After
a couple months went by I finally got around to giving this program a try and
attempting to figure out how it all worked. Initially, logging on to the site,
I found myself getting a little frazzled by the layout of the “home page.” One
of my biggest complaints about the program itself was that it was difficult to
know exactly what needed to be done, and where to find it. I feel that there
could be a more user-friendly layout that wouldn’t require as much training in
order to understand. If this was the case, a lot more people could utilize this
tool to its full potential. Once I finally figured out where the HootSuite
University tab was located, a whole new lever of confusion ensued. There should
be a step-by-step guide on what needs to be done in order to get certified, but
instead it just throws you into the program and lists a plethora of video –exam
combos and expects you to just know what to do.
However,
once I asked around to a few of my classmates, I figured out what needed to be
done. Unfortunately, most people do not have a variety of people to chose from
for help and this is problematic given the confusing set-up. I also found it
hard to believe that there was no contact phone number for customer service so
that users could call in with question, I am sure that one exists however I was
never able to find it on the website.
On
to the positive aspects of this program; once I finally figured out where
everything was located and what all I needed to do, I found the certification
process to be enjoyable. The social media courseware exams 110 to 160 were fun,
easy, and helpful reminders of aspects of social media I had forgotten about or
that were not fresh in my mind. This process was also quick and I was able to
get it done in a timely manner. I also found it helpful to be able to see what
questions I had missed and what the answers were so that I knew what I was
doing wrong.
The
final exam however sort of stumped me up. I felt that the questions that were
in the courseware exams were not applicable to the HootSuite program itself,
but more so a broad reiteration of social media practices. I had to take the
final exam three times before receiving a perfect score, which I found
confusing because I felt like the courseware exams should have better prepared
me. On a whole, I must admit that I found this program to be somewhat
unorganized and not user-friendly, faintly boring, and slightly repetitive.
Conversely, I think the repetitive nature of it can be wholly attributed to the
fact that I learned the majority of the topics covered in the exams throughout
the duration of Professor Freberg’s class, and the rest I knew from prior
experience with social media.
Unfortunately,
I am hesitant to put that I am HootSuite certified on my resume or LinkedIn
account. This is because I am worried that if a future employer asked me to be
in charge of social media and utilize HootSuite to do so, I would not be able
to.
When
Mark Murdock, my favorite guest speaker of the year came in to class, he
briefly showed the class how his company uses the social media management
program, Sprout Social. From the brief few minutes that he showed us this, I
was already impressed by it. It seemed to be very user-friendly, easy to read,
and its sleek black and green color scheme made it fun and enjoyable to look
at. I took a further look into
this program and found out that it only costs $10 more per month than HootSuite
does, and from a small companies standpoint I would say it would be well worth
it. Not only was it more user-friendly and easy on the eyes, it also seemed to
have a more vast variety of things that it could do from the analytic stance.
As
a whole, I am thankful to have had the opportunity to explore HootSuite and get
to see a side of social media that I did not know existed. It was also a great
refresher of the many “tools” that different social media platforms have that I
had forgotten about.
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