Have we *all* already agreed upon that ;) ?

We are talking about communication - via a new channel - here. A certification might be set up and marketed by private companies - as its a typical business model for all new technologies and applications. However, I don't think an EU initiative should mandate a certification.

Especially as there is no defined right or wrong way how to make use of social media. Just watch the discussions between different PR and marketing agencies.

Mandatory certifications will add aditional cost and control a market. I believe, that communication is not rocket science - recommendations and word of mouth will automatically show which consultants are good or not. Passing a certificate is not necessary automatically a guarantee of quality...

For more technical topics, like software development, certifications can be a sign, that a certain professional level is given.

Or - how would you certify Art and Music?

Hi Dirk,

I think if you attended the Social Media Workshop yesterday and the introduction meeting on Wed evening you will be aware that Axel has some deal already going (in conjunction with 'some' EU body) with his 'Academy' to certify us 'ALL' to do what we are already doing for the last half decade ......Pias Basque are just stakibg their claim to certify the people of their EU designated Region.

We already have an Insitute in Ireland operating in a similar way as described above - our certification has no need of American external interjection either. Thanks, but, No Thanks

Hope this helps.

BTW i agree with your points on costs

I hope that there is a misunderstanding in how you are describing your plans. Certification can mean so many different things. If you are implying that people without a certification cannot (rather than should not) communicate the messages of their employer or client through social networking then you have a big challenge to overcome.

What exactly are you suggestion with your 'certification' point?

@Cristina, This is a great suggestion and we should explore that further.

@Dirk - I guess there are several misinterpretations.
1) It is not about the certification but about education
2) Certifying what somebody learned is only a finishing piece of a good education program and it is good practice across all industries and technologies.
3) There are many things to learn and there is a reason why so many companies fail with their "social media plans"
By the way social media is NOT about communication with a new channel. Channel and messaging is traditional marketing. Social media is about relationship building between humans, about managing more relationships than we ever could in the past, about rapid collaboration online, about customer experience models, about customer integrated support models, about crowd sourced product improvements... And this doesn't come from reading a book. It is either a few years experimentation and experience and well designed education program to shortcut the learning curve.

@Sheila - there is no "deal going on" between me and the EC. I'm just one of many who participated in the DAA this year. I guess the only difference between me and 'some others' is that I used social media in it's fullest extend to contribute to the conference ;)

@ Julio - thanks. Like you said, certification can mean many things. In my opinion a certification should be nothing but stating what an attendee of any kind of education program learned. Then let it be up to the market to select what content is most preferred. People my choose a university degree from Stanford over one from Sul Ross SU - even so both teach basically the same content. People my choose Social Media Academy over more than 20 clones who followed our model and some even teach our content.

@All - Social Media Academy is certifying the content people learned, not more and not less. The only people who require a certificate from us are some large enterprises after they evaluated social media training institutes from around the world. We provided education at some of the top US Universities and get requests to use our content for their classes. Providing training with our material is the only case where we 'require' somebody being certified by us.

The proposal we made during the DA12 was basically providing education to social media consultants in Europe and of course those would receive a certificate. Companies like SAP, Salesforce.com, ADP, EMC, Dell... have the luxury to select the best education they can find - that they selected us is just a testimony for our education quality.
(sorry for the bragging ;)