Course Information

  • Course Fee:

    $199

  • Free Demo

    Start Learning

  • Skill Level:

    Intermediate

  • Class Duration:

    3:30H

Course Introduction

By taking this course you’ll develop foundational social marketing skills to grow followers, engagement, and business results.

Designed and produced in consultation with social media marketing strategists and practitioners, our industry-recognized Social Media Marketing Certification Course give marketers practical skills they can implement and start seeing results right away.

Course Curriculum

  1. Chapter 1: Social Media Strategy

    Chapter Level: Introductory

    In the first chapter of the course, we focus on the foundation of any successful social media business: A social media strategy. You'll learn how to set realistic goals, meaningful objectives and tactics that directly support them.

    Take the Course

    Chapter 1 Overview

    Lesson 1: Building a Social Media Strategy
    1.1 Essential Elements of a Social Media Strategy
    1.2 Strategic Policy Documents
    1.3 Setting Up Roles and Responsibilities for your Team
    1.4 Conducting a Social Media Audit

    Lesson 2: Setting Strategic Goals

    2.1 Understanding Goals and Objectives

    Lesson 3: Social Media Tactics

    3.1 Introduction to Social Media Tactics
    3.2 Paid, Owned, and Earned Media
    3.3 Choosing the Right Channels for your Ecosystem
    3.4 Planning for Measurement and Reporting

    Lesson 4: Community Management Strategy 

    4.1 Identifying Your Brand Voice
    4.2 Campaign Planning
    4.3 Implementing Social Media Governance
    4.4 Creating a Crisis Management Plan for Social Media
    4.5 Responding to a Crisis with Social Media
    4.6 Spotting and Avoiding Misinformation on Social

  2. Chapter 2: Social Media Content Marketing

    Chapter Level: Intermediate

    This chapter will show the importance of posting the right content on your social media account. By the end of the chapter, you'll know what a successful content strategy looks like, how to establish content pillars, use different formats, and deliver it all to your audience.

    Take the Course

    Chapter 2 Overview

    Lesson 1: Creating Content for Social Media
    1.1 Components of a Content Strategy
    1.2 Expert Series: Brayden Cohen: Content Planning
    1.3 Establishing Content Pillars

    Lesson 2: Content Curation and Creation
    2.1 Social Content Curation vs Creation 
    2.2 How to Curate External Content (with your own perspective)
    2.3 SEO, Meta-Data, and Showing up on Social 
    2.4 How the Hootsuite Social Team Creates Content 

    Lesson 3: Publishing Best Practices
    3.1 How to Determine your Posting Schedule and Frequency
    3.2 Building an Evergreen Content Library
    3.3 Creating Video For Social
    3.4 Expert Series with Machenzie Mowat: Vertical Video
    3.5 Expert Series: Hootsuite’s TikTok Content Strategy with Eileen Kwok
    3.6 Creating a Content Calendar and Using it Effectively
    3.7 Appricotton Case Study

  3. Chapter 3: Inclusivity and Accessibility on Social Media

    Chapter Level: Intermediate

    This chapter focuses on the importance of incorporating diversity, equity and inclusion into your socials. You'll hear from experts explaining what DEI and accessibility are and what they look like in social media marketing. You'll leave this chapter with the foundational knowledge you need to launch an inclusive social media marketing program.

    Take the Course

    Chapter 3 Overview

    Lesson 1: DEI and Accessibility on Social
    1.1 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility on Social Media
    1.2 Expert Series with Danielle Windecker : DEI and social
    1.3 Expert Series with Kerri Howell: Accessibility on social
    1.4 How to Create an Inclusive Brand on Social with Jade Prichette


  4. Chapter 4: Building a Social Media Community

    Chapter Level: Intermediate

    In this chapter, we'll talk about the steps you can take to build, grow and maintain a thriving social media community across all your social channels. We'll also talk about bringing in external support, AKA Influencers, to support your efforts and help you reach your objectives.

    Take the Course

    Chapter 4 Overview

    Lesson 1: Community Building Fundamentals
    1.1 Community Building Fundamentals
    1.2 The Brand Benefits of an Engaged Community
    1.3 Best Practices for Growing Community Across Channels

    Lesson 2: Getting started with an influencer marketing strategy
    2.1 The Brand Benefits of Working with Influencers
    2.2 Understanding Different Types of Influencers
    2.3 Creating an Influencer Marketing Program
    2.4 Tracking the Success of Your Influencer Program
    2.5 Expert Series with Vicky Rutwind: Building a Social Media Community

  5. Chapter 5: Measuring Success

    Chapter Level: Advanced

    This chapter is all about metrics. By the end, you'll know how to calculate metrics that matter to your brand the most, how to build a social media report, and how best to present that report for stakeholder buy-in.

    Take the Course

    Chapter 5 Overview

    Lesson 1: The Basics of Social Media Analytics
    1.1 Social Media Metrics you Should Know
    1.2 How to Build a Social Media Report
    1.3 Using Data to get Stakeholder Buy-In
    1.4 Expert Series with Anabel Blesch: How to Calculate your ROI for Social Media

  6. Social Marketing Certification Exam

    Included in purchase

    Take our exam now to earn your official certification—proving your expertise to employers and clients.

    Get Certified


    Or learn more about Social Marketing Certification

What you get with your Hootsuite Social Media Marketing Certification

  • Industry-recognized certification that demonstrates your expertise with the essential elements of social marketing to clients and employers.
  • A permanent online certificate to showcase your digital expertise that you can link to from your blog, website, or any other online profile.

How to get your Hootsuite Social Media Marketing Certification

Get your Hootsuite Social Media Marketing Certification by passing a 60-question online exam,  testing your knowledge of the core principles of social media marketing.

The exam is based exclusively on the Social Media Marketing training videos in this course - which cover everything from creating a social media strategy and optimizing profiles to social content marketing and audience building.


Frequently Asked Questions

$199 USD.

No. Once you pass the exam, the certification is yours forever.

The Social Media Marketing Certification tests your knowledge of the core principles of social media marketing. The Hootsuite Platform Certification demonstrates your knowledge of the Hootsuite dashboard. While different, the two certifications are complementary. Having skills (and credentials) in both strategy and the Hootsuite platform can accelerate your career.

The exam is based on Hootsuite’s online Social Media Marketing Training course that covers the fundamentals of social marketing. We recommend reviewing the course before attempting the exam.

60-question timed online exam.

The minimum passing grade for the exam is 80%

You’ll have 60 minutes to complete the 60-question exam.

No. You can take the exam as many times as necessary until you pass, at no extra cost.

Yes. If you’re confident in your social media marketing skills, you can go straight to the certification exam.

The Hootsuite Academy team creates exams following established instructional design best practices. More information can be seen here.