Social media has become a vital part of running a business, particularly in rural areas such as the South West. Despite sites such as Twitter and Facebook bringing in thousands of pounds each year for companies across the country, many still don’t take it seriously and often palm the job of Tweeting off to a junior or an intern. Hootsuite has teamed up with organisations to help change this, and they’ve created the Hootsuite Academy.

The Academy

The academy is global, and plans to upskill the social media world as more businesses realise that the job should be a more strategic role, rather than being placed in the hands of interns. Their recognised, academic, and industry-specific social media certifications will help boost the overall quality of many businesses’ social media accounts, and provide staff with training they wouldn’t otherwise have.

As well as paid for courses, there are also a great range of free online courses. The Hootsuite Platform Training allows users to learn more about Hootsuite, and provides them with the skills needed to make the most of its features. There’s also Social Marketing Training, an Advanced Social Strategy Training & Certification, a Social for Health Care Training & Certification, and Social Selling Training & Certification. Basically, there is a lot you can learn.

Why it’s important

First and foremost, your business is important, and so the image you portray on social media is important. This means that if you ask an untrained person without any experience of using social media for business you are taking a big risk. The person running your accounts needs to have knowledge of the company, would you send an intern or a junior to a big networking event? Probably not, so giving an unqualified person the responsibility of your business’ online presence is quite risky.

Whilst social media can be easy, it’s only easy once you know how. By properly learning how to do it, your company will soon be reaping the benefits of a good strategy and great execution. Tweeting willy-nilly just doesn’t bring in the customers!

Anyone who works in social media (for a business, your personal Twitter/Facebook/Instagram doesn’t count) knows that it is constantly changing, developing, and fluctuating. What gets you 20 likes one day could get 200 another day, guesswork just isn’t enough. Proper training and attention to social media allows businesses to be much more strategic, and ultimately get the best results.

If your businesses is in need of some social media training, check out our training courses here