Get the insider scoop on Noble’s Social Media Marketing Certificate in this interview with Justine Sanborn, a digital marketing instructor at Noble Desktop.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your experience with social media marketing?

My name is Justine Sanborn, and I have been working in advertising and marketing for a little over a decade now, after my undergrad, focusing primarily on designing assets and creating them for other businesses. Before that, I grew up on social media platforms. 

I was a young pre-teen, teenager, using AOL Messenger, using MySpace, using these random websites that were social-based from a very early age. I think I started on social media platforms maybe around 13 or 14, and never thought anything of it at the time. So in the early 2000s, there was no monetary value in having a presence on social media or anything like that. As time went on, I continued being present on a variety of different platforms and gaining an understanding of the platforms as I grew up. I created a pretty close community of skaters on one of my platforms, specifically Instagram, and I realized at that time that social media can be something bigger. As a matter of fact, I remember hearing from a friend of mine about someone who started creating a business off of their social media, and I thought, “Oh wow. This can be a thing now.” 

So now I’m in grad school, and I am pivoting my focus to social media and PR. Ultimately, PR is a component of social media marketing, and I’m getting a better understanding of that from the perspective of a larger brand rather than from my current perspective as a content creator. Being a content creator has its own perspective, but then going into it from the perspective of a larger brand and how they are choosing to talk about themselves on social media platforms.

What is the Social Media Marketing Certificate at Noble Desktop?

Our Social Media Marketing Certificate focuses on a wide variety of social media platforms, your big social media platforms that you can take advantage of from either a business or content creator perspective. It includes a class on LinkedIn marketing, as well as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter. One additional thing that we incorporate into the Social Media Marketing Certificate is blogging, which isn’t necessarily inherently thought about as a social platform (it focuses more on SEO). But it can circle back in terms of content that you can reshare on all of these different social media platforms.

Who is the target audience for this program?

The audience for the social media platform class is anyone who is currently working or plans to work in the social media environment. There are a lot of different job opportunities out there within this spectrum. I mentioned earlier the big umbrella of PR. Social media is a part of that and it can be separated into a lot of different things. So a person who is interested in content creation for social media, this is absolutely the certificate for you. For someone that’s interested in social media management, this is the certificate for you. Someone that’s interested in PR, Public Relations, again, this is such a huge component of it now, this is the certificate for you. Those of whom who are working for themselves as content creators or influencers, again this is the class for you. Or someone that is working for a company and needs a bit more insight into how to create successful earned first creative content, this is the class for you, as well. Ultimately, for anyone who is in the spectrum of social media, the Social Media Marketing Certificate is advantageous to have.

What career options are available in social media marketing?

There are quite a few. Your PR agencies, the vast majority of them, are going to have some department focused on social media. Again, content creation is a huge component of it. In the case of social media management, you’re probably more focused on the scheduling of the content and where it will be posted. You could even be working on social media marketing in a more corporate environment. Maybe you’re working in close vicinity to the CEO of a company and you want to share their voice. There are a lot of opportunities where you would be able to talk on behalf of the CEO and create content for that type of person. Ultimately, there are a lot of different job opportunities within the spectrum. 

There are also a lot of job opportunities within the media buying spectrum, buying paid advertising on social media. Advertising is a huge component. When something is paid, it’s often a bit separate from PR. PR is focused on things that are earned, whereas with advertising you are paying for that space, and that paid space is a huge opportunity on social media as well. So there’s a ton of opportunities on all of these different platforms to incorporate paid advertising as well, and those job opportunities again tend to be focused on media buying, so you wouldn’t necessarily be focused on creating the content on social media, but you would be focused on choosing where the content is going and how much the person is spending for that space.

What will students learn in this program?

There are a lot of different things that we talk about within each day of the social media certificate, but ultimately a major component is going to be, how to develop a successful social media strategy so before you are creating the content, before you are buying the media, you want to have a clear understanding of your strengths and also what you weaknesses are for either yourself, or the business you are working for, and developing an appropriate strategy. An example is perhaps you’re not posting on TikTok, but your main focus is YouTube and assessing which social media platforms are going to work best for you. 

Assessing an appropriate schedule for the content you are sharing online, so that way you can be consistent with what you are sharing online. We do also talk about the creative component of social media marketing so the actual content creation itself, how to create viable creative, ideas that would be successful on a social media platform, ultimately focusing on storytelling on social media rather than posting static, basic information. Overall that tends to be more successful on social media and that is what we share in the class, as well. 

We also talk about insights and analytics, understanding your target market, who is watching your content, who is sharing your content, who is engaging with your content, and also lastly the paid media component of it, paying for advertising on these various social media platforms. How it can be advantageous not only for your outreach to perhaps a broader audience, but also for insights into who your audience is, as well.

How does the Social Media Marketing Certificate prepare students for career opportunities?

It gives them a pretty solid understanding overall of the opportunities they could take advantage of on social media platforms. So, they will have a great beginning understanding of what things to consider when presenting themselves on social media from a business perspective or an individual perspective. They will be able to apply that again in a professional capacity either in paid media advertising or in PR.

What are the benefits of learning social media marketing at Noble Desktop with this program?

There are a lot of benefits, but ultimately, anyone can take advantage of these social media platforms, so we can start there. They are free to use and anyone can be present on these platforms. That being said, it is an open opportunity to reach a community that is interested in what you are doing, again from an individual or business perspective. But although you have an opportunity to reach that community, doing it successfully is the most challenging component. It’s not something that is going to inherently happen simply because you are on a platform. Understanding what your community needs and understanding what your community wants and ultimately giving them that content is why this is so important. 

A lot of times people will put themselves or their business on these platforms, but won’t necessarily have a solid understanding of what their community needs and wants from their content, and it can go overlooked. So the reason why this class is so important for being on social media in a thoughtful way is again to create content that is going to highlight yourself or your business in a positive way and gain a larger audience than you might have if you didn’t have a solid strategy.

How does it compare to similar programs at Noble?

There are a few other marketing-related programs. I believe we have an SEO program as well. The stand out component of the Social Media Marketing Certificate is that it is focused, again, on how to present yourself on these social media platforms, not necessarily focused on your website, not necessarily focused on analytics, although we will take a look at data from your website, but on the social media platforms themselves. That’s the unique component of it.

What are the classroom and learning environment like?

We have a hybrid learning environment at Noble Desktop, so we give students the opportunity to learn in person or online, enabling them to be in whatever space makes them feel the most comfortable and allows them to learn the most, as well. Folks that do choose to come in person, you ultimately face to face with the instructor, myself, and sometimes the examples work better for someone who learns better in person. Or if you want to learn from the comfort of your own home, you are welcome to do so. I think both are advantageous for different reasons. Ultimately, it depends on who you are as a person and we give you the opportunity to learn in whatever way works best for you.

What advice would you give students beginning the Social Media Marketing Certificate?

My best advice for someone beginning the social media marketing program is to think about your community; think about your audience and what they want. Again, I think one of the biggest mistakes that both individuals and businesses make is that we naturally gravitate towards doing what we want or creating something that we think is going to be beneficial for us, and when it comes to social media and connecting with your audience or community, it is essential to have a solid understanding of what that community or audience wants, instead of what you want for yourself. One of the huge benefits of social media is that it enables you to see what your audience likes and doesn’t like, and what they are engaging with and not engaging with. You have that instant feedback, which is such a helpful component.