Marketers and merchants looking to develop their social media skills can enroll in free online courses from educators and practitioners.
Here is a list of free courses to hone your social media marketing skills. There are courses on writing for social media, monitoring and analytics, surveys, and more. Some courses are a single class. Others have multiple modules within extensive specializations. All the courses are free — some provide additional materials at the premium level.
What is Social?, from Northwestern University, is the first in the six-course specialization, “Social Media Marketing: How to Profit in a Digital World.” The course provides the tools, insights, knowledge, and skills to impact an organization immediately. Use the audit option to see lectures and some assignments without subscribing or starting a free trial. Paid learners will receive additional content beyond the course basics.
What is Social?
Introduction to Marketing from the University of British Columbia will teach core concepts and tools to help you understand and excel in marketing. The course covers social media strategy and other key marketing topics, including market research, brand strategy, pricing, integrated marketing communication, and more. Learn through the award-winning teaching approaches of the Sauder School of Business’s marketing faculty.
The Business of Social, from Northwestern University, will address how to transform your organization’s social marketing from an untracked investment to an integral part of its marketing strategy. Learn the legal considerations, performance metrics, and management tactics for success.
Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, from the Digital Garage at Google, is a free course. Accredited by Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe and The Open University, it includes 26 modules, all created by Google trainers. It has practical exercises and real-world examples to help you turn knowledge into action. The social media portion will help identify suitable social network sites, create targeted content, and measure success.
Meta Blueprint offers a series of free, self-paced online courses and webinars to build your marketing skills across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Follow a sequence of tutorials, such as “build brand awareness” and “generate leads.” Follow content by type and become a certified expert. Prepare with study guides and practice tests, and then take an online exam to earn the credential.
Meta Blueprint
Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content, from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, explains how to create more effective marketing ideas for brands and products. Drawing on principles from his book, “Contagious: Why Things Catch On,” Professor Jonah Berger illustrates successful strategies for using buzz to create virality. Gain a better understanding of how to craft contagious content, build stickier messages, and get any product, idea, or behavior to catch on.
Social Media Monitoring on Udemy shows you how to curate content and find online influencers. Master the art and science of social media monitoring to identify hot pockets of conversation and meet your audience on its own turf. Learn social media monitoring for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Craigslist, blogs, and forums.
Social Media and Marketing Webinars is a YouTube playlist that features content from a Buffer Week of Webinars, covering topics such as content curation, Instagram for business, Facebook strategy, and more.
Social Media Marketing Course from the HubSpot Academy will help you shape the conversation around your business, build loyalty, and attract new customers and partners. Join HubSpot Academy professor Crystal King to learn how to build an effective social media strategy, set up social listening and moderation, create social content, extend your reach, excel in digital advertising, measure return on investment, and more.
HubSpot Academy – Social Media Marketing Course
Content, Advertising & Social IMC, from Northwestern University, shows how marketers successfully navigate today’s media landscape. Learn why developing engaging content for your audience is essential to effective social marketing. Get an integrated who-what-where plan that utilizes platform-specific messaging to grow your market share. Gain gamification tips to keep your audiences coming back for more, and learn the secrets to advertising on Facebook and other social sites.
Social Media Analytics, from Quintly, covers the basic principles and fundamentals of social media analytics for beginners and marketers who want to refresh their knowledge. It aims to help anybody involved in social media analytics, whether working for a brand, an agency, or in media.
Social Media Strategy for Small Business is a four-module course. Explore the different types of social media and methods for preparing and sharing content. Learn how to meaningfully measure engagement on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Assess your social media strategies in ecommerce.
Writing for Social Media, from the University of California, Berkeley, and online course provider edX offers a framework for social media writing, focusing on purpose, content, and audiences. Learn how to structure and write content that delivers your messaging, engages your audience, and tells your company’s story.
Writing for Social Media
Quick Sprout University offers a wide variety of short classes in social media, content and email marketing, advertising, search engine optimization, link building, and more. Social media courses include “How to Build a Social Media Marketing Funnel” and “How to Effectively Market Your Small Business on Social Media.” Learn how to set up your social media profiles for search engines and turn followers into customers.
Marketing Analytics: Marketing Measurement Strategy is an introduction to marketing analytics. Find out how to use analytics to allocate your ad spend and generate more revenue efficiently. Learn market segmentation to position products and services. Understand which metrics to track to carry out your strategy.
Digital Marketing Analytics in Practice, available through the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, introduces the science of web analytics and applies data analytics to real-world challenges marketers confront daily. Gain hands-on knowledge for planning, collecting, analyzing, and reporting data.
Social Media Ethics explores ethical, respectful behavior on social media. Learn to exercise sound judgment, demonstrate tolerance and consideration for others, and do the right thing on social media.
Social Media Marketing in Practice Specialization, from the Digital Marketing Institute, is a four-part program on Social Media Marketing. The first course begins with the core principles of digital marketing and transformation before moving into the basics of social media and content marketing. The second course dives into social media, business strategy, and the relative strengths of key social platforms for marketers. The third course focuses on marketing through Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. The final course covers advertising on Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube and social selling tactics to engage with today’s consumers.
Social Media Marketing in Practice Specialization
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