Marketing Cloud Social Specialist Resource Guide

The Salesforce Architect exams each come with a resource guide, which includes helpful links for each section of the exam. I have found those incredibly useful in my study. Resource guides don’t currently exist for the standard exams, so I have compiled content into a series of resource guides. This is the Marketing Cloud Social Specialist resource guide.

The Marketing Cloud Social Specialist certification focuses on a foundational knowledge of the Social Studio platform (formerly known as Radian6). This focuses on the three main tools; Publish, Engage, and Analyze. There are 3 Marketing Cloud certifications, and they require hands-on experience with the tools.

Understanding the Tests

As I mentioned in a previous post, understanding the intention and structure of the exams is key to passing. Salesforce provides a study guide for every certification test. In those guides, they provide a breakdown of the different sections and their relative weight. Take note of those while studying.

Breakdown

Under each topic in the study guide, there are bullet points that describe the information you need to know. For example, the ‘Analyze’ section, the bullet points are:

• Given a scenario, explain how to create Dashboards or Workbenches specific to social channel.
• Given a scenario, explain how to build a Topic Profile.

Both of those bullets start with ‘Given a scenario’, so you know that you’ll be presented with simulated scenarios and asked what you would recommend to solve a problem or create a solution. Knowledge of best practices, tool capabilities and limitations will be crucial.

Resources

• Official Certification Guide
• Trailhead Trails
  • Get to Know Marketing Cloud

PUBLISH – 25%

• Describe the collaboration aspect of the calendar.
  • Social Studio Calendar
• Explain how to create a post in and describe the nuances of each social channel.
  • Post Creation Reference
• Explain how to create Publish Macros.
  • Publish Macros
• Determine deployment parameters for an immediate or scheduled post(s) within Publish.
  • Creating Posts
• Describe how to manage posts within the Post Details Panel.
  • Post Details
• Describe how shared content works.
  • Shared Content
• Explain how to create Approval Rules.
  • Approval Rules

ENGAGE – 20%

• Given a scenario, explain how to create and rename a Tab.
  • Creating Tabs
• Given a scenario, explain how to create and manage a Column.
  • Manage Columns
• Describe how to manage posts within the Inspect Post Panel.
  • Post Inspector
• Given a scenario, explain how to create and apply Engagement Macros to posts.
  • Create an Engagement Macro
• Describe how to apply Engagement Macros.
  • Apply an Engagement Macro

ADMINISTRATION – 18%

• Explain how to create users at the Tenant level.
  • Add a User
• Explain how to integrate social accounts.
  • Manage Social Accounts (read sub-sections for specific platforms)
• Define user roles and establish assignment based on organizational position.
  • User Roles
• Describe how to create workspaces by adding users (assign permissions), social accounts, and topic profiles.
  • Workspaces in Social Studio
• Explain general organizational settings.
  • Change Organization Settings
• Explain how to associate a Social Studio account within the Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
  • Connecting Accounts

ANALYZE – 15%

• Given a scenario, explain how to create Dashboards or Workbenches specific to social channel.
  • Manage Workbenches
  • Manage Dashboards
• Given a scenario, explain how to build a Topic Profile.
  • Create a Topic Profile

SOCIAL STUDIO OVERVIEW – 7%

• Describe how Social Studio benefits social media campaigns.
  • Social Studio Overview
• Explain how each Social Studio tool can help achieve social goals.
  • Social Studio Overview

REPORTING – 7%

• Utilize reporting within Publish, including Singular post view from the Calendar, Post performance grid (Engagement, Organic vs Paid), and Export data.
  • Post Reports
    • Create a Report 
    • Export/Download
• Utilize top level reports via the Performance tab, including Export data.
  • Content Performance Reporting

MOBILE – 5%

• Describe the features of the Social Studio Mobile application.
  • Social Studio Mobile Overview

SOCIAL MEDIA BEST PRACTICES – 3%

• Describe the organization’s governance model in support of Social Media.
  • Governance in Social Studio
• Distinguish appropriate content for target audience.
  • Social Media Engagement

Ready for the Exam?

Book your exam now, even before you start studying. There’s no better way to drive you to study than booking your exam.

For the Marketing Cloud Social Specialist exam, I highly recommend hands-on time working inside of Social Studio. There are lots of questions that you likely won’t know without some actual time in the system. There are questions specific to where you might find a button, or what options you would see given a scenario. Additionally, read through the questions in the FAQ section. Those individual topics speak to scenarios and capabilities that may be helpful for the exam.

If you have questions during your exam preparation, please feel free to reach out. I’ll do my best to respond with some help and guidance.