Anyone who is managing multiple social media accounts across platforms will find it hard to stay on track unless they are using some sort of tool. There’s quite a few out there and they range from free versions to professional and enterprise paid for versions.

I’ve played around with a few now and found the Hootsuite free version is pretty good. You can manage three social media profiles with it and you get some analytics too. Obviously three platforms might be less than you need, but c’mon this one is free!

Obviously you can upgrade your account and upgrade the number of social profiles and users. I’ve noticed they sometimes offer 30 and 60 free trials of the upgrades too. It’s worth keeping an eye open and trying the Professional version for free for 60 days if you can.

Another cool thing that Hootsuite do is they have some free online courses. The courses range from using their platform through to social marketing, strategy and advertising. The courses are in nice and simple bite size videos which makes it easy to dip in and out of the training. After completing the course you then have the option of paying to take the exam. If you pass then you get a certification and you can have a listing in their Certified Professionals Directory.

Well whilst I was getting up to speed with using Hootsuite I decided to do the online training.

Anyway, today I decided to take the exam. At the time of writing, the course is just $99. I passed today with the rather pleasing score of 90% – you need 80% to pass. I’m now also listed in their Certified Professionals Directory:

https://directory.hootsuite.com/julieplumb

Pretty cool eh?

I love how much online training there is out there and how much of it is free. Just before Christmas I went through Google Digital Garage and took their exam – both the training and the exam are free for this. I found it was a really good refresher for Google and brilliant at updating my knowledge with the newer aspects of Google. It is suitable for both beginners and professionals.

Have you found any useful free training that has helped you to update your online skills?