Top Social Media Marketing Certificates & Certifications in NJ

When pursuing a career in marketing, many may consider a four-year degree or even a post-graduate education to build their expertise and a line on a resume that might make the difference in securing that first entry-level job.

However, certificate programs are a growing alternative to the time commitment and student loans required for a university education. Certificate courses prepare job candidates and resumes for success in their field and issue a verification of the student’s completion of the program that functions much like a college diploma on a resume or LinkedIn profile. 

Certifications are similar resume boosters, but they are usually earned by passing an exam issued by a verifying organization rather than enrolling in a course. Both certifications and certificates can be excellent ways to jump-start a career as a Market Manager, a job with a higher-than-average growth projected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Noble Desktop: Social Media Marketing Certificate

Key Information: 

Noble Desktop is an NYS-licensed tech school that offers design and code education on its NYC campus and online. Since 1990, the leader in tech career-centered education has provided cutting-edge programs that prepare students for success in their chosen fields. Noble’s Social Media Marketing Certificate is one of these programs, available online and in-person at their Madison Avenue campus for $2,495. Tuition is payable through a flexible installment plan and covers 72 hours of live instruction, Noble’s proprietary curriculum, supplementary materials, a free retake option for one year, and a NY state-licensed certificate of completion. No prerequisites are required, but online students must provide their own computers and software.

The course features a flexible and customizable schedule which can be completed in one month if you take the modules in Noble’s recommended order as 12 seven-hour weekday sessions. Some customization is available in your scheduling of the eight-course modules, and you can make up missed classes by watching a recording or taking advantage of the retake option to attend the class live another time within a year from your program start date. You can also use the retake option to review a module or even the entire program. However you decide to fit Noble’s Social Media Marketing Certificate into your schedule, the program will help you jump-start a career in this thriving field as a freelancer or in your dream entry-level position. By the end of the program, you’ll be an expert in all of the major social media platforms and how to harness those unique ecosystems, the power of analytics, and smart cross-platform strategies to build a solid social media presence and marketing campaigns that perform.

In your live classes led by expert instructors, you’ll learn how to use Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and X (formerly known as Twitter) as a marketing professional. You’ll also gain hands-on experience in the content forms of written text, videos, and images, as well as in creating other marketing projects that immediately allow you to apply all that you’re learning, from streaming video to paid advertising.

Your final course module will be Social Media Industry & Portfolio, where instructors will guide you in creating a professional portfolio that best showcases your skills to prospective clients and future employers. You’ll complete the course with an impressive resume filled with new skills and featuring your new certificate in social media marketing. With your remarkable resume and overflowing portfolio, you’ll be a stand-out professional in social media marketing, ready to succeed in marketing for any organization lucky enough to have you as their Social Media Marketing Manager. 

Noble Desktop: Digital Marketing Certificate

Key Information:

Another option from Noble Desktop is their Digital Marketing Certificate, which features all of the modules of the Social Media Marketing Certificate program, plus six others that provide a comprehensive foundation in SEO, analytics, and paid search strategies. The cost of the program is $3,995 and payable via a 12-month financing plan or an installment plan. Tuition covers Noble’s proven curriculum, supplementary materials, a NY State-verified certificate of completion, and a free retake option of any or all of the 120 hours of live instruction that comprise the program. The class is available both online and in-person in NYC. No prerequisites are required beyond comfort using a computer. Online students will need to provide their own computers.

Aspiring digital marketing professionals and small business owners wanting to learn how to market for themselves will benefit from this program. Noble's flexibility in scheduling will enable students to attend classes around their current work schedules if needed. Following Noble’s recommended schedule, you can complete the program in about one month. You can make up missed classes by watching a recording or by attending a live session of the course at a later date.

Through the six program modules focusing on social media, you’ll become an expert in Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and TikTok. You’ll practice new skills in videomaking, image creation, and content writing through hands-on projects. Noble’s program will also lead you to mastery of a rich variety of digital marketing skills, including blogging, email marketing, and streaming. Units on SEO and Google Ads will help you use both tools to reach a broad and receptive audience with your message. Digital Marketers need the skills to gather data and monitor the performance of their campaigns and websites, so you will also become an expert in Google Analytics.

As with the Social Media Marketing Certificate, you will create a professional portfolio in the final module of the program. With this portfolio, your impressive certificate from Noble, and a resume packed with skills learned in the Digital Marketing Certificate program, you will be armed for success in your career in digital marketing. Your digital marketing certificate will be sharable on LinkedIn and other social media accounts, showcasing your cutting-edge education in a growing field of career opportunities.

Columbia Business School: Digital Marketing Online Course

Key Information:

Columbia Business School, associated with NYC-based Columbia University, offers many online educational opportunities through partnership with Emeritus. Students will earn a certificate of participation upon completion of the Digital Marketing Online Course and one certificate credit toward Columbia’s Certificate in Business Excellence. The program costs $1,700, with flexible payment plans and an early registration discount available. No prerequisites are required, but students must have a computer and reliable internet to participate in this course. The program is ten weeks long and requires two to four work hours per week.

Students will learn through various formats, including 120 pre-recorded video lectures, live online teaching sessions, live Q&A sessions, ten real-world applications, two simulations, and five discussions. Regular knowledge tracks and quizzes are also part of the program, ensuring participants remain on track throughout the class. 

The course features fourteen modules covering numerous topics under the umbrella of digital marketing. Students will go much deeper than foundational knowledge of the subject, learning a five-step method from planning through the execution of every digital marketing campaign. Several modules also focus on analytics and understanding customers, where to find them, and what they want. Strategy is a keyword throughout the program, as lessons cover access, engagement, connection, and collaboration strategies. By the end of the program, students will have a strong understanding of how to use social media platforms like Facebook, together with sound decisions based on analytics, to reach potential clients and customers for their business. 

Rutgers School of Business-Camden: Graduate Program Certificate: Digital Marketing

Key Information: 

The Rutgers School of Business-Camden (RSBC) is an AACSB International-accredited business school offering many career-focused educational tracks from campuses in Camden, New Brunswick, and Newark and online. Their Graduate Program Certificate in Digital Marketing is an online program featuring four courses that can be taken from the comfort of students’ homes. Tuition for the program is $5,252 for both in-state and out-of-state students. Financial aid is not available for RSBC’s certificate students. As a graduate certificate program, a bachelor’s degree is a requirement for applicants. A grade of B or higher in each class is required to earn the digital marketing certificate, and RSBC will allow students to retake courses to meet this requirement when necessary.

Like all of RSBC’s graduate certificate programs, this one in digital marketing can serve as an educational foundation and professional certification to launch a career or as a low-commitment taste of the university’s graduate degree opportunities. Employers looking for a digital marketing professional will see a certificate on a candidate’s resume as evidence that they are hard-working, dedicated, and highly trained in creating effective digital marketing campaigns and ongoing strategies.

All students in this program must take a Marketing Management course, which covers the foundational frameworks and tools vital for smart decision-making in marketing. Participants can choose the other three classes from five possibilities: Digital Marketing Strategy, Strategic Marketing Analytics, Social Media Strategy, Text Mining, and Customer Analytics. Students can customize their areas of specialization with these options, choosing whether to build their skills in the hands-on implementation of social media campaigns or whether they prefer to work with analytic and data-gathering tools in creating strategic marketing plans.

Montclair University: Graduate Digital Marketing Certificate

Key Information: 

With campuses in Montclair, Little Falls, and Clifton, Montclair State University hosts more than 300 majors, minors, and certificate programs and nearly 22,000 students annually. The New Jersey university offers its Graduate Digital Marketing Certificate online so students can attend from anywhere in the world. Applicants must have a bachelor's degree to be eligible for admission. Tuition for the program is $10,091. The program features eight 1.5-credit classes for a total of 12 credit hours. Transcripts, a resume, and a personal statement are required with any application.

As a graduate certificate, this program is a rigorous study of practical digital marketing skills. The hands-on courses allow students to gain valuable experience in applying current research in digital analytics and technology in real-world business situations. Graduates of the program will be highly skilled in creating social, web, and mobile marketing strategies. Courses in the program include Applied Marketing Management, Market Analysis and Customer Insight, Social and Mobile Media, Digital Customer Experience Management, Integrated Digital Advertising Planning, Omni-Channel Retailing, Digital Marketing Strategy, and Practicum in Ecommerce. 

In these courses, students will learn the latest concepts and strategies for marketing across social media platforms and in other digital spaces. They will have many hands-on opportunities to build experience in applying these principles of analysis, management, market research, and other aspects of the workflow of successful digital marketing. From social media geotagging to programmatic buying systems, graduates will have a deep understanding of the myriad tools available to Social Media Marketing Managers in the 2020s. 

Seton Hall University: Certificate in Social Media

Key Information: 

Seton Hall University is a Catholic institution hosting over 90 different majors, located in South Orange, New Jersey. Their Certificate in Social Media program features two levels of study, both leading to a University Certificate in Social Media. Tuition depends on whether students are eligible for discounts and if they pursue one or both levels of study. 

The two levels available are Foundational for social media beginners and Advanced-Skills for professional managers and strategists interested in building their social media skills. To enter the Advanced-Skill Level, one must first take the Foundational Level course or complete a pre-assessment.

Both available programs are 12 weeks long and feature 25-minute modules taught by industry experts. These include professionals associated with LinkedIn, VaynerMedia, and Today’s Business, as well as Seton Hall instructors. Professor Ladick is available to students via virtual meetings, email, and phone for the duration of the course. Seton Hall’s certificate courses are certified by Quality Matters as programs that meet national and international standards for online learning. Along with the professional certificates earned in the programs, students will graduate with up-to-date knowledge of how to use social media marketing effectively and efficiently. 

Centenary University: Social Media Marketing Certificate

Key Information:

Centenary University, a non-profit New Jersey school serving Warren and Sussex Counties, offers a hybrid Social Media Marketing Certificate featuring online and in-person components. Students will need the ability to commute to the campus in Hackettstown. Centenary University’s certificate credits are ineligible for financial aid but are priced significantly lower than other class credits. Contact the university to learn about current tuition, which may vary based on several factors. Each course of the 16-credit-hour program is eight weeks long, and the entire program may be completed in eight months.

The four courses of this certificate program include Social Media Marketing, Digital Advertising, Digital Analytics, and Social Media Strategy & Consulting. No prerequisites are required for any of the classes, with the exception that Social Media Strategy & Consulting must be taken following the first three. In Social Media Marketing, students will learn the foundations of social media marketing, including the platforms and opportunities for businesses to thrive in the space. Digital Advertising focuses on creating paid and unpaid social media campaigns, and Digital Analytics examines a variety of available analysis tools, including Google Analytics and other options. Finally, Social Media Strategy & Consulting serves as a capstone course for the program, reviewing the topics already covered and supporting the students as they work as consultants for real-world clients.

By the end of the program, graduates will have the social media skills in high demand for paid internships and entry-level jobs in marketing, copywriting, or advertising. Working professionals are also welcome in the program, where they will gain skills they can apply in their current careers.

Hootsuite Academy: Social Media Marketing Certification Course

Key Information: 

Hootsuite Academy offers several certification options, including one in their own social media management platform. Their Social Media Marketing Certification Course is a foundational overview that covers virtually every social media application a marketer may want to know except the use of Hootsuite itself. When one purchases the course for $199, they also purchase the ability to take the certification exam as many times as necessary to pass with a score of 80%. Experienced Social Media Marketing Managers can skip the 3.5-hour course and simply take the exam for the certification. The on-demand class allows students to watch the prerecorded lessons and read the accompanying materials at their own pace.

No prerequisites are required to sign up for Hootsuite’s certification course, although students should be aware that the material presented is intermediate. This material breaks down into five chapters, including strategy, content marketing, inclusivity and accessibility, building a community, and how to measure success.

The Social Media Marketing Certification earned by passing this exam will have a permanent link that can be used on websites, blogs, and social media profiles, including LinkedIn. The industry-recognized certification verifies an intermediate level of expertise in marketing across all the most popular social media platforms.

FAQ for Social Media Marketing Certificates

What is the Difference Between a Certificate and a Certification?

Certificates and certifications can both be of benefit to those pursuing a career in social media marketing. A college degree can also be helpful, of course, but a certificate can function much like a traditional diploma in a resume’s education section. This is because, like a diploma, a certificate is awarded following the end of a specific training program administered by an educational institution, verifying the student has invested in and completed a solid education in the area. While colleges and universities host some certificate programs, they offer a much more career-focused and streamlined educational track than traditional degree programs, allowing them to be cost-effective alternatives to two-year, four-year, and even graduate degrees.

Certifications are less of a one-to-one replacement for a diploma than certificates are. Instead, they are verifications issued by organizations—often the makers of software, applications, or platforms—that the individual has passed an exam they administer. While this exam and certification is often exclusively on the software or platform made by the verifying organization, in social media marketing, certifications are often more broad. Social media marketing certification exams are also frequently accompanied by a short free or low-cost course as preparation for the exam. Some certifications frequently featured on the social media profiles and resumes of social media marketing professionals include Meta Certified Digital Marketing Associate, HubSpot’s Social Media Marketing Certification, and Hootsuite Academy’s Social Media Marketing Certification.

Should I Pursue a Certificate or a Certification?

Aspiring social media marketing professionals can benefit from both certificates and certifications. Whether one is more useful than the other to an individual will depend on where they are in their career or learning journey, their budget, their personality, and other factors. Certificates are often considerably pricier than certifications, but for good reason. A certificate program typically offers a comprehensive but to-the-point education that may be considered a light version of a college degree program. This can be exceptionally useful for individuals with empty resumes who would like to fill them quickly with skills, hands-on project experience, and a certificate that never expires. Certificate programs will also often assist students in building professional portfolios and offer career support in some format.

Certifications, on the other hand, are earned by taking an exam, which is often accompanied by a short, on-demand preparatory course in the social media marketing world. If a job-seeker does not need assistance in building a portfolio, already has some experience, or already has a college degree in an unrelated subject, a certification can be the way to go. It can prove an individual’s expertise and commitment to staying up-to-date on social media marketing trends and technology.

Do I Need to Become Certified to Find a Job?

While a certificate or certification isn’t necessary to find a job in social media marketing, either or both can be useful in securing one. When an aspiring Marketing Manager has no education or experience, a certificate can be the quickest and most affordable way to gain both in a streamlined training course. In a certificate program, students receive a quality education and a certificate that can assume the place of a college degree on a resume. While earning a certificate, participants also typically receive career support and guidance in developing a professional portfolio, one of the most vital things necessary to secure a job in social media marketing.

Certifications can also be helpful for job-hunters, though they do not serve the same functions as a certificate. While a certificate program can be a streamlined substitute for a degree program, a certification simply verifies that an individual has passed an exam administered by an organization. Many certifications can be impressive achievements to feature on a resume or LinkedIn profile. Certifications can be an easy and affordable way for a job candidate to increase their desirability, but they are not helpful in gaining the knowledge needed to perform in an entry-level job or in building the portfolio necessary to grab the eye of hiring teams. However, a certification can benefit professionals making a mid-career pivot or anyone with a degree or some experience in the field.

What Certificate Program is Right for Me?

Which is Better: In-Person or Online Classes

In-person and online classes can both be opportunities to jump-start a career in social media marketing. Some may prefer one or the other, while others may find both equally appealing. If an individual can find an in-person class that fits their schedule and needs—and can fit a commute into their schedule—they may prefer that experience to an online class. An in-person program allows for a traditional learning experience that many appreciate, including the opportunity to interact with an instructor in the same room. 

Schools often teach these in-person classes in state-of-the-art computer labs for tech and tech-adjacent subjects such as social media marketing. Some appreciate having the technology provided for their class assignments, while others prefer the opportunity to work with their own computers and devices at home, as they might one day in a future career as a remote Social Media Marketing Manager.

Which is Better: Live Online or Asynchronous Classes?

Some aspiring social media marketing professionals will find live online classes preferable over asynchronous classes, while others will find asynchronous classes the only way to go. Neither option is necessarily better, but some will find one significantly preferable.

Live online courses provide the most similar experience to an in-person class, featuring a structured learning environment and the accountability of a schedule thanks to live classes led by an instructor in real-time and projects assigned with set due dates. While some may prefer this experience, many may find an asynchronous class better suits their needs. Asynchronous classes are also sometimes known as on-demand or self-paced courses, and they offer the ultimate flexibility for busy individuals seeking to start a new career or build skills for the next step of their journey. Instead of live lectures, all lessons are prerecorded and can be listened to whenever the student has time in their schedule. Projects and other assignments can typically be worked at the student’s own pace, allowing them to create a customized educational experience that suits their busy lifestyle.