SMS Certification Prep Course

Description

NISM Hosted Certification Prep (online) – 6 Week Online Course

Does your marketing team need a competitive edge? Are you a social media consultant looking for ways to stand out from the competition? Are you teaching social media, marketing, or market research courses and looking for cutting-edge, strategic professional development?

The NISM Social Media Strategy Certification (SMS) prep course is the ideal solution for anyone looking to advance their skills as a social media marketing professional.

This 100% online class includes 6 hours of one-on-one tutoring with our NISM-Certified Instructors.  Access the SMS course material on your time and at your own pace with 3 months access to the online study materials.  Then take advantage of 6 hours of one-on-one training with a designated instructor.

An electronic version of the Comprehensive Field Guide for Social Media Strategists is included in the cost of this course. Upon registration, students will receive a 20% discount code if they’d like to purchase a paperback version of the book.

It is recommended that students study one content domain weekly and follow steps in the online classroom.

• Listening to a recorded lecture that covers the specific core learning objectives associated with the content domain.
• Reading the weekly assignments from the course textbook, the Comprehensive Field Guide for Social Media Strategists (included in course costs).
• Reviewing specific platform content as needed. Though not covered on the exam, one social media tool will be available in the online classroom for review.
• Schedule time with your NISM Instructor to review any questions/material that you have questions about.

Each student is also given access to two (2) online practice exams to be completed on their own schedule. These practice tests will highlight which areas they should focus on before their scheduled exam if any additional preparation is needed.

What’s covered in the SMS prep course?

The primary goal of the SMS prep course is to guide students through the six content domains covered on the SMS exam. Students are encouraged to explore topics they are less familiar with in greater detail in the course, working directly with the instructor to ensure they have a full understanding of each content domain.

Additionally, participants will have the opportunity to explore social media management tools like Buffer and Hootsuite, along with advertising guidelines for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Though the technical skills covered in these portions of the course are not explored on the SMS exam, previous students have found reviewing the platforms to be helpful when learning social media terminology and in considering how strategic concepts could be applied.

The core learning objectives for each of the six content domains include but are not limited to:

Strategic Planning

• Analyzing organizations, markets, and competitors through Segment, Target, and Positioning (STP) analysis
• Creating and monitoring social media goals, including Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Research and Analysis

• Measure the impact of social media activity.
• Determine value and report social media activities.

Project Management

• Auditing individual social media platforms as well as organizations’ comprehensive digital presence.
• Managing culture to facilitate social media adoption.

Marketing and Communications

• Developing a social media marketing plan
• Creating social media content
• Utilizing social media advertising and contests

Community Management

• Engaging with the social media community
• Managing real-time, online communications
• Planning social media campaigns

Compliance and Governance

• Addressing legal, licensing, privacy, and defamation risk
• Creating a social media policy

Target Student
Marketing teams, individual marketing professionals, educators, researchers, consultants or marketing students who are seeking to add a professional certification to differentiate themselves in the competitive arena of social media marketing. Learners who crave flexibility and value the insights and teachings of a certified instructor.

Prerequisites
Students should have a basic understanding of an end-user’s experience with common social media platforms and social media terminology and functions, writing marketing content for the web including keyword usage and search engine functionality, general branding concepts and common practices, customer identification, and marketing campaign management.

You can obtain this level of skills and knowledge with an associates degree or higher in marketing or communications plus personal use of and exposure to social media sites, and/or two or more years’ of business experience with social media sites.