This program brings together courses in English, Visual Communication, Communication Studies, Marketing and Media & Journalism Studies, all having outcomes, skills and attributes which a certificant-conferred student needs to become a social media influencer. Expressing ideas excellently in writing and orally, understanding the fundamentals of visual communication, understanding how social media works, learning how social media platforms and tools are utilized to effectively distribute messages, and mastering written and visual communication in many formats (advertising, public relations, social media) would make the student excellently qualified for work as a social media influencer, either inside a company or as an independent contractor working on a contract basis for multiple clients.
This certificate will be automatically awarded when the certificate requirements are completed. If you do not want to receive the certificate, please notify the Office of the Registrar at RegistrarOffice@tri-c.edu.
Financial Assistance funds cannot be applied towards this program.
Program Admissions Requirements
- Eligibility for ENG-1010 College Composition I
- High School Diploma/GED highly recommended
Program Learning Outcomes
- Communication Skills: Utilize written and oral communications skills effectively to engage an audience on social media platforms through messaging, videos, still imagery, intentional captioning, microwriting, and voice-recognition messaging.
- Social Media Skills: Utilize software skills to leverage various social platforms to engage an audience and execute marketing, awareness, or education campaigns to promote a product, event or experience for their own business or specific client’s business needs.
- Audience Engagement: Use social listening to analyze customer needs, develop proactive content to respond to frequently asked questions, respond to customers in the moment, and effectively respond to negative comments on social media.
- Audience Engagement: Analyze social media trends to tailor messaging to where customer is at in their buyer journey/relationship with communicator.
- Brand Management: Utilizing social listening skill set to monitor online discussions about the brand, whether or not they are directly tagged, to better understand how consumers are perceiving your goods or services.
- Copyright/Ethics: Follow best practices in social media ethics and work collaboratively across departments to ensure compliance with appropriate copyright laws and social media regulations when utilizing music, photos, and other information in social media campaigns.
- Data Analytics: Read, interpret, and report on data analytics from different social media platforms to determine if audience is engaged, identify trends, and evaluate how the audience reaction relates to the goal of a specified campaign.
Suggested Semester Sequence
| First Semester | Credit Hours | |
|---|---|---|
| COMM-1010 | Fundamentals of Speech Communication | 3 |
| ENG-1010 | College Composition I | 3 |
| MJS-1320 | Social Media Communication | 3 |
| VC-1000 | Visual Communication Foundation | 3 |
| Credit Hours | 12 | |
| Second Semester | ||
| ENG-1020 | College Composition II | 3 |
| MARK-1080 | Social Media Marketing | 3 |
| MJS-2000 | Digital Media Writing | 3 |
| Credit Hours | 9 | |
| Total Credit Hours | 21 | |
MATH-1140, MATH-1141, MATH-1200, MATH-1270, and MATH-1280 can no longer count towards fulfilling the college-level mathematics requirement. These courses were re-classified as developmental mathematics by the state of Ohio in 2016. Tri-C established a 5-year transitioning window for students who had completed these courses prior to 2016 to apply them towards meeting graduation requirements, which expired in Summer 2021. It is highly recommended to see a counselor to determine the appropriate math required for your current major.