Judging by the close to 200 pages of comments left by readers on my last post, I guess we’ve hit on a pretty hot topic this week: That of “social media certifications.” (Who knew?)
So okay, let’s talk about it.
1. Do we even need Social Media certification?
To be completely honest, I hadn’t really given the subject much thought until a few days ago. To me, it seemed far too early in the game, not just from an academic standpoint, but from a practical one: Even if we happened to need certifications or accreditation for social media practitioners, there are no standards as of yet. No agreed-upon best practices for every business function and specialty that touches Social Media. There are no PhDs in the subject. No twenty-year veterans to teach anyone the ropes. In other words, there exists today no mechanism through which a social media “practitioner” might find himself or herself truly “certified” by anyone in any truly legitimate fashion, like, say, a PR professional, attorney, nurse, or even a hairdresser are able to be certified.
Part of the problem at hand can be summed up in the following two questions:
A. A “social media certification” would certify you in what, exactly? Your ability to create a Facebook fan page? Basic blogging techniques? Twitter usage? Social media measurement? Optimizing a LinkedIn profile? I could go on and on. So the question again: Certified in what, exactly? Some kind of general “Social Media expertise?” What does that even mean? (We’ll get back to that in a bit.)
B. Who would offer these certifications/accreditation and how? Accredited universities? Business schools? Professional organizations? Guilds? Private certifying companies? State boards? Software vendors? Consulting firms? Anybody with the ability to sell an online webinar? And who would develop and teach these courses? Academics with no practical social media experience? Internet consultants? Superstar bloggers? Who decides?
Check out this video and we’ll get the conversation started afterward:
If the video doesn’t play or open for you, go here.
2. A training certificate and a certification are not the same thing.
So, first of all, it’s important to understand the distinction between a Social Media certification and Social Media training. While training is… well, just training, a certification tends to be more structured. Standards have to be applied. Testing administered. Certification is a little more complex than just sitting through training. More often than not, certification is synonymous with accreditation.
To keep things simple, I hopped over to wikipedia and find this about the word accreditation:
Accreditation is a process in which certification of competency, authority, or credibility is presented.
Organizations that issue credentials or certify third parties against official standards are themselves formally accredited by accreditation bodies (such as UKAS); hence they are sometimes known as “accredited certification bodies”.[2] The accreditation process ensures that their certification practices are acceptable, typically meaning that they are competent to test and certify third parties, behave ethically, and employ suitable quality assurance.
One example of accreditation is the accreditation of testing laboratories and certification specialists that are permitted to issue official certificates of compliance with established standards, such as physical, chemical, forensic, quality, and security standards.[3]
The whole purpose of certifications and accreditations isn’t for social media practitioners to learn how to be social media experts. (You aren’t going to learn that by sitting in a class.) Rather, accreditation/certification is a process by which you are tested against specific industry standard and either proven capable/qualified or not. It’s a weeding out process.
And kids, that process has nothing to do with self affirmation. What it has to do with is separating professionals (with experience that can be demonstrated through an accreditation process) from people with no experience, no skills, and lacking the necessary qualifications to take on a social media management job, no matter how many fans they have on Facebook.
In other words, if certification/accreditation truly is needed in the social media world, its purpose is solely to help companies with very little understanding of the space get some notion of whether a consultant or job applicant has a particular skill level required for the job.
If you want to distill this down to its simplest form, think of this simply as third-party testing: Having a reputable certifying body vouch for the fact that you actually know how to do something. Period. That’s it.
Note my emphasis on the word “reputable” because this is an important point we will revisit.
Note: A certification/accreditation is not a substitute for real experience, demonstrable results or professional references. But it can help validate a candidate’s skill-set, which isn’t all bad. And it can also help ensure that an individual has sat through x hours of best practices training and demonstrated an ability to apply their training to the experience they’ve already acquired in the real world.
3. Social Media Generalist Certifications vs. Professional Certifications: Rebooting the model.
Where things get a little iffy is with the structure of a social media certification. What exactly should it look like?
Currently, many “certifications” tend to look at the social media “profession” as a form of general mass of quasi-expertise ranging from how to manage a blog, start a facebook fan page and customize a twitter account to how to measure ROI and manage online communities. (Pretty big and dangerously amorphous range, from my perspective.)
What seems more logical is a slightly more operational approach to both social media training and social media certifications/accreditation: Instead of looking at Social Media as some sort of broad ranging field of study with an endless list of applications, look at Social Media as a skill-set that applies differently to each function within a business. In other words, give social media training and certs specific professional focus.
Consider that a Public Relations professional and a Customer Service professional will probably use social media (professionally) in radically different ways:
While the PR professional will probably want to be trained in online reputation management, digital brand management, online monitoring, digital crisis management and some assortment of publishing best practices, their customer service counterpart will want to be trained in online keyword monitoring, digital customer relationship management, crisis management and some light community management. Will there be some overlap? Sure. But what we are looking at here are very distinctive tracks, leading to very distinctive certifications. In other words, a social media certification for a PR professional shouldn’t look at all like a social media certification for a customer service professional, or an IT professional, or a business development professional.
The specific nature of the jobs dealing with social media requires both specific training, and specific certification/accreditation – both in specifically relevant sets of social media competencies.
No more over-arching cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all social media certifications, please. If we’re going to get serious about this (and we should), let’s get serious about it.
4. The difference between established, reputable certifying bodies and… well… the other kind.
Okay, so in light of the fact that a certification process could now be geared towards specific types of roles as opposed to some vague “social media specialist” notion, let’s look at certifying bodies that might (at some point) be able to offer these types of certification for professionals. Is it possible that perhaps an organization like PRSA might be better equipped to certify Public Relations professionals in something like digital public relations management, maybe? As opposed to, say, a newly assembled social media certifying body trying to adapt its general certification to the PR profession? Something to think about.
Something else to think about is the fact that a certification/accreditation from a reputable organization or institution is pretty crucial here. Organizations like PRSA, AMA, and others of their caliber can’t afford to do this poorly. They HAVE to take it seriously in order not to tarnish their reputations. In sharp contrast, the social media space is filled with opportunistic individuals who would have nothing to lose and a lot of potential cash to gain. All you need to start certifying unsuspecting marks is a website and a Paypal account. Just create a social media certifying body out of thin air, create a series of webinars about whatever you want, charge a registration fee, and you’re in business. These types of operations are rampant in the US already.
So the point I am trying to make is that it would be great if the AMA, PRSA and other established and respectable professional organizations that already offer certifications for their members started moving in this direction – if only to ensure a pattern of legitimacy and accountability in the social media certification/accreditation process.
We could go on and on and on with this, but this is a good place to pause and get some feedback from you guys. The comment section is officially open. Agree? Disagree? Somewhere in the middle? Let’s hear it.
Cheers.
Well, of course I agree, Olivier. 😉
Certification, it seems, will always be a polarized topic … certainly in social media.
You mention “we” and “us” so many times here – why don’t we collaborate, crowdsource, create community? Build something powerful than any single person could ever do so?
I hope you know my and Mark’s intent with ISMA was never to provide the “only” organization and most definitely not to make this about one or two individuals.
I wonder if we’d approached you many months ago to be on our Board of Advisors where this whole conversation would be now?! LOL.
Frankly, I think it’s a good thing the industry-wide discussion is unfolding.
(And, if I wasn’t so busy leading training programs and doing speaking engagements – you know, working – I might spend more time commenting on your other blog post. LOL!)
I completely agree that it’s too early in the game to establish social media certification.
Furthermore, you’re right that it wouldn’t be practical at the moment. The social media landscape is in a constant state of change/advancement. Established standards could be deemed out of date in a matter of hours!
Yep. Though best practices tend to evolve at a much slower pace.
We aren’t talking about necessarily focusing on tools. Software changes constantly, sure. But operationally rooted best practices are a different ball game. There may be an opportunity there to create something a little more grounded in terms of training and testing.
Thanks for the comment.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Arnt Edvin Eriksen and Roger Byrne, RTmate2. RTmate2 said: RT @arnteriksen Let?s get constructive about the future of Social Media Certifications http://ow.ly/JOuV (by @thebrandbuilder) […]
I guess I’m still wrestling with the whole concept of “social media certification.” Can/should we really carve it out as its own discipline? It’s digital networked communications – but it’s still a subset of communications with specific business foci (as you correctly point out). I’m just not sure we should “certify” someone in social media as opposed to, say, someone being certified as a Public Relations professional with a skill set in social media. Is the point a certification in “social media”, or certification of skills/knowledge for the actual business role to be fulfilled? If we’re going to argue for a holistic approach to using social networking technologies as part of larger disciplines (Marketing, PR, Customer Service, etc.) then I think we do a disservice by carving it out this way. Training, yes. Certification? Not so sure.
Good points. And your comment seems to paraphrase most of my argument’s main points. (I think.)
The danger in not having standards and a certification mechanism is that anyone can say “I sat through 20 hours of training,” or I went through Steve Woodruff’s training on X and Olivier’s training on Y, spent $3000 on a webinar and logged 328 hours at #140 conferences last year.
I don’t think that training alone is necessarily enough. It’s way too vague. Way too broad. Anyone can provide “training.”
At some point, as I argue about in the latter half of this post, we need standards. And standards need to be tested against. A certification is the end-product of that testing.
As an aside, accredited certification for social media skillsets is a smart way to eradicate the dozens if not hundreds of shady social media certification schemes popping up across the US. If anything else, it is a means through which to combat fraud and opportunistic hacks. Can we really afford to end up with hundreds of disjointed certification schemes and no clear way to separate the few legitimate ones among them? Food for thought. We need some measure of order, logic and structure when it comes to this.
Again, I don’t know if this is the right direction to take, but it’s worth considering.
I am tending to agree with Mr Woodruff 😉
I can see the value in training, but the only interest that I would have in certification would be if I was being trained in the particular use of a methodology or repeatable approach. For example, if you created the Blanchard Method for social media, then I can imagine that I would need to be trained and then tested (and then certified) in the use of your very special and insightful method.
This would not give me “social media certification” – but certification in the Blanchard Method.
I see what you’re saying. I don’t disagree with you… although I would never certify anyone in the Blanchard method. (Trust me, you don’t want that.) 😀
But I would love for PR pros, IT pros, HR pros, etc. to be able to go to their own professional organizations (or others such as AMA in the US) to obtain carefully crafted best practices training specific to their line of work, and be able to walk away with a certification from that official, recognized organization.
A certification, which, I might add, should have to be renewable every year – either through continuing education or regular testing. Staying current might not be a bad idea.
Several months ago I asked you to define roles for social media. (Note to others: I asked Olivier because he is the one I ask to do things like this, based on work he’s done so far. I trust his judgment.) I like the idea of some certifications coming from within their specific industries, but think people who need to serve clients that are not part of an industry like marketing or PR, or connected to an existing academic entity, will be the ones who fall into the gap of hunting for some over-arching SM certificate.
You can’t have certification without clear delineation. Period. 🙂
A management training organization like the AMA could become the certifying body for management consultants. I have no problem with that. They’re reputable, I’ve been through their program for project management and I think they could fill the gap that might exist between professional organizations like PRSA, SHRM, etc.
Just a thought.
Thanks for the comment.
Great analysis. I used to hire network engineers, for which there was a well-established certification system (via Microsoft, Cisco, etc.) That’s a cut-and-dry technology area where best practices are well defined and the difference between right and wrong is clear. Even then, the certification was of limited value in sorting out the guy who could get a down network back on line quickly from the one who’d still be struggling hours later.
As you suggest, certifications were mainly used by clueless corporate managers as a hiring screen. If the new hire turned out to be a loser, the hiring manager could always defend himself with, “Hey, he was certified!”
I can’t imagine a useful certification program for social media, at least in the near future. Ten years after it began, SEO is almost at a point where one can at least certify basic knowledge. Maybe SM will reach that point someday.
Roger
I was so hoping you’d pipe in here, Roger, and was going to point you to this discussion if you hadn’t seen it. Glad you’re seeing this. 🙂
That brought back memories, Roger. Thanks for that. 😀
And wow. SEO. What a mess that is. Talk about a line of work rampant with hack jobs. It’s right there with Social Media in terms of how polluted and all over the place it is.
So how do you provide a trustworthy framework for training and testing for both SEO and Social Media? Am I just being naive in thinking either is possible? Are we stuck with this “wild west” mess for the next ten years? Is there no way to clean up this mess?
Messy?
Hola Olivier (and by default, everyone who’s still following this thread, besides me)
Thought of letting you know that y’all have inspired me to plunge headlong into the waters we are discussing.
As to help me stay afloat, here’s a tale that I think helps describe some of what’s being said here; hope it’s useful, at least in conceptual terms:
http://fjpalacio.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/constructively-speaking-a-nice-thread-on-social-media-certifications-via-unmarketing/#comment-129
“As this is now what for me 2010 is all about, thought about this ancient tale to bring perspective into our efforts to ‘hammer out’ a unified view; hope you both like it (and may tonight’s blue moon bring a lot of inspiration to everyone!)
The Buddha here tells the story of a king who had six blind men gathered together to examine an elephant.
“When the blind men had each felt a part of the elephant, the king went to each of them and said to each: ‘Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant
The six blind men assert the elephant is either like a pot (the blind man who felt the elephants’ head), wicket basket (ear), ploughshare (tusk), plough (trunk), granary (body), pillar (foot), mortar (back), pestle (tail) or brush (tip of the tail).
The men cannot agree with one another and come to blows over the question of what an elephant really is like, and this delights the king. The Buddha ends the story of the king and compares the six blind men to preachers and scholars who are blind and ignorant and hold to their own views: “Just so are these preachers and scholars holding various views blind and unseeing…. In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus.” The Buddha then speaks the following verse:
O how they cling and wrangle, some who claim
For preacher and monk the honored name!
For, quarreling, each to his view they cling.
Such folk see only one side of a thing.
Taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant
#Happy10!” (Palacio, 2009)(yeah, on the very last day with a shiny blue moon tonight!)
GREAT story!
What’s even cooler is that even before reading it, I came to a similar feeling about the state of 2009 (more bickering than collaboration) and wrote my first 2010 post about that. Funny how that works out.
Thanks so much for sharing that with me (us). I’ll be going back to this story a lot in the coming months. 🙂
@ OB et al.
U mean the Elephant? Cool… I think it summarizes a lot about human nature, yes – and the fortune we have today to enjoy so many tools and ways to ‘look’ at things from MANY perspective (i.e. post/threads like these)
Apropos, here’s a podcast that mentions it, as I was interviewed by a local Spanish-language Journalist, thought of sharing with the group.
Happy 2010!
#PBCC ‘Training Bites’ http://www.pbcc.edu/x15825.xml – #95CNCH http://bit.ly/8yc51S @CynthiaRoldan http://LaPalmaInteractivo.Com #LATISM
Cheer-ios!
… Podcast IS in English, BTW… hear away!
Gavin and Kristi, you’re both dead-on. Could we foresee a training course in Facebook Fan Page administration, with certification that a certain level of skill was acquired and demonstrated? Sure – and that would be useful. Social media analytics using a variety of platforms and up-to-date techniques? That would work. But certification in “social media”? What exactly does that mean? That’s trying to pin jello to the wall…
The rub is this. We’ll eventually have something in place and yes we do need something that gives everyone a firm footing or foundation to jump off from, but it’s not for Mari and Mark to create, determine, or profit from. That dollar amount is really really hard to digest, I’m sorry.
What would seem to make sense is some type of academic track. We have marketing 101- this is no different. To me it’s not so much about the why, the how and when as much it is about the, “by whom”.
Yeah. The “by whom” is definitely a really tough one: Who sets the standards and accreditation. Who develops and teaches the accreditation courses. How is any of that determined and by whom. This is absolutely crucial. You’re right to point out that this isn’t a free-for-all.
That’s why I suggested that perhaps we break up social media training into operational functions. The PR world already has standards. It already has academic tracks. It already has certifying mechanisms. So in that sense, the framework already exists. Universities and professional organizations already have boards and educators who could start looking into who is most qualified to start developing and teaching these types of programs.
This approach seems to be feasible… As opposed to a general “social media certification” which seems both pointless and impossible to ever properly define from a practical standpoint.
Excellent comment.
There is undoubtedly a market demand for an education in social media best practices. As a media relations professional with strong ties in higher-education, I see nothing wrong with offering someone who has the desire to learn more about any given topic the opportunity to do so. However, I agree with many of these comments regarding who should be offering the instruction.
I say let’s leave this to the free market. If a company wants to offer instruction on social media, it won’t take long for other organizations to follow. The lower-quality offerings will be left behind while the more reputable will achieve success.
Certifications in any industry should be granted by its governing body or by accredited higher-education institutions. I think that we all understand this point. It seems like the ethical thing here would be for any company offering instruction in social media best practices to call it exactly that- instruction.
It appears that UC Irvine and Drury U. are some that are already offering certifications. I am sure there must be others, too.
http://unex.uci.edu/certificates/business_mgmt/social_media/
http://www.drury.edu/multinl/story.cfm?ID=24068&NLID=246
“The ethical thing here would be for any company offering instruction in social media best practices to call it exactly that- instruction.”
Bingo. Unfortunately, not everyone in the social media pond is ethical. Hence the need for this discussion. 😉
One of the questions raised already deals with whom (at a university, for example) gets to teach and certify students in social media anything? UC Irvine abd Drury, for example: Who is developing and teaching these courses? What do they focus on? Are they simply theoretical courses taught by academics, or are they being developed and taught by (or with the collaboration) of experienced professionals in this particular field? (I need to look that up, so thanks for the links.)
Thank you very much for the comment.
Check out the faculty tab on our WordPress blog for information regarding the people developing and delivering our certification program at Drury University.
http://socialmediacertificate.net/?page_id=2
Also have a look at the tabs for Marketing, Media, Sociocultural, etc. to learn more about the program itself.
Thanks.
Oliver, thanks for bringing this topic to the forefront of discussion. I think your comments about proven experience vs certification are central to the question. Over the course of my training and marketing career, many certification programs sprung up but as a proven and veteran professional, it didn’t make sense to pay a third party to validate what I know. If you are a proven solo-preneur you may not need certification as much as someone seeking a position as a corporate social media professional – especially since so many companies are concerned about the regulatory and legal issues. In fact, I would think that any certification program would have a very healthy dose of legal curriculum. I’m looking forward to more of this stimulating discourse!
Jeanne, great of you to bring up the legal piece.
The FTC has very strict rules regarding social media-related activities now, as you well know. Most of the so-called “certification” programs I see popping up don’t address this at all. They are too concerned with teaching how to use software platforms to actually get into real best practices areas – practical ones with potentially serious ramifications.
I agree with everything you’re saying. Your distinction between solopreneurs and corporate social media professionals is well taken.
Thanks a bunch.
Oliver – that opening photo got me laughing so hard that I temporarily forgot what makes this discussion so important.
My instincts tell me that we’re too early in this whole game to really come out with solid certification processes.
Methodologies have been created but they haven’t been fully cemented yet. Many clients want “push” programs via social media. Many agencies look to hire a slew of interns to carry out the social media aspects of their offerings. Platforms and tools to promote, distribute, monitor, etc. emerge each week.
The problem is that, since clients want those inadvisable push type programs or that many agencies try to hand off efforts to those with little experience in brand or reputation management, bad practices are going to occur and it doesn’t matter what a slew of independent consultants (or some seasoned pros within some firms and companies) say in protest…unless there is, perhaps, some sort of body that is helping the steering of the ship.
But I still say it’s too early. As Jason Falls pointed out a couple of weeks ago, there still is a debate going on between the purist vs. pragmatist side. http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/2009/11/23/why-social-media-purists-wont-last/
Training for today? Yes. Certification? Not quite yet.
I completely agree: It is entirely too soon for certification.
It isn’t too soon to start building a framework for standards though, from which a workable certification mechanism could emerge. Now’s a good time for us to start looking onto ways of getting from theory to practice.
(Assuming accreditation and real certifications are even advisable.)
Thanks for the note. I’m glad the memory loss was only temporary. 😀
(Oops… it appears this turned into a rant.)
That social media people are even *talking* seriously about certification suggests to me that we’re taking ourselves far too seriously. A sizable portion of the socmed people I know lucked into it by knowing the tools early, not because they had a single bit of useful strategic instinct. (I do know some truly brilliant people in socmed, but almost all of them have training in communications or PR or are really really damned thoughtful.)
I can’t blame us for taking ourselves too seriously, after all, we live in the middle of a self-created echo chamber and most of what we hear is our own voices telling each other how awesome we are and how what we’re doing is changing business and changing the world. The vast majority of people and businesses out there aren’t so sold; look at how many people in our “profession” have to gerrymander strange and exotic metrics to justify their work and start to mutter about “intangible benefits” when asked about real return on investment. Early-adopter enthusiasm doesn’t always equal a real business case. For some, suggesting certification may be a way of legitimizing what outsiders see as oversold.
Also, in my experience, talk of certification is often less about quality control and more about protecting one’s interests and excluding others. It creates artificial (and often useless, as Roger suggests) barriers that keep the keen, creative, but resource-poor people out. Certification is almost always political, not pragmatic.
In summary, I think that the industry isn’t mature enough for certification and when it does get there, we need to be aware of the real motivations of some people pushing certification. (Not all, by all means, but it’s important to be aware.)
I like your style, Chris. 😀
As far as I am concerned, if there is a need for certification, it is purely about quality control. 100%.
But yeah, I definitely see your point: Certification is a cash cow. That opens up the potential for a lot of abuse, as we’re already beginning to see.
I agree with you that it’s too soon for any kind of certification dealing with Social Media. No question. But it isn’t too soon to start thinking about how a certification process of some sort might work further down the road when we get to a point where it makes sense – from a practical standpoint. If anything, from a quality control perspective. 😉
Great discussion here and as one who has managed and run certification programs, I have some different thoughts.
Typically, industry related certifications are required by government law (such as teaching certifications, which to Steve’s point, often have areas of specialties) or are maintained by an industry nonprofit trade association. In the nonprofit association world, we often call certification programs the golden handcuffs for industry professionals. Certification programs keep industry professionals coming back to the association, paying the association dollars to receive approved training and paying an annual fee to maintain their certification once received.
In addition, certification programs are often labor-intensive and expensive for associations and government entities to maintain. Certification programs and software such as certification databases are big business.
If the certification program is to receive the golden seal of approval that higher education institutions actually consider those courses for college credit, then, the certification program needs to get approval from another certification governing body – IACET (International Association For Continuing Education & Training). Yes, there is even an international association for certification programs.
IACET has already developed standards that address the processes for designing, developing, and delivering continuing education and training. Their standards apply across all disciplines, regardless of the content. Establishing the baseline content is a different story. There’s no need to recreate the development and delivery process. There is a need for an advisory board that uses a consensus based process to define basic content and ongoing content review.
Two closing thoughts:
1) Certifications do not speak to applied skills or experience. (How many certified doctors graduated at the top of their class?)
2) Certifications are of little value unless the public understands and accepts them.
Thanks for taking the time to post this comment. Solid information (and perspective), Jeff. You’ve just added a lot to this discussion.
Excellent discussion of the issue. Thank you for refocusing this conversation on the ideas and not specific people. I’m learning a lot from the discussion.
Overall, I’m all for the advancement of social media. If accreditation/certification can be handled by a generally accepted group of qualified individuals, I normally have no problem with it. But I would caution each of us to cast judgment over who is and isn’t qualified to provide such.
The world of social media is probably too young you have such an animal yet, but I don’t fault people for trying. There’s much debate and discussion in the industry these days about gurus and such, it might be a way to separate the quality. Of course, it won’t always work because some people (like me, for instance) will not likely pursue certification or accreditation and stand on their experience and track record.
Still, the efforts will happen and I embrace them to a certain degree. They didn’t kill off PR people, accountants, etc., etc. They won’t kill off good social media thinkers either. And certifications won’t replace college degrees or real world experience in employer’s or client’s minds. Long and short – I think we’re getting upset over something that isn’t that big of an issue in the long run, but it’s certainly worth discussing.
I’m glad the conversation has come back to a productive point here. Good work, Olivier.
Thanks for the comment.
The notion that the conversation surrounding this post is somehow more productive than the conversation surrounding my previous post is interesting since they focus on the exact same thing: Establishing best practices. Creating a legitimate certification mechanism for social media skillsets. Filtering out the snake oil. Same ideas. Yesterday we talked about the bad. Today we’re talking about the good. You can’t divorce one from the other.
Identifying bad practices is part of the process of creating best practices. Moreover, drawing a clear distinction between the two is crucial to creating a context through which certification and accreditation can gain legitimacy.
I don’t fault people for trying either. If they indeed try, as some do.
Forgive the metaphor, but selling a flimsy, patched-together official “certification” out of the trunk of your car isn’t exactly trying.
We can’t in one breath speak about creating a legitimate process, methodology and mechanism for accreditation in this space (ref: quality control), and in the other give carte blanche to every opportunistic shady outfit that jumps at the chance to make a quick buck off the backs of unsuspecting newbies, and then mask that behavior with “we’re just learning.”
If the space is still so young and we’re just learning, then we aren’t ready to teach it. And we certainly aren’t ready to certify anyone in it. Not you, not me, not Brogan, not Armano, not Godin, not Sernovitz. Nobody.
I only teach what I know, which is very specific. What I don’t know, I let people who know that teach it. As long as we stick to that minimum level of professional responsibility and ethical behavior, we’ll be fine and we’ll make good progress. Cutting corners to make a buck is simply not acceptable. Under any circumstances. Period.
Track records are about more than past client lists, completed projects and experience. They’re also about character. None of this works if some of us are willing to compromise our ethics every time there’s money to be made or power to be gained.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
“Excellent discussion of the issue. Thank you for refocusing this conversation on the ideas and not specific people. I’m learning a lot from the discussion.”
Disagree – this conversation was far more interesting when focused on specific people. There’s nothing wrong with that, and in fact from an industry perspective we should keep items focused on specific people and examples as it serves to crystallize the issue. The marketing industry too quickly drifts into abstraction versus the tech industry which does a pretty good job (think people like Mike Masnick and Michael Arrington) of showing examples.
Thanks, Adam. I don’t set out to damage people’s reputations or attack them personally – but I also find it difficult to separate people’s choices and level of involvement from the issues they themselves created. Abstraction is fine in some instances (like when discussing a hypothetical situation in a teaching environment), but when confronted with a real world case, ignoring its details to instead hide behind the safety of abstraction doesn’t seem to serve much of a purpose. And yes, I find that kind of distance dangerous.
Thanks for the comment, Adam.
You know how a lot of companies are able tell they have a kick ass manager or employee when they find one? Ability to adapt in a changing environment. For the past 100 years the roles of marketers, advertisers, product developers, and managers has been evolving with the use of new tools, strategies, and technologies. We didn’t have training or certification programs for every single new thing that came along, we stopped bitching and just got things done. Lots of entrepreneurs today never went to “startup” school and I don’t know anyone of them that got a “bootstrap your business” certification. This might be more of a personal viewpoint as opposed to a career one but I think many of the folks that should be leading companies in social business already exist. There’s a difference between finding the right people and breeding them. Smart marketers exist and they are already out there adapting, changing, and developing new strategies.
Wow. That was really good. Thanks, Jacob. I like that a lot.
Best certification you can get: go do something yourself and then show people that you did it.
Hi Olivier, this is a great perspective and the comments coming your way are really helping everyone get their arms around this subject. Since “Certification” means different things to different people, it’s hard to get a clear picture. It also depends on the “Official Status” of the certifying body. As an example, some “Certified” Accountants are certified through a specific program based on widely recognized accounting principles whereas others (i.e.: Chartered Accountants in Commonwealth countries) are certified by a governing body under specific governed rules of public audit. One (being the public auditor) is legally liable for their results and opinions whereas the other is not.
The key to regulated certification is the existence of standards that are widely accepted, can be measured and enforced. IMHO, since there are no Social Media enforceable standards, this kind of “Certification” is not and likely never will be possible.
Therefore, the only kind of “Certification” that is truly available is the “Certification” of passing a specific educational program thus taking us right back to the topic of your original blog and supported by Jeff Hurt’s post above. It’s a “Green Field” discussion and the result will be no different than discussing the merits of a Harvard verses Yale verses a general state university MBA. Which one is better or more effective for what purpose?
Very well put.
That’s as good an argument as I’ve heard yet. I can’t disagree with a single thing you just outlined.
Crap. I’m back at square one. Thanks a lot. 😀
Thanks Olivier! But, if this makes sense you’ve taken us way past square 1 and we can noww get to the reality of the issue and put it to bed once and for all. If you think I can add value in the process of defining the principles behind this, I’d love to get involved.
Coming from a Human Resources (hiring) background and a current college prof that teaches certification courses in the HR field, I always have an issue with the certifying body being the only one that teaches the certification courses.
To me the “association” should be the one grading external program curriculum’s to ensure they meet industry standards. Sure, CGA/CMA governing bodies offer the courses themselves, but they are only by choice, you’re not held to the “only taking the course through us will make you certified” method (not annual dues, that’s another blog post/story/rant on its own).
Also certification does not mean education to me. It means this person is capable of doing the work not just the theory, so a combination of taking accredited courses, along with practical experience or the very least, unbiased challenge exams to prove the knowledge should be mandatory.
Otherwise, you’re just offering a course.
That’s fair.
I’m diggin the operational function model Olivier! Great place to start and even move SM more into the core of those disciplines.
Thanks for this post!
Thanks. From the inside out, it makes more sense.
If you’re “selling” social media, of course, it looks odd.
But for those of us who actually integrate social media into organizations (as opposed to selling pre-packaged training and services) it’s pretty much the most painless way to actually move forward in a way that makes sense.
I wonder if I should take a few steps back and clarify (as Kris suggested) how Social Media plugs into an organization from an operational standpoint. Do I need to elaborate on what that looks like?
So if experience is preferred in the space (agreed?) compared to say someone with little/no experience graduating from a certification program… Then doesn’t a certification just become a sparkling badge of inexperience?
In any other marketing or creative industry, accreditation programs are not prevalent. Experience, portfolios, and word of mouth is relevant.
To me, accreditation is only needed in more technical fields. I can see more education being supplied through business and communication schools. And of course conferences are obviously booming as a first step for education.
That’s a good point. We could argue that a 24-year-old MBA from Harvard or USC also has in his/her hand a sparkling badge of inexperience. But at the very least, a certification program by an accredited body provides a framework of knowledge that can help accelerate the impact of experience (both future and already acquired).
A properly certified junior professional will be better equipped to adapt to a new career that touches Social Media than say, someone who received no formal training whatsoever.
When I graduated from the Fusiliers Marins’ officer training program with no practical experience, all I had was a gold bar on my arm and the authority to screw up a mission. But the months of intense training and preparation that I received, the rigorous testing, the fact that I made it through the program prepared me to turn every ounce of operational experience that came in my first few months into razor-sharp skills, knowledge and insights into my job.
Training (and the certification process that guarantees that the training was thorough) creates a framework that gives experience shape, direction, and purpose.
Mid-career or pre-career. That framework makes a huge difference.
(Thanks to Scott for Tweeting about this… even if it was about a typo!… seems like a Pow-Wow by now!)
If I may?
One, I took the time (and even took out a Student Loan) to get my MCP/MCSA certifications… and spend a year at New Horizons, learning HALF of what I did not know (which we usually DON’T KNOW, right?) about the whole Microsoft environment… got a few sneers from some peers, but I’m sure that the GE HR DB also got enough hits out of my resume to help me land my last job… are they valuable? I don’t think that’s in doubt, but I just wanted to remind myself (and whoever read this) that along with Microsoft’s, a peek at the Test Taking site (Thompson-Prometric) allowed one to see that a whole industry was sitting on those servers…
Two, as to certifying bodies and standards: I am a certified PADI Divemaster… why? ‘cuz I follow the PADI standards… and again, SAME scenarios (of plain subjectivity, a human frailty we all seem to be afflicted with – and which also allows for varied offerings to compete in an open market, as Ruth pointed out earlier) where we’d have “pissing contests” between the old salts who thought that PADI was ‘bad’ because of a few feet, a few atmospheres, and whatever other differences they could find, just to validate that ‘theirs’ (meaning such other bodies like NAUI, SSI, etc) was ‘better’…
This being a blog about brands, I can easily foresee a combination of what y’all are talking about, and a future mature industry where different ‘venues’ are offered, as in the end, just as I mentioned earlier, these kind of discussions are sure to ‘chum up the waters’ and bring in the apex predators… the ones with the cash and the stamina to aggregate and catalyze these divergent dialectics into a marketable product that allows, much like y’all have posted, for individuals to “highlight” their abilities (not that they prove anything, yes, as I’ve also seen ‘certified’ IT pros whose personal proclivities left for a lot of room for doubt as to their professionalism) and for companies to ‘segregate’ those whose desire for continuing education (that old process of learning AND unlearning that keeps some of us afloat in these raging labor markets) at least validates their desire to find a way to make it, whether by mere training attendance, or by coagulating what they ‘knew’ from first hand experience, into yet another piece of paper on the proverbial bragger wall.
Greed and other base values will take care of the rest, as this nascent industry matures and gains the recognition it deserves from those we so desperately try to evangelize as to its existence.
A Lifelong Learner – and Unlearner
Excellent comment! Thank you for taking the time to write all that.
I really like the PADI certification reference, by the way. I was certified in France by the FFESSM, so I completely get what you’re talking about.
I’m actually not averse to competition between certifying bodies, as long as (for now, at least) we start talking about standards, process and legitimizing a certification mechanism. We’ll deal with pissing contests when we get there. 😉
Thanks a bunch for your comment.
Glad you found the PADI example useful; as many may also vouch for, the balance between them, the actual ‘industry’ (equipment manufacturers, hospitality industry, etc) and the diving community, as you point out, it’s definitely ‘symbiotic’ – and allows for choices, regardless of how one may subjectively feel attached to the brand.
Bottom line? those certification bodies, IMHO, have found a way to deploy the “Franchisor-Franchisee” relationship in most of its practical modes – minus the costly overhead of governmental regulation.
And as to competition per se? that’s actually what makes everything around us improve, so like you said, the actual emotional sides, are somehow irrelevant – except where they are measured, tracked and embodied in the continuous upgrades they have to submit to their customer base… which when translated to the something as intrinsically IT-ish as these new Media environs, well, also makes one’s head spin as to the total ‘headcounts’ required – which is good news to everyone, I assume?
Looking forward – and thanks for getting this conversation started!
Olivier?
All these comments got some of us going; here’s the FB Group Page where we’re discussing some of the issues highlighted here.
Thought I’d let you know:
http://Groups.To/CMAC
Cheers…
Not even sure that it’s too early for some kind of…let’s say “validation” process for social media. Yes, it’s true that there aren’t any academic experts in the area, but part of the appeal of social media is that it is about experience rather than studying. There are enough experiential social media experts to work through the process of creating a training and/or certification program. Of course, corporate and government entities in need of social media services would probably have to demand certification before social media consultants/agencies/contractors were able to supply it.
Another reason that it’s not too early for certification is that many companies don’t understand what social media is, let alone understand how to use it. Therefore, when they go looking for an individual to help them apply social media to their business, they may end up with an IT person who understands the technical aspects of social media but not necessarily the business applications the way a manager would. I’ve seen social media programs fail because they were applied incorrectly, which usually makes an organization lose support for the concept of “that whole internet thing”. Managers right now need the right kinds of folks to educate them about social media and it’s applications, not “eventually”
Yeah. It’s kind of a chicken vs. egg problem right now, isn’t it.
And you may be right: By the time we get around to getting certs right (assuming we ever do), it will probably be too late. All of this will have become moot.
Good points. You’re making me think.
Hi,
I couldn’t let this excellent debate take place without one of the ‘certified’ bodies mentioned making a comment.
The ACCA (Association of Certified Chartered Accountants) has regulatory status conferred on it, along with 4 other UK chartered accountancy bodies by the UK government and is regulated by the Financial Reporting Council.
The International Federation of Accountancy bodies (IFAC) comprises 158 national accountancy bodies and helps co-ordinate global best practice.
In the Public Relations sector, which in the UK has a members’ association of around 9,000 (the Chartered Institute of Public Relations) there is no independent regulator. It sets it’s own standards, which is why some 40,000 PR sector workers in the UK aren’t members as they don’t see the point.
Unless and until a certifying body has legal status and acceditation it’s my view that the barriers to entry in most member regulated bodies are so low they’re not worth joining.
I’ve been a member of the CIPR for over 10 years to set a good example to my staff that CPD (continuous professional development) is important, to keep one’s skills up to date.
Perhaps conferring certified status is a next logical step in trying to establish standards amogst social media consultants, but it will only be worth having if the CPD courses that the certifying body insists upon are worthwhile, and an independent record kept of attendees.
I hope this helps? I’d be happy to discuss this further with anyone, if interested?
Best wishes,
Clive Booth FCIPR FRSA
Director – Public Affairs and Media Relations
ACCA (Association of Chartered certified Accountants)
29 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London
WC2A 3EE
United Kingdom
tel: +44 (0) 20 7059 5511
mob: +44 (0) 7912 774053
Twitter: Clive Booth
Addressing the challenges of the global economy – learn more at http://www.accaglobal.com
I love what you have to say about CPD. I agree completely. The idea of taking a course, getting a certification, and never giving it another thought is pretty counterproductive to the whole idea. A certification – if indeed one is needed – should have to remain current in order to remain valid.
“Unless and until a certifying body has legal status and accreditation, it’s my view that the barriers to entry in most member regulated bodies are so low they’re not worth joining” pretty much says it all.
Cheers, Clive.
Hola Clive
Definitely agree with 99.999% of what you said (that .001?… what I may not be privy to in terms of PR, CPA’s and UK’s markets! – which you superbly explained!)
As I mentioned to Oliver earlier (Yeah, like a second ago) some of us are trying to work in the direction you mention; hence, as you yourself stated: “I’d be happy to discuss this further with anyone, if interested?” lettin’ you know about where we are, publicly in Facebook.
http://groups.to/CMAC
Hope it’s worth your while
I shall also add you to my Twitter, and hopefully, we can also meet on LinkedIN and Facebook itself.
Sincerely,
@FJPalacio
Clive?
Can’t get to your Handle by searching for either:
Clive_Booth nor CliveBooth
Hope you can find me so we can start dialoguing over there
Cheers…
@FJPalacio
http://twitter.com/FJPalacio
Love this debate. I also feel that the APR model that the PRSA offers may be a good one to follow if and when certification seems like something that has value beyond a few people just hungry for a piece of paper. Thanks for wading into this Olivier!
Thanks. 🙂
Nothing will ever replace doing one’s homework on consultants and vendors; certification rarely protects a business from anything.
There may be something, someday, here to be certified, but it probably has more to do with group dynamics than with the axis of marketing principles and communication technology. It is worth re-posting a link someone offered on the previous thread to an illuminating speech by Clay Shirky (http://www.shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html) who makes the case that what is truly unique and new about Internet communication is the advent of group dynamics on a massive scale. Perhaps if the term “social engineering” hadn’t already been claimed as a methodology for compromising security, it might have been a useful phrase for the purposes being discussed here.
Certifying what social media is right now will be useless to the generation that grows up with these tools. But they will still need to learn the business practices that have long been associated with education, training — and certification.
Pow: “They will still need to learn the business practices.”
That’s exactly it, yes.
I’m totally fine with training certifications that stipulate that you attended training, and passed a test to ensure you weren’t on your iphone the whole time. (disclosure: I’m launching a series of social media training workshops with MarketingProfs soon).
This is similar to the continuing education model that is familiar to folks in law, accounting, medicine and financial planning. It is not similar to accreditation. There’s a big difference between passing the bar exam, and taking a brush-up course once you’ve passed.
Second, while I clearly understand (and hope to profit from) people’s interest in learning more about social media, I’m somewhat uncomfortable with the siloing and king-making that’s going on across-the-board.
To be truly effective, social media must be integrated with existing marketing efforts. How does social work with SEO, email, print, radio, TV, direct mail, and customer service? To me, that’s where we’ll find the real successes from an ROI perspective.
Most of these “learn how to be a social media professional” manifestations are counter to the spirit of marketing integration. I’d rather see a “be a marketing professional that understands how, why, when and where to use social media, and how to measure results of those labors” session – and that’s what I’m trying to do.
“To be truly effective, social media must be integrated with existing marketing efforts. How does social work with SEO, email, print, radio, TV, direct mail, and customer service? To me, that’s where we’ll find the real successes from an ROI perspective.”
Exactly. It’s always been an integration piece.
“Most of these “learn how to be a social media professional” manifestations are counter to the spirit of marketing integration.”
Agreed again.
Thanks, Jay.
This whole thing is so incredibly bothersome simply because there is no training program that could possibly guarantee competency in using social media tools to help businesses use them to market and communicate effectively.
I see so many people, and businesses for that matter, simply playing with tools. Just because you can create a Facebook fan page and learn to not be a link-baiting spammer does not make you a successful marketer and communicator in online channels and social networks — it just means you know how to make a Facebook page and play around online without being a jerk (maybe).
Bottom line for me is that while social media competence in business can help you jump gates in jobs, position, clients… it isn’t THE magic bullet someone can use to make a career out of thin air — you have to have some real skills (not aptitude, but real skills) in other areas to begin with i.e. web development, SEM, SEO, web-based communications, analytics and marketing in general — even better if it’s a combination of at least a couple of those things.
I understand the need for standards in any industry, but I think some people are too fast to pull the trigger because they’re hoping to make money off the people who are only in this because they smell a trend.
It seems to me that plenty of people are doing some really interesting and important work with social media without worrying about any type of certification.
I worry more about programs these so-called certification programs positioning themselves as legit to governing bodies and financial aid boards who don’t know any better — the notion that tax-payer dollars could one-day be footing the bill for this sort of thing really scares the crap out of me.
“I worry more about programs these so-called certification programs positioning themselves as legit to governing bodies and financial aid boards who don’t know any better — the notion that tax-payer dollars could one-day be footing the bill for this sort of thing really scares the crap out of me.”
The first part of that is a fear I share as well. The part about financial aid fraud hadn’t even occurred to me. You’ve just uncovered a whole new layer of sleaze to this whole thing. That’s really awful. (Not you. Them.)
Great to hear your position on this, Shannon. We agree. Thanks for your comment. 🙂
I’m having a bit of a philosophical debate with myself (ha) about this really interesting topic. The clincher for me has to do with two comments specifically:
1) Steve Dodd – “The key to regulated certification is the existence of standards that are widely accepted, can be measured and enforced. IMHO, since there are no Social Media enforceable standards, this kind of “Certification” is not and likely never will be possible.”
2) Jacob Morgan – “Best certification you can get: go do something yourself and then show people that you did it.”
So while it might appear that certification might be useful, as you say, for employers/companies who are hiring, I think that it actually is at odds with what social media is about – at its very core – namely the power of the groundswell to shape the outcomes they want. Or in other words businesses handing over control of their broadcast message and engaging in two-way conversation instead. The reason this is fundamentally incompatible with certification has to do with Steve’s point – that there are no enforceable standards. I’d go further and say that this is a good thing and there should NEVER be ENFORCEABLE standards, or even best practices, because the whole point is that this is an organic, constantly – and very quickly – evolving shift in how people communicate and how businesses do their business. Best practices? Yuck!!!
Of course there are good vs bad, legitimate vs snake-oily, value-providing vs bandwagon jumping ways to use social media – but (and call it the wild west if you want) there’s no RIGHT way. There’s no ENFORCEABLE right way. That’s the myth of control rearing its ugly head again.
The second point, illustrated by Jacob’s comment, has to do with the fact that social media expertise does NOT come from training in tactics and tools – it comes from LEARNING BY DOING. It comes from long-term community building. I’d argue that nothing you could learn in a certification course is relevant to true expertise in social media. We say it all the time – it’s not about the tools. It’s about communication with stakeholders, it’s about nurturing communities, wherever they may be. Sure there’s some strategic understanding of how these things work that could be taught, but really, bottom line, what you need to know you can’t train for in the hypothetical (or even in real life in the short term). A case study does not make a community.
Does this make sense?
It makes perfect sense. And I agree with all of it. Friday, when I wrote my previous post, I actually stated that certification in Social Media dosn’t make a whole lot of sense… but after reading the comments, I starting to wonder… okay, what if?
The way I see certification becoming necessary: Quality control. That’s it. Quality control. Creating a mechanism to combat the dozens, if not hundreds of bogus associations already starting to offer official sounding certifications. Maybe if we ignore these hacks, they will go away, but I don’t think that’s the case.
The way I see certification being helpful: By providing a framework for standards and best practices. Nothing can replace experiences, but that doesn’t mean we can’t train people to create an operational framework for how they will apply social media to their job function.
The way I see certification making sense: Letting each profession develop its own standards and best practices (as opposed to trying to batch all social media functions into some weird kind of hybrid “social media specialist” training and certification). In other words, let the PR industry certify PR professionals in the use and integration of Social Media best practices in Public Relations.
Am I advocating any of this? Yes. No. Perhaps. I don’t really know. I’m asking you guys. 😉
Thanks, Maddie.
I see your point, but here’s the thing – even if each industry develops its own set of best practices and certifications, that does not stop the hacks from setting up their own random catch-all certifications.
It reminds me of what we say to organizations worried about negative (and specifically incorrect) comments – the best way to get rid of them is to drown them out with good information. Shouldn’t we be doing exactly that too? So in other words we can’t stop “bogus” associations and certifying bodies forming, but over the long term, even if they make some money out of it and some people get jobs out of it, they are not sustainable, as either people realize that their bogus qualifications are not actually empowering them to do a good job, or the companies they are working for realize that the people they hired based on those qualifications are not providing the business results they were hired for…
Of course the people who stand to lose are those companies that hire purely based on bogus qualifications, and those people that spend their money on getting bogus qualifications, but if we trust in the transparency that social media demands, and if we trust in the continuous iterative learning that social media inspires (collective intelligence/wisdom of the crowds etc etc), then maybe the best will rise to the top regardless.
I guess I also still have a fundamental problem with the idea of “best practices” in a field that changes all the time by its very nature. In a field that is organic by nature. Knowing how certification programs are created, and specifically the time that that takes, I think the whole field moves too fast for any set of best practices (even divided up by industry) to ever take hold before being immediately outdated and potentially irrelevant.
Fair enough. Thanks again. 🙂
OMG enjoyed reading your blogpost. I submitted your feed to my blogreader.
First of all, can I just say I’m proud to know Maddie Grant and Jeff Hurt and glad they’re both adding their awesomeness to this discussion?
Great post–this one and the last one on this subject–and kudos to you for bringing this issue to light and hopefully at least planting the seeds of doubt in people’s minds about the notion that one universally-acceptable, legitimate “social media certification” would ever be an enduring or legitimate credential? To me, the very idea that just by being able to add the words “certified social media” anything to your resume and thereby adding any real credibility to your skills is laughable. As long as such certification is available to anyone who’s willing to pay the asking price, it is and will remain meaningless.
Thanks, Maggie. Unfortunately, you know… people fall for that. Especially HR departments. So… creating a legit certification mechanism might help weed out the bad ones. Maybe. Even if it’s just a little bit.
Or maybe it’s just a really stupid idea. I don’t know.
Thanks for the comment. 🙂
Oliver, I thank you for starting this fascinating and important discussion about certification. I’m chiming in as a specialist in maintaining high quality certification programs. The reason I believe this discussion is critical is the need to “protect the public.” I agree there needs to be a way as you said, of “creating a mechanism to combat the dozens, if not hundreds, of bogus associations already starting to offer official sounding certifications.”
One mechanism the Conference for Food Protection uses is to maintain their own standards for certification programs and require accreditation. In 2004, the Conference for Food Protection developed Standards for accreditation of food protection manager certification programs. The Conference for Food Protection only recognizes programs accredited to these standards by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
Another similar method used by some large organizations (like the Department of Defense and many state governments) is to only recognize and pay for certifications that are accredited to ISO 17024 or NCCA standards. (The two most frequently used standards in the United States for certification programs are the International standard ISO/IEC 17024 conformity assessment–general requirements for bodies operation certification of persons and the National Commission for Certifying Agencies Standards for the Accreditation of Certification Programs.)
Many of the programs that have been described in comments sound more like certificate programs (training with a certificate of completion) than certification programs. Two accreditation services for certificate programs are just beginning, offered by ANSI and NCCA.
The social media community could do a great service by requiring these accreditations of any group claiming to provide either a certification or a certificate and educating the public to the possible bogus claims of organizations without accreditation. Would this be feasible?
Thank you. I used to work for a company that manufactured products for the foodservice industry, so I am familiar with ANSI. Maybe that’s why were kind of on the same page about this. Protecting the public – and in this case, unsuspecting companies – from what basically amounts to either the worst possible business practices or in some cases outright fraud is paramount. Agreed.
Cheers.
Cool
Last night I actually attended a heavy-duty group of techies (#WebMondays, led by @AGuyOnClematis) and I had to present on the initiative.
We got a crowd just as polarized as some; best part?
Wife was there too, and pitched in about the CPA Certification process – and the fact that these things require patience, collaboration, and as you say “Protecting the public – and in this case, unsuspecting companies – from what basically amounts to either the worst possible business practices or in some cases outright fraud is paramount. Agreed.” (Blanchard, 2009)
Will this happen overnight? I doubt it… is it BOUND to happen?… Everytime we all get a free plug about a company/brand coming ‘onboard’ with SM… well, a few more ears are bound to hear – including already established governmental groups.
Is this a field worth regulating?
Ask @TedMurphy from #IZEA whether or not #WOMMA Compliance is key to his success; after all, it was a matter hotly debated with the actual FTC (Yup, as in FEDERAL Trade Commission)
… and as soon as we all start proving there’s a way to be in the black in this ‘biz’… [CHUCKLES…]
So like you said on an earlier tweet “Better Late Than Never” right?
Ci vedeamo
Cheryl Wild wrote:
“The social media community could do a great service by requiring these accreditations of any group claiming to provide either a certification or a certificate and educating the public to the possible bogus claims of organizations without accreditation. Would this be feasible?”
Right now I’d say that it isn’t feasible. The social media community is not an organized or semi-organized body. There are no real set standards. As Al Gore once said, there’s no “controlling legal authority”.
It’s too new as a discipline. It crosses other different disciplines and practices. It’s methodologies haven’t been solidified. It’s having new tools emerge weekly that affect it.
It’s, yeah, the Wild West. Hence programs like the one we’re talking about.
Olivier – Once again you open a conversation that is a lightning rod – though this time it seems that the electricity is flowing in the most positive manner possible.
As I mentioned in your earlier post, I am the CEO of an organization called the Social Media Marketing Institute, whose mission is to teach small business owners and professionals how to engage in social media in a responsible, ethical, and effective manner. We have trained people all over the country through not only this course, but through presentations and seminars in front of small businesses, professionals, trade organizations and even an agency of the Federal Government.
Our course is an intensive two day course facilitated by live instructors with a number of different learning modalities to assist students in learning effectively (since different people learn better in different ways, some aurally, some visually, some through interaction etc.). The course was designed over a period of months, given to a trial class, reviewed by our advisory board, ripped apart and put back together in its current form.
The course covers a lot of material, and was developed over a substantial period of time by social media practitioners and people experienced in adult education. The course covers things that are “old hat” to professional marketers like the Cluetrain Manifesto, Groundswell, The Long Tail, and more recent books like The Whuffie Factor, Trust Agents, etc. but though these things are basic to professional marketers, they are new to many people who own small businesses or operate professional practices.
We also cover things like ethics, blogging policies, copyright, fair use, permission based marketing and much much more.
At the end of our two day course (which costs a total of $299 and includes the first year dues to SMMI) the student takes a comprehensive test, and upon passing is granted the “Certified Social Media Marketer” Designation. Use of the designation is conditioned upon continued membership in good standing in the Institute and compliance with its ethical standards. It is our hope that the members of the group will develop into a community that benefits its members through the exchange of ideas and programs that benefit each other and the communities that they belong to.
Though the conversation about social media is often held by professionals in PR and marketing, one of the core concepts is the democratization of the publishing process. With that democratization comes a need for the individual who is not a professional marketer to learn how to be effective, genuine, and responsible as a member of the evolving community – and it is to that end that we are working.
People like you, Valeria Meltoni , Beth Harte, Jason Falls, Chris Brogan, and so many others do awesome work and are examples we discuss in our course, but not every one is in a position to hire a professional PR person or marketer. Even so, they can certainly learn the importance of reputation management, monitoring and measurement for their business – understand the concepts of social capital, social objects, social contracts, and social proof, and how they affect their business and their community’s perception of their products or services. And that is the gap we aim to fill.
We are not industry or profession specific however – While I do believe that elements of the conversation in each industry differs as do the concerns of people in that industry, most of the core concepts of social media interaction remain the same, and we propose to have each vertical represented and industry specific modifications made to our curriculum as needed.
So I think we meet the criteria mentioned earlier in a positive manner about most professional certifications of designations – We offer a specific course of study, require completion of a test, continued membership and adherence to our standards of practice. And we are clear, to ourselves and our students that their completion of the course is the start of a journey to improve their skills at communicating with their desired community.
I think that there is a desire and need for this sort of course, (and even for the designation). I would invite anyone who has a concern about the material to observe the course. I believe that they would be favorably impressed, and I would certainly welcome their constructive feedback.
Thanks again for providing a forum for discussion.
Excellent site. Have you been in Quality Assurance for awhile? What do you make of Microsoft’s Alan Page and others writing essays about how they improve software? I heard a presentation by Page a couple years ago about large-scale automation, very interesting stuff. Visit my site if you’d like to read more.
[…] Oliver Blanchard followup – Let’s get constructive about the future of Social Media Certifications […]
[…] themselves an expert or Guru, if they choose to. Oliver Blanchard (theBrandBuilder) weighted in recently on certifications for Social Media which matches what I feel – while Web Analytics could be […]
[…] Oliver Blanchard followup – Let’s get constructive about the future of Social Media Certifications […]
[…] for daring to claim the legitimacy to offer a social media certification. Blanchard, to his credit, turned the kerfuffle into something constructive – and his post lays out the issues brilliantly. It has already become a great starting point […]
… and yeah, Podcast is IN english, don’t worry! [CHUCKLES!]
I’m not sure I agree with PRSA or AMA certifying people in social media. I mean, whose going to train those people within PRSA and AMA to make them able to certify others? Won’t there need to be some over-riding social media accreditation body which then filters down to different areas? Maybe if something like Social Media Club becomes large enough? I’m not sure but its got me thinking…
Good questions. I don’t know. But at least, I believe that AMA would take this a little more seriously than some made-up outfit. 😉 All in all, though, I’m still pretty unsure about any kind of overarching certification for Social Media. The space is too complex, too broad… Right now, the only thing I see working well are a) certifications based on platform/software expertise (very much in the way that Microsoft doles out certifications), and b) internal certifications (companies creating their own internal certification programs tailored to their own needs). I guess for now, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens… and proceed with caution.
Thanks for the comment. 🙂
[…] the other hand, there are those who feel social media is too young a field to have certification – one being TheBrandBuilder – since it’s not clear what best practices are in […]
I’m not likely to say what everybody else has already said, but I really do wish to comment on your comprehension of the topic. You’re really well-informed. I cant think just how much of this I merely wasnt conscious of. I appreciate you for bringing much more info to this topic for me. Im really grateful and truly impressed.
I’m new to the group and you all have seemed to have thought about this a lot.
If you don’t mind one more thought, I would say we create certifications to protect ourselves. It makes sense for electricians, architects, doctors and such.
But I get the feeling … a true sense … that many of you feel social media and even commercial SM is still an art form. As SEO evolves into figuring out what people appreciate and how they would like to be approached in their shopping and buying experience it more like just one more step in the art of advertising,
There’s been art since man first scratched on the wall of a cave ,,, and we are just embracing a new media form. Some of the best art you’ll see is made by highly uneducated kids with spray paint cans..
I write … I wrote a book for my daughter … and I’ve written countless commercial collateral materials … I wrote to my Dad who is dead, but I think he liked it. Does anyone really think I need certification?
We are artists for now, let’s hold on to that as long as we can. I don’t want to go through some analystic committees’ gauntlet to craft my ideas. I enjoy the challenge of easing keywords with a subtleness that doesn’t slap a customer across the face. I admit that Content in the commercial world may go through some effectiveness testing. So A/B your ass off. Come back to me and we’ll work it out. It’s all a simple exercise in bodhicitta … and we can all use that.
Sorry for the diatribe …
I’m Murray Johnston