There are so many things to know as a student pursuing the dynamic social media landscape, and I’ve found that the HubSpot Social Media Certification is a great way to navigate the field! The certification process takes a good 5-6 hours, but within those hours, you will dive into a very detailed and thorough course about the ins and outs of inbound social media marketing. And boy, will you learn a lot!
Below is a list of some terms and tricks I’ve learned from this amazing certification experience.
Vanity Measures Can Be Useful: stats that may look good such as followers and likes but may not translate into factors that increase ROI. Although vanity measures may not add value, depending on your goals and KPI’s, vanity measures could be an important area to focus on in your social media strategy. Take this into account if you want to hone in on engagement in your company’s strategy. (Video source: Developing Your Strategic Content Plan)
Organize Your Strategy With Social Media KPIs: key performance indicators that can be strategically compartmentalized to achieve business goals such as a high ROI. KPI’s can include follows and likes on Instagram if awareness is the company’s goal, or it can include other factors. Setting the right KPIs is pertinent to fulfilling goals, and they must be updated as goals shift. (Video source: Building The Foundation For Success – Setting Social KPIs)
Develop Your Tone and Voice: Tone is a subset of voice that can change depending on the situation being responded to. Voice is far more structured, as it is the way a brand conveys its personality. Tone and voice are not interchangeable, and although the voice must always stay consistent, the tone may change to better supplement the material being presented. (Video source: How Tone and Voice Make All The Difference)
Hashtags Work: Content that includes hashtags is more likely to attain higher engagement. This is because hashtags link people to the content they are actively looking for. Hashtags, when used in the appropriate dosage, can be effective in attracting the ideal audience and increasing engagement. Plus, who doesn’t love a perfectly timed and clever hashtag? (Video source: The Importance of Tagging, Timing, and Testing Your Content)
Curated Content Isn’t Bad: Curated content can be a great way to build a network and support other brands who may, in turn, support your brand and expose it to their own following. This is a great opportunity to mutually boost one another’s content and build connections. Curated content is content that is shared, meaning the brand reposts it. Curated content always needs to link back to the original creator, but the content itself can benefit from the boost of awareness from a repost. Curated content could also supplement the content of the brand, such as when a brand is lacking in video content but produces a myriad of static content. (Video source: Demonstrating Industry Leadership Through Content Curation)
Influencer Marketing Is Always an Option: Influencer marketing is a great way to bypass ad blockers and reach a specific audience. The content that influencers produce usually attracts a specialized audience and brands can make content with these audiences through an influencer. Influencer marketing can also be beneficial if the influencer is deemed by their audiences as credible. Credible influencers with quality brand content can make powerful mutually beneficial partners. (Video source: Social Media Content: The Basics)
The Good and Bad of Earned Media: Earned media is exposure or user-generated content that is a response to a brand’s actions. Earned media isn’t always positive, and negative earned media can sometimes lead the brand’s public relations department into damage control or crisis management mode. Earned media, when positive, is an asset that can boost brand awareness and loyalty. The most important earned media is UGC (user-generated content). (Video source: Putting a Crisis Communication Plan in Place)
Conduct a Social Media Audit: An audit of your social media channels and how different elements contribute to ROI. An internal audit can include the number of followers on channels, internal owners of those channels, as well as consistency in content. A social media audit can show areas that need to be strengthened in one’s social media strategy, and it can help a brand recognize and reorganize their KPI’s and goals. Additional metrics are also important, such as effective keywords, response rate, and overall sentiment. Some of these metrics are accessible and measurable through social listening. Don’t forget to analyze the competition! (Video source: The Social Media Audit: How To Understand Your Success With Social Media)
I’ve thought about doing a social media audit for a while now, especially after taking the Brit + Co. social media strategy course, and HubSpot Reinforced this immensely. It’s important to understand the value you are providing and to scope out your competition without being consumed by keeping tabs on it. Social media is all about storytelling—so make sure you audit your accounts to ensure you’re content is well-equipped to tell your brand’s story.
Engagement is Essential: Engagement is absolutely essential to your social media strategy’s effectiveness. This means that you must focus on cultivating one-on-one relationships on the platforms you choose to project your brand on. As HubSpot puts it, people want to talk to people, not brands. Therefore, you want to personify your brand to ensure you are utilizing your brand voice to its fullest extent and making real connections. The moral of the story is to be authentic to your audience and show them there is a human being behind the screen! (Video source: 1:1 Engagement: Getting Started)
Advertising and Social Media: Social media advertising is super specific and cheap. This makes it a wonderful option to explore as a brand because you can target your messages to those who are more likely to engage with your company. Facebook, for example, can implement extremely targeted messages and can produce evidence of the effectiveness of an ad through a Facebook pixel. Through advertising on social media, you can ensure your messages are being seen by an audience, as social media’s population growth and momentum are not slowing down anytime soon. And don’t forget there are so many ways to advertise, and so many ad formats to choose from. (Video source: The Advantages of Social Media Advertising)
The Takeaway
There are so many things to learn about building and managing a brand through social media, and this certification does a great job of not only scratching the surface but offering value that far exceeds just potential job requirements. Take it from me, and invest the 5-6 hours of your life into this certification!
Plus, it looks good on your LinkedIn.