Question
Are there any certifications for social media or small business consultants?
Answer
Social media and small business expertise are areas where, if you are not careful, obtaining and advertising "certifications" can hurt you more than they help you.
Here's an anecdote illustrating how certificates can hurt you.
I once ran a writing group, and a woman joined us. The group was (still is, run by someone else now) mainly about writing together, not critiquing. But we'd occasionally take a break from typing and talk about creative challenges.
This woman wanted to dominate these conversations. At every opportunity (since there was always someone new who hadn't heard it before), she'd mention "I am a certified life coach, and I do writing coaching as well, and I tell my students..." We were once discussing mind-mapping for example (a common creativity technique that most people know about), she jumped in with faux-authority saying, "I teach mind-mapping..."
Needless to say, I gently persuaded her (okay, not so gently) to get the hell out of our group. I had no objection to her fishing for business, or even with her seeking to be the most "authoritative" one in the group (when she joined she claimed she'd written 30 books, which impressed me for about 30 seconds... until I checked to see what the "books" were actually like).
Her certificate-driven clumsiness and publication record puffery just immediately convinced me she had nothing to actually offer. Her certificate literally got her on my blacklist. If she had real expertise, she'd have known how to sell it and get clients at the meetup without me even noticing it, and without ever having to mention certification.
In other words there are fields where earning authority and earning certifications are NOT the same thing.
And I am actually pretty kind in these matters. I know others who are a lot more brutal and immediately shut out cold anyone who even mentions things like "certifications" in areas like social media/small business. They treat it as an immediate and 100% reliable indicator that the person doesn't know anything.
Even if you think you need the formal education in some specialized/technical skill areas (SEO/analytics is one part of social media I can think of; Market Motive runs some well-reputed courses on this stuff; another is SBA processes for small businesses), don't hang your shingle on the certificates themselves. Just apply the knowledge and leverage the networks you may have built while obtaining them (the good courses are valuable primarily as networking venues, like a good MBA program).
For future reference, besides social media, small-biz and life-coaching, other areas where certifications work in this dangerously double-edged way include leadership education, career counseling and project management.
Here's an anecdote illustrating how certificates can hurt you.
I once ran a writing group, and a woman joined us. The group was (still is, run by someone else now) mainly about writing together, not critiquing. But we'd occasionally take a break from typing and talk about creative challenges.
This woman wanted to dominate these conversations. At every opportunity (since there was always someone new who hadn't heard it before), she'd mention "I am a certified life coach, and I do writing coaching as well, and I tell my students..." We were once discussing mind-mapping for example (a common creativity technique that most people know about), she jumped in with faux-authority saying, "I teach mind-mapping..."
Needless to say, I gently persuaded her (okay, not so gently) to get the hell out of our group. I had no objection to her fishing for business, or even with her seeking to be the most "authoritative" one in the group (when she joined she claimed she'd written 30 books, which impressed me for about 30 seconds... until I checked to see what the "books" were actually like).
Her certificate-driven clumsiness and publication record puffery just immediately convinced me she had nothing to actually offer. Her certificate literally got her on my blacklist. If she had real expertise, she'd have known how to sell it and get clients at the meetup without me even noticing it, and without ever having to mention certification.
In other words there are fields where earning authority and earning certifications are NOT the same thing.
And I am actually pretty kind in these matters. I know others who are a lot more brutal and immediately shut out cold anyone who even mentions things like "certifications" in areas like social media/small business. They treat it as an immediate and 100% reliable indicator that the person doesn't know anything.
Even if you think you need the formal education in some specialized/technical skill areas (SEO/analytics is one part of social media I can think of; Market Motive runs some well-reputed courses on this stuff; another is SBA processes for small businesses), don't hang your shingle on the certificates themselves. Just apply the knowledge and leverage the networks you may have built while obtaining them (the good courses are valuable primarily as networking venues, like a good MBA program).
For future reference, besides social media, small-biz and life-coaching, other areas where certifications work in this dangerously double-edged way include leadership education, career counseling and project management.