With more businesses leveraging social media for marketing, free social media marketing courses can be a great way to learn the basics. To get started, Personal Branding from Coursera is a popular choice, with a focus on building an online presence. If you're looking to create an online business venture, Coursera's Launch an Online Business course is another great option. You can also learn how to optimize your digital assets with Get Digital and Creative Thinking Techniques and Tools for Successa10KW Digital Marketing.
For those just starting out in the world of social media marketing, the Facebook Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate from Coursera offers comprehensive beginner-level training. Additionally, the Social Media Marketing Specialization provides a structured, four-course sequence focused on engaging customers and delivering strong ROI. The Social Media Marketing: An Introduction course provides the tools needed to jumpstart successful campaigns, while the How to Increase Engagement to an Instagram Business Profile project helps learners practice their skills. To develop a successful social media management strategy, the Social Media Management course offers best practices to optimize the performance of campaigns.
The Wharton Contagious Viral Marketing course on Coursera is an advanced look at how to create viral campaigns and messages that can be used in social media. For those looking to use more creative methods, the Create Animated Social Media Posts with Canva course offers techniques for creating captivating social media visuals. Finally, the Increase Reach with Blogging course covers the fundamentals of blogging as a way to increase reach and exposure on social media.
Strong written and oral communication skills are needed for learning social media marketing. It can also help to have good computer skills and to be comfortable posting on social media sites using either a personal computer or an app on your mobile device. Interpersonal skills can be helpful if you work as part of a marketing team, to communicate with your employer and teammates. It can also help if you’re creative and have good organizational skills.
People who enjoy creating interesting and informative material can be among the best suited for roles in social media marketing. This can be in a variety of content formats, such as written material, photos, and video posts. This type of marketing can also be a career path that’s a comfortable fit for a person who tends to be outgoing and friendly. People who are analytical and highly organized can do well in the management of social media marketing campaigns.
Social media influencers, content writers, and vloggers are some common career paths in social media marketing. These tend to be the base-level jobs in this industry, with hands-on tasks and direct interaction with a personal audience. Higher-level jobs in this industry can include social media marketing managers, marketing plan coordinators, and social media analysts. Public relations managers and online community managers can also sometimes be employed in the social media marketing field.
Some topics you can study that are related to social media marketing include consumer psychology, viral marketing, and digital marketing. Search engine optimization, or SEO, can also be a useful topic to study in this field. Personal branding and e-marketing are related to some aspects of social media marketing, and marketing strategy may be thought of as a broader field that includes social media marketing.
Some types of places that typically hire people who have a social media marketing background include retail facilities, manufacturing companies, and marketing agencies. Social media marketers may also be hired by educational facilities, publishing companies, and entertainment venues. Any organization that interacts with the public can be a potential employer for people with skills in this area of the marketing field.