HOOTSUITE UNIVERSITY
“HootSuite University is an online certification program that delivers best in class education about social media and HootSuite for industry leading professionals.” –LinkedIn
HootSuite University certified me as a social media professional in April of 2014. Going through this program was not as easy as I had hoped it would be. It doesn’t take up a lot of your time, I just had no idea about social media. I mean, I knew what social media was, I just had no idea how to manage it.
In my social media class I started a twitter account and started blogging. This was a challenge for me because I was brand new to the world of the internet. Growing up my brother hoged the computer but I was an outdoor girl anyway. Blogging was a shaky start and my tweets had no personality. HootSuite University helped me change all of that.
HootSuite University has many sections broken up into roughly 5 minute videos. That made me very happy that I could go at my own pace, watch the videos over and over if I had to, and without having to skip around. It was nice to be able to go back to that section at a later time and not have to root too much to find what I was looking for.
One thing that I thought would benefit my learning that HootSuite did not have was interactive tutorials. I feel like my experience overall would have been that much more awesome if I could watch a video and then execute the task during or after the session. This would have helped me to implement the lesson into my own social media tasks in a more efficient way.
My favorite lesson on HootSuite University was from Ranjun Chauhan who is a social sales professional. You can follow him @Ranjun_Chauhan on Twitter. Chauhan says that we need to remember that social media is a sociological phenomenon not just a technological one. He goes on to tell us why.
Chauhan says that customers, competitors, partners, and co-workers are all using social media and they are using it to talk about brands, likes and dislikes, and overall opinion of products and services. That also means your products and services. One social selling point he made is that you have to be involved with your customers etc. You have to know what’s going on and what people are talking about so that you can engage in a knowledgeable and timely manner. Becoming an expert and advisor in your field builds trust and growth in your company.
I really enjoyed most of the lessons that I could relate to. I would like to go back through them after finals so that I can use them on my own profiles. I had a few ‘ah-ha’ moments of understanding something after learning about it. That is the great part of having this program, you can go back and learn or get encouragement.
One thing that threw me off about this program was the often changing of categories. I would study a section and after a week I would go back to take my quiz. The issue was that they had changed the material and the material no longer existed. Well, some of the information transferred over and new material was added. This made me confused and scared that all that paper I just printed was going to waste. I would recommend any person to just print two at a time so that this does not happen to them. I also understand that they are doing these changes so that they are up to date with the freshest technologies and information.
What I plan on using the most when I finish my social media class has definitely got to be the etiquette section. This is a very important part of using social media that I feel many people miss. There have been many occasions where I have been embarrassed for other brands and companies for their lack of.
What I need to work on more is being on social media everyday. There have been times where I have gone 2+ days without checking my profiles. This can be dangerous if I were affiliated with a brand etc. I say this because I need to be timely in all my responses and be prepared for a crisis. If it takes me two days to respond to an inquiry, the person who was inquiring will have already gone to another source for their information, I would have lost that customer, gained negative outlook on my brand/company that that person would share on their social media, and I would lose any trust or advising status.
My overall idea of HootSuite University is that I would like to reach through my computer and give that owl a hug. I was lost online and just simply shyed away. After completing HootSuite University I feel confident in having an online presence. I would recommend this program to everyone, even if you are not going into the social media field. It is jam packed with useful information and tools.
I am going to use this information in my daily life as I start interning with social media professionals. I will use this in my daily life as I try to build an advisor status in social media. I had a lot of fun with this program and I hope you find that it is beneficial to you as well!
