SCORE: A Social Media Certification for Government Communicators

The SCORE™ Method and the SCORE™ Social Media Certification are proprietary educational frameworks owned and issued exclusively by October Learning Lab, LLC. This professional development program is delivered in partnership with 3CMA.

Registration is currently full for the Fall Cohort. (Join the waiting list and be notified about the next cohort.)

What is SCORE?

SCORE stands for Strategy, Content, Operations, Reporting, and Ethics. It is a social media certification built specifically for government communicators and public sector professionals.

SCORE helps participants approach social media as a connected system rather than a series of individual posts, platforms, or reports. It brings together strategy, content planning, operational workflows, reporting, and the ethical considerations that reflect the realities of public sector communication.

Most social media training ends when the course does. SCORE installs operational systems that stay with your organization.

SCORE was created by Sabrina Merritt, who spent a decade executing social media strategy, content creation, advertising, community management, and reporting alongside government entities at the local, state, and federal levels. Over that time, she has trained thousands of government communicators, including more than 2,400+ in 2025 alone. Sabrina founded October Learning Lab to bring that experience into a structured education company focused on digital communications and operating systems for government.

What Changes with SCORE?

Whether you are managing social media solo, coordinating across your department, or connecting with people managing channels in other departments, SCORE helps you work together from a shared framework.

Before SCORE:

Social media is managed one post at a time, with no strategic direction
Approvals and workflows live in one person's head
Reporting is inconsistent and hard for leadership to interpret or simply doesn’t exist
Software and vendors are purchased reactively, without a clear strategy
Social media passwords are not clearly managed
When a team member leaves, institutional knowledge leaves with them

After SCORE:

Social media work is connected to clear organizational goals
Documented workflows guide approvals, roles, and coordination
Reporting communicates impact in a way leadership understands
Software and vendor decisions follow a repeatable, strategic approach
Social media password management is seen as a part of cybersecurity
The operating system stays in place, even as staff change

What You Get and How You Get Certified

SCORE gives you the templates, checklists, and guides to build a complete social media operating system, and you put them to work during the cohort.

The SCORE toolkit includes resources to help you create:

A social media assessment of your current program
A documented social media strategy aligned to organizational goals
A structured content workflow for planning, approvals, and publishing
A reporting framework for communicating impact to leadership
Onboarding and offboarding processes that help protect platform access
Resources to help you evaluate and purchase digital tools and vendors with a clear strategy
A clearer, documented approach to how your organization manages social media

These are working tools built for government communicators, designed to be used long after the cohort ends.

To earn your certification, all you need to do is:

Complete the 7 SCORE video modules
Pass the module knowledge checks
Submit one artifact using a provided template (e.g., a social media calendar, strategy, or report)
Complete a short self-assessment

From there, the full toolkit is yours to download and build out at the pace that works for you and your organization.

Participants who complete SCORE earn the SCORE Certified Social Media for Government Practitioner credential, issued by October Learning Lab in partnership with 3CMA, which comes with a certificate of completion and a Credly digital badge.

The Credly badge is a verified, shareable credential you can add to your LinkedIn profile, email signature, and resume. It is the same credentialing platform used by organizations like the U.S. Department of Labor, IBM, Microsoft, and Adobe.

Who is SCORE For

SCORE is designed for government communicators and public sector professionals who manage or support public-facing social media work.

SCORE may be a good fit if you:

Manage social media or public-facing digital communications
Support social media content planning, approvals, reporting, or platform management
Coordinate social media communications across departments or teams
Are newer to government social media
Have taken on social media responsibilities without formal training
Have a background in communications or journalism and want to strengthen your social media skills

Note: SCORE focuses on strategy, content, systems, and operations. It does not cover platform basics or paid social media advertising. Participants should already be comfortable with the day-to-day functions of the social media platforms they manage.

How SCORE Works

SCORE is designed to fit around your busy work schedule.

SCORE is 100% virtual, completed entirely online.
Video modules are released week by week, so you complete them on your own time.
Optional live office hours, led by Sabrina Merritt, give you space for discussion and questions.
Office hours are recorded for anyone who cannot attend live.
There are no required live sessions, so you choose when and how to work through the content.
Plan for 1-2 hours per week, with some weeks lighter as module length varies.

SCORE Program Details

Format: Virtual cohort with asynchronous learning and optional live office hours
Duration: 7 weeks, September 27 through November 14, 2026
Credential: SCORE Certified Social Media for Government Practitioner
Investment: 3CMA Member Price $50 | Non-Member Price $125