Facebook is Launching the Community Manager Certification Program

This new article on Search Engine Journal says that Facebook is rolling out an official program for certifying community managers using free online courses.

This is going to be useful to a lot of marketers out there who use the platform. You can now get certified, and on completion of the program, you get an industry-recognized badge. The courses on Facebook Blueprint are all free, although you need to pay a fee for the final exam.



Facebook says that credentials earned via Facebook Blueprint get widely accepted throughout the industry and that having the badge will help you stand out. The course's creators are said to be from a broad range of business types with agencies, nonprofits, and NGOs included. Topics include:

• Defining and establishing communities: Building an online community, community goals, and community guiding principles.
• Developing community strategies and processes: Best practices for managing audiences, tapping into the platform, building a brand, launching effectively, building and supporting your team, nurturing strong partnerships, and developing efficient operational workflows.
• Making strategic content decisions for a community: Serving up relevant content, keeping track of trends, and planning goal-driven activities.
• Engaging and moderating a community: Understanding the onboarding process for new members, community operations, member-to-member connections, engagement tactics, community standards, and terms of service, as well as safely and thoughtfully handling crises and conflicts.
• Measuring and analyzing community success: Content performance, feedback collection, data reporting, and sustainability.

Taking the Community Manager final exam

All exams on Facebook Blueprint cost $150 US. You can take them as many times as you need to in order to gain a pass, but you'll have to pay each time. You need 700 points to pass, and the range of scoring is 300-1,000. In order to take the exam, you'll need to produce a valid government-issued photo ID, and you'll get monitored on webcam throughout the process. The exam takes about two hours, and your certification is good for two years.