I just posted my ‘open post to the pied piper of the online world’, Mari Smith, regarding her social media certification program.
Now it’s time for some other opinions. When using social media search tools “WhosTalkin?” and Nielsen’s BlogPulse, I found out that the discussion regarding the whole issue has been going on since a few weeks in the US.
So here are several opinions:
– Jason Falls supports the overall intent of the International Social Media Association, is confident in its president (Smith) in offering sound social media advice and education. However, he doesn’t plan on joining but, then again, wouldn’t tell people not to. Seems normal, it’s a free world. He believes in social media certification but “doesn’t endorse or think the certification badge or certificate from the ISMA is worth much, but the training probably is.” A balanced post, in comparison to mine. Read Jason’s thoughts here on SocialMediaToday.
– Where I am quite harsh, in comparison with Jason, I’m a softie if I look at Olivier Blanchards’ blog post about the issue. Just read it (and the 306 comments if you have the energy) here. Olivier was asked by the ISMA to be a trainer for the program, so he knows much more about it than this European small-time blogging dude.
– John McCrory, posted on the issue, saying that “he doesn’t think certification makes sense for social media…(because)…social media is not a distinct discipline, industry, or product platform. It’s an evolving set of software tools and practices in the internetworked world that are used by people in many different disciplines and industries.” Read on here.
There are more posts about the discussion, but I wasted enough time and energy on it now.
You know, I wouldn’t even have brought up the whole issue if I hadn’t seen that the ISMA invites European marketers to become certified by following some virtual course.
And I will remain very very skeptic. I’ve been in media, publishing, Award stuff and certification workshops for too long in the past.
Enough said about it. People do what they want, so if you want that certification, go ahead.
Live and let live. You know what I think, please make up your own mind.
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