketing certifications to help you get ahead

1. Digital Marketing with Udacity

When it comes to getting the digital skills you need, who better to learn from than the brands who shape these industries? Udacity partnered up with industry leaders like Facebook, Google, MailChimp, and us here at Hootsuite to bring you the Digital Marketing Nanodegree program.

The program is designed to get students hired in today’s job market. Udacity does this by covering platform proficiency for today’s most relevant marketing platforms. This means you understand the full digital marketing ecosystem—from content strategy to paid advertising and analytics.

For example, in their Display Advertising course, Udacity takes you through key marketing channels like mobile and video, how to purchase and sell ads, and how to set up your own display ad via Google Adwords.

With Udacity’s unique course format, you get a hands-on learning experience. You’ll run live campaigns on major marketing platforms, where you learn how to measure performance, and create a strategy based on these insights. When it’s over, you can add these projects into your digital marketing portfolio.

Courses include:

• Content Strategy
• Search Engine Marketing
• Display Advertising
• Social Media Advertising with Facebook
• Measure and Optimize with Google Analytics

Projects include:

• Market Your Content
• Run a Facebook Campaign
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Audit
• Run an Adwords Campaign

2. Social Media Marketing with Facebook Blueprint

Facebook’s certification program takes you beyond the basics of Facebook and Instagram marketing. As a leader in social media advertising, Facebook Blueprint teaches you how to best take advantage of Facebook’s tools so that you can meet your business goals.

Courseware includes case studies from real businesses, in-person training, and knowledge checks while you’re learning. It’s flexible, too—conveniently accessible on any device, anywhere, anytime—to fit even the busiest of schedules.

Courses include:

• Campaign Optimization
• Creative Best Practices
• Purchasing Ads
• Ad Targeting

3. SEO with Google AdWords

Not every company has an in-house SEO expert like Hootsuite’s Zak Ramdani. Some of us are mere mortals struggling to find the best keywords that will place us on the first page of Google.

Increasing the discoverability of your social media content means that it’s more likely to reach your audience, drive traffic, and meet your marketing goals.

The Google AdWords certification teaches you basic and intermediate SEO skills, ensuring your content ranks in search engine results. With this certification, you also learn how to best create, execute, and manage an ad campaign using AdWords by Google.

Courses include:

• AdWords Fundamentals
• Search Advertising
• Display Advertising
• Mobile Advertising
• Video Advertising
• Shopping Advertising

Along with your personalized certificate, you receive a Google Partners public profile page listing your certifications. Now when anyone looks you up in a search—they’ll see your Google Partners credentials.

4. Real-time marketing with Twitter Flight School

When Twitter first released Twitter Flight School to major marketing agencies like Starcom MediaVest Group, WPP, and Omnicon—it was a massive success. After over 15,000 agency employees enrolled, the social media platform decided to roll out its training program to the public.

With 10-minute training modules, the courseware will help you develop successful Twitter marketing campaigns by offering best practices and providing examples from real businesses.

Courses include:

• Twitter 101
• How to create and manage objective-based campaigns
• How to integrate Twitter into a TV campaign
• How to drive website traffic and conversions

Also check out Twitter Flight School’s downloadable resource library. It’s a treasure trove of tips for creating your next campaign and includes downloadable presentations to prepare for your next client meeting.

5. Pinterest Propel

Pinterest Propel differs from some of the other offerings on this list. Rather than coursework and exams, Propel is a 30-day program featuring one-on-one training from Pinterest’s ad experts.

The program focuses on building and managing a successful ad campaign, tracking sales and online conversions, and generating leads. It also offers expert tips, best practices, and access to Pinterest guides.
One of the coolest aspects of Pinterest Propel? You get access to Pinterest’s Pin Factory—where you can create custom Promoted Pins for your business.

Topics covered include:

• Setting up your business account
• More about Promoted Pins
• Creating and editing your ads
• Setting up Pinterest Tag to track conversions

Check out their success stories page to see how real businesses have used paid advertising on Pinterest to engage audiences, expand their reach, and acquire new clients.

6. Hootsuite Academy

You knew this was coming.

Hootsuite Academy has educated more than 200,000 professionals—and certified 30,000—on a variety of topics key to social media marketing success, ranging from introductory material to more advanced tactics like data analytics and measuring return on investment (ROI).

Courses are free and include lots of video content—making it a fun and intuitive learning experience.

Courses include:

• Social Selling Training and Certification
• Advanced Social Strategy Training & Certification
• Social Marketing Training