20 Best Social Media Marketing Courses of 2022

Has your screen time on Facebook surged over the last year? Do you find yourself binge-watching reels more often than you’d like to? Have you considered starting a YouTube channel after seeing a friend become an overnight success?

If your answer to any of these questions was a yes, you’re not alone.

In 2020, over 45% of the world’s population was on social media, says SmartInsights. That’s almost 3.5 billion people. With half the world on social media, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have become money-making machines for anyone looking to share their knowledge and get creative. Brands are making social media platforms their main point of contact and are using their exclusive features to gain traction. Be it shoppable tags, promoted posts, or five-second reels, every small bit makes a big difference.

A SmartInsights study states that 43% of the global population research products online via social networks.  This gives you an enormous opportunity to make a successful career out of social media marketing or maybe, add another star to your list of skills.. However, with so many social media courses online, it can get confusing if you’re just starting out. To make it simple for you to choose, we have compiled a list of 20 social media marketing online courses that are a must if you are looking to learn the best tips and tricks about the world of social media.

20 Best Social Media Marketing Courses

The courses mentioned start with suggestions for beginners and slowly move to the advanced level. See where you fit, and get learning today!

Beginner Level Courses

1. What is Social?

Platform: Northwestern University

Northwestern University’s social media marketing online course is available on Coursera and is perfect for anyone new to the business. With a 4.6/5.0 rating, the course is structured to help entrepreneurs and creative professionals make the right use of social media marketing opportunities. It helps in strategy creation, marketing planning, and execution, giving you an end-to-end understanding of social media marketing campaigns.

Source

2. Social Media Marketing Training

Platform: Hootsuite

Getting your social media marketing basics clear does not get easier than this. Hootsuite’s training comes with six programs that help you understand what social media marketing and creating an online presence are all about. The training also includes optimizing social media profiles and content marketing fundamentals.

The best part is that recruiters looking for such marketers have started considering this program as a standard measure of a well-qualified social media professional.

3. Digital Marketing Specialization

Platform: University of Illinois

This social media marketing certification gives you a thorough understanding of developing digital-friendly marketing campaigns and leveraging social media platforms to create a database of your target group, including their likes, dislikes, and more.

Like most college projects, this course ends with a capstone project with a partner university, Grainger, which focuses on your learnings and how they can be better used within the industry.

4. Social Media Ethics by Eric Schwartzman

Platform: Udemy

Understanding the right from the wrong is essential for social media marketing; this can make or break your business’s online presence. Eric takes you through the dos and don’ts of building a brand on social media to run successful campaigns and maximize results. Further, he also brings in his legal expertise and explains the laws of social media that many are not aware of.

Intermediate Level Courses

5. Comprehensive Social Media Training Bootcamp

Platform: Creative Live

Providing more than just strategy, Creative Live’s boot camp aims to take you through campaign execution and platform differentiation. If you have ample knowledge about the basics, it is important to understand the roles different platforms play in social media marketing and the varying results they bring.

Experts teach the course on these platforms to give you exclusive insights about their personal strategies that helped keep their content relevant.

6. Complete Digital Marketing by Rob Percival and Daragh Walsh

Platform: Udemy

The marketing duo’s Udemy ‘12 courses in 1’ social media marketing certification program is a complete package for beginners and experts. It takes you through the basics and into advanced strategic planning and content execution, keeping you on your toes and engaged all the time.

It details the practical application of your game plan, helping you achieve results as you learn. This program is ideal for those looking for absolute knowledge in digital marketing and provides training on Google Adwords, SEO, WordPress, and social media marketing.

7. Viral Marketing And How To Create Contagious Content by Professor Jonah Berger

Platform: Class Central

To be trained by Professor Jonah Berger of the University of Pennsylvania is a professional achievement. But to learn how to create viral content from him that gets people talking is something else.

Prof Berger’s training gives you tips on how you can make instant changes to upgrade your content, gain discoverability, and grab the audience’s attention. His tips can make your content more shareable amongst its audience, thereby making it contagious.

Source

8. Top Tips For Growing Your Followers and Going Viral by Cat Coquillette

Platform: Skillshare

A Staff Pick (premium ranked teacher) at Skillshare, Coquillette’s social media course takes you through her expert insights, strategies, and tricks for social media marketing, helping you leverage your audience and become a massive success.

She helps you understand what you can do to get those extra likes, comments, retweets, and followers that you keep refreshing your feed for. At the end of the 11 classes, you’ll find yourself ready to implement a large number of takeaways and bask in its success.

Advanced Level Courses

9. Advanced Social Media Marketing For Long-Term Success (2021) by Alex Gendimic

Platform: Udemy

Holding a 4.4 out of 5.0 rating on Udemy, this course is specially curated for professionals with some social media marketing experience. It helps you bridge the gap between knowing how to do social media marketing well and how to do social media marketing like a top-notch marketer.

The course aids you in creating an online presence for your brand that will sustain you in the long run and give you the results you’re looking for. It goes beyond social media and takes you through a few external digital marketing strategies in SEO and Google Adwords.

10. Advanced Social Media Strategy For Picking Up Clients by Brian Yang

Platform: Udemy

Yang’s course on Udemy is a one-stop-shop if you’re looking to build a community for your brand. From client servicing using Facebook Groups to gaining a massive number of subscribers on YouTube, this training helps grow your business’s online presence.

The tagline of this course that says ‘picking up clients with social media is 48 hours or less’ stands by its name and most definitely gives results.

11. Social Media Marketing Masterclass by Mark and Philomena Timberlake

Platform: Udemy

The Timberlakes’ social media marketing online course is truly a masterclass in the field. It helps you learn how to set up a simple yet powerful online marketing strategy for your business while also learning how to create a voice for your brand and give it away to be recalled by its customers.

Also, being cohort-specific, this masterclass makes you understand how you can target your audience specifically and turn them into followers based on their culture and choices.

12. The Strategy of Content Marketing by University of California, Davis

Platform: Coursera

This is not a social media marketing course, but it unites you with the social media marketing ecosystem. It goes above, and beyond the usual rhythm wherein one finds themselves chasing followers and likes and gives you in-depth knowledge of what one must do to become knowledgeable in social media marketing.

You will learn to spend time strategizing and creating basic marketing frameworks rather than just quick executions. It takes you back to your basics and hones your skills.

Source

Free Social Media Marketing Courses

13. Facebook Blueprint’s Free Online Courses

Platform: Facebook

Facebook Business’ Blueprint offers free, quick self-study courses to help you develop social media marketing skills on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. You can select general upskilling topics or get more specific by choosing topics from different verticals like marketing, advertising, and overall Facebook app knowledge.

They also offer free learning programs for small businesses, brands, agencies, job seekers, students, educators, charities, community leaders, and developers. Facebook Blueprint offers paid certifications to become a Facebook Certified Professional. 

14. Analytics Academy Courses

Platform: Google Analytics Academy

Google’s Analytics Academy helps you learn in-depth about Google Analytics, a free tool that tracks online advertising spending. It also helps you understand conversion insights with tracking tools to analyze which social media tools and content make the most sales and generate leads.

You can choose from four analytics-based free courses for beginners, intermediate, professional, and advanced knowledge. They also provide free mini-courses on Google Analytics YouTube Channel. If you want to test your learning in Google Analytics, you can also apply for a certification called the Google Analytics Individual Qualification exam (GAIQ).

15. Social Media Strategy Course

Platform: HubSpot Academy

HubSpot Academy offers a free social media marketing course with a certification in Social Media Strategy. This course is meant for social media marketers, marketing managers, and aspiring marketers.

You will learn how to develop an effective social media strategy for your business, boost social learning and moderation, create engaging social content, excel in digital advertising, etc. The course duration is 4 hours and 15 minutes, with eight lessons, 40 videos, and 29 quizzes.

The best part is getting an industry-recognizable badge and certificate that you can link to your LinkedIn and boost your resume. Those who learn better by reading instead of watching can also access a free workbook.

16. Build Your Personal Brand and Sell Your Expertise Using Social Media Course

Platform: Social Creators

Probably one of the best courses for marketers and advertising professionals, this course will help you set yourself apart in this competitive field by helping you build your digital portfolio. The portfolio quantifies the business results you have brought in so far with your skills.

Through their 21-page guide, you will be able to set up your own WordPress account and build a portfolio involving case studies. You will also learn how to create blog posts and pages optimized for search engines, build an email list, basic Google Analytics, and conversion tools. 

17. The Strategy of Content Marketing by Sonia Simone

Platform: Coursera

This course will take your digital writing experience to the next level. It is crafted by Copyblogger and the University Of California, Davis, and will teach you content marketing strategies to acquire and retain customers while making a profit. 

With course instructor Sonia Simone, you will also learn how to implement content marketing, measure its effectiveness and use the strategy while writing copy. 

You will be told to action your ideas and build your brand through content writing as an assignment. With 38 videos, seven quizzes, and 19 hours to complete the course, you get an option to either do this course for free or access a paid version to get a certification linking it to your LinkedIn. The course has an excellent 4.5-star rating on Coursera with over 200,000 enrollments, making it one of the most sought-after free social media marketing course. 

18. Strategic Social Media Marketing

Platform: Boston University & edX’s 

These advanced-level social media course will teach you how to make engaging content for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat, identify social influencers, effectively deliver content to target groups, and measure the campaign’s success rate. This course has six subparts and will require four to six hours every week to complete. 

You can take this course for free or pay to get a valid social media marketing certification. Even though anybody can take this course, some prerequisites to make you eligible to apply for the course are understanding the undergraduate level of marketing concepts and statistical concepts.

19. Social Media Marketing Course

Platform: Oxford Home Study Centre

A great start for entry-level social media marketers and digital aspirants. This course provides a foundation-level knowledge of social media marketing. It covers topics like marketing mix, the five Ps of marketing, expanding digital presence, and much more.

The course takes 20 hours of learning and can be completed at your own pace with no deadline issues. You will get continuous tutor support and a free shareable certification to boost your CV.

20. Social Media Quickstarter

Platform: Constant Contact

For beginners or those in need of advanced studies, Constant Contact’s Social Media Quick Start Program is an easy way to help them learn marketing strategies across eight platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Google, YouTube, and Snapchat. 

Choose a social networking site that you want to learn more about, and you will be taken to its resource page. There are no examinations at the end of the courses. Blog style, short and engaging posts help you understand marketing basics on today’s most popular platforms. 

No registration is required so that you can dive in anytime, anywhere. Backed by 25 years in the social media industry, Constant Contact’s free course is ideal for those who want straightforward, self-paced online education.

Along with this course, you can also opt-in for a free online marketing guide full of expert tools and tips you can use to take your marketing strategy a notch above.

Conclusion

These are among the top social media courses you can take to add social media skills to your learning toolkit. Choose the one that intrigues you the most and give it a shot. If you don’t like it, you are always free to switch to another one. Regardless of which you pick, you are guaranteed to learn things about social media marketing that can amplify your businesses success.

FAQs