Certified

Over the past 8 weeks I have been, not so secretly, working towards becoming a Certified Social Media Strategist. As of this past Monday, I am officially certified by the Society3 Academy (formerly Social Media Academy)

But what does that really mean? To be honest, I wasn't sure when I first started looking into the whole thing. I had read a lot of mixed information about social media certifications. Mainstream social media is really still in its infancy compared to traditional types of media. Many articles and blogs I read argued that there is no real consensus on the knowledge one must have to become certified. Other said they think most are a scam until their is an industry standard that is developed and adopted by the majority. Regardless of the critics, I began looking into different schools, associations and academies that offered such training.

The main reason I wanted a certification is that I had been working with developing social media strategy around a year and a half. The strategies I had been developing were based off a social strategy model that was developed from an online seeding model my thesis partner and I had created during our masters. Although it had gone through some proofing rounds with colleagues, I didnt have any idea if it was really the right way to do things.  So really, I wanted a chance to hear new ideas and and be challenged to think differently.

I came across the Social Media Academy in a search. There were a few other options on the table, but mostly I thought of them to be a bit amateurish. It seemed like you paid a lot of money for very little benefit or interaction with anyone. The thing that most caught my eye was that with Social Media Academy, you actually were able to collaborate with people from different countries and different backgrounds. I think that has to be one of the major decision points in my choice to pursue the certification. I believe there is incredible value in hearing others point of view on the subject, because different cultures and industries have different ways of using social media as a tool. The other part was that you would actually work on a practical case and take the knowledge gained through lectures and put it into practice.

The final nugget of info that validated my decision is that the Academy was voted Europe's top social media education just a couple weeks before I started.

So what does it mean to be a certified social media strategist? Well I would say that I now have a solid tool set for developing social media strategy. My understanding of the complexities of developing strategy for large global organizations as well as small businesses has increased. I have also gained knowledge about different industry uses for social media, can recognize the challenges which exist in corporate buy-in and can better explain the importance for each of the steps within a strategy.

I m looking forward to collaborating with clients moving forward and incorporating the new information I have obtained to better help them in their digital and social endeavors.