Social media marketing is more complicated than ever. You need a proper strategy, content creation skills, copywriting formulas in your back pocket, and a knack for tying it all together.
It doesn’t hurt to borrow the hard-earned lessons of industry experts who’ve come before you. Here are the top 12 courses to improve your social media marketing skills.
Some of these courses are free. But even the paid courses are worth every penny, I promise.
There are two types of courses on this list:
- Cohort-based courses: These courses have a fixed start and end date. You’ll work through the material in real time with other students and your instructor(s). These courses are excellent for accountability and networking, although they aren’t as accommodating to your schedule.
- Self-paced courses: These courses usually have pre-recorded content that you can download and learn at your own pace. These courses are much more flexible than cohort-based courses, but there’s little to no accountability or community learning present.
There’s no one “better” type of course. Cohort courses are best when you want a structured and communal learning experience. Self-paced courses are a better choice when you have a busy schedule and want to learn independently.
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🎁 5 free social media marketing courses (by social media platforms)
Before we begin to learn social media marketing as a whole, it’s critical to acknowledge that every social media platform has its own playbook. Almost all social platforms create courses designed to ace its algorithms and learn more about all its features. Here are all of them:
- TikTok academy: to learn everything that TikTok can do for small businesses.
- Growing your business with LinkedIn pages: for learning how to use LinkedIn for business.
- Instagram’s creator best practices: for learning the basics of the platform, understanding how to create Instagram Reels, and ways to earn.
- Meta Blueprint: for learning about the basics of digital marketing, Facebook, Instagram, and ads.
- Pinterest Academy: for learning the ins and outs of Pinterest advertising.
5 courses on building a social media marketing strategy
This section is dedicated to courses that help you build a social media marketing strategy from scratch. Many of them also contain directions for creating content, writing A+ captions, and more.
1: Meta’s social media marketing course
Best course for beginners seeking to receive professional training
Price: Free.
Instructor(s): Anke Audenaert, Daniel Kob.
Length: The course lasts five months and requires 10 hours/week. You can learn at your own pace.
What you’ll learn:
- How to build a strong social media presence
- Analyzing your social media performance
- The ins and outs of Meta ads manager
Meta’s social media marketing course is one of the best free courses to learn the basics of social media marketing directly from the horse’s mouth. It’s a pretty popular course with over 17,000 raving reviews.
It’s designed for beginners. You might not get the highest return-on-investment (ROI) from this course if you’ve already been at the social media marketing thing for a while. But if you’re at the beginner level or someone who’s just got their foot in social media from another career, Meta’s course is the perfect place to begin.
It also offers a completion certificate, so it’s a good choice if you want to stamp a social media certification on your resume.
2: Impactful social writing
Best course for becoming a thought leader in your niche
Price: To be confirmed when the next cohort starts. Previously $127.
Instructor(s): Erica Schneider, Kasey Jones
Length: Not publicly available. There are five modules of content.
What you’ll learn:
- How to build your personal brand
- How to stay consistent on social media
- How to generate social media post ideas that your audience would actually want to read
Impactful social writing is taught by industry pros Erica Schneider and Kasey Jones. They’ve built successful businesses via their own social media channels, and this course helps you learn the principles they followed via frameworks and real-world examples.
It’s not a free online course, but I’d argue it’s a better choice for someone who wants to build a personal brand, hone in on their target audience, and find their unique voice on social media.
If you want to become a thought leader in your niche, there’s no better choice. Don’t believe me? The course offers a 14-day money back guarantee if you don’t think the social media marketing course is worth your investment.
3: HubSpot’s social media marketing course
Best course for small business owners seeking to learn the fundamentals
Price: Free.
Instructor(s): Crystal King, Jason Hsaio
Length: There are nine lessons that you can complete at your own pace within five hours.
What you’ll learn:
- How to develop a social media marketing strategy as a small business owner
- How to drive inbound traffic that’ll help you grow your revenue
- Basics of social media advertising
HubSpot academy isn’t an unfamiliar name in the social media marketing world. This free course by the company is a good start for any small business owner looking to kickstart their social media marketing efforts.
Meta’s course might be more geared towards its own networks, so HubSpot is a good choice if you want a well-rounded free course. The module includes basic knowledge about social media marketing for marketing professionals for all social media platforms. Like Meta, it also offers social media certification if you need it.
4: The creator project collective
Best course for creators who want to build an audience and earn an income
Price: There are three pricing tiers. The cheapest one is priced at $197/quarter.
Instructor(s): Jade Beason.
Length: Not publicly available, but there’s a library of over 50 masterclasses.
What you’ll learn:
- How to get brand partnerships
- How to grow your following on any social media platform
- How to earn an income via your social media marketing efforts
Jade Beason started earning six figures soon after she uploaded her first YouTube video. How? Because of her 8+ years of business and marketing experience. Through her creator collective community, she’s teaching other digital marketers how to do the same.
The best part is that Jade has designed her entire course to include a community and run on a subscription model. This means you can keep learning from her and the experts she invites on the go, live, as you progress in your own social media marketing efforts.
There’s a whole mobile app dedicated to this community. This course is perfect for you if you want to grow your following and develop a social media marketing plan to earn a sustainable income as a full-time creator.
5: Social media united
Best course for aspiring social media managers
Price: Free.
Instructor(s): Rachel Pederson.
Length: There are over 42 lessons.
What you’ll learn:
- How to become an excellent social media manager
- How to find, manage, and retain various freelance clients
- The basics of running a Facebook page, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Quora, and Pinterest
Rachel Pederson runs her own social media marketing agency and teaches how to be an excellent social media marketing manager using her course, social media united. The course used to cost $69/month earlier, but is now completely free.
Rachel’s course content is a great step-by-step guide for anyone who wants to learn how to freelance as a social media manager or sharpen their in-house social media marketing skills. If you’re looking to get handy templates, community support, and learn client management, Pederson’s course is top-notch.
3 courses on writing social media captions and ads
Writing well is one of the most coveted digital marketing skills. Learning to write irresistible captions and ad copy (if you invest in advertising) should be a non-negotiable part of your social media strategy. Here are some courses on writing social copy:
1: Hooked on writing hooks
Best course for learning how to write hooks
Price: Doors are currently closed, but we're holding out for the next edition.
Instructor(s): Erica Schnieder, Rob Lennon.
Length: Unknown (it’s a text-based resource).
What you’ll learn:
- How to write engaging hooks that reel in the reader in
- How to fix bad openings of your social media posts
- How to use AI to generate hooks
Erica Schnieder is a professional editor and marketer. She created hooked on writing hooks to help creators, entrepreneurs, and small business owners capture their audience’s attention on social media using authentic (and not clickbaity) hooks.
I’ve purchased this course and found immense value in it. You’ll get a goldmine of what goes into writing a great hook, a library you can use anytime, and the opportunity to explore new AI capabilities.
2: High impact writing
Best course for learning how to write persuasively
Price: $397.
Instructor(s): Kieran Drew.
Length: There are four modules. Most lessons are less than five minutes long. There’s also an option to choose a written version of the course, if you prefer to learn via reading rather than watching.
What you’ll learn:
- How to write short-form and long-form content on social media
- How to build an audience using Kieran’s “magnetic writing” approach
- How to improve your writing and develop a system to write consistently
Kieran was a burned out dentist. Then, he made $500,00/year in less than four years after starting his online writing business. His course, high impact writing, teaches you the valuable skills he’s learned.
The learning material is quite digestible and Kieran teaches you how you can make money by writing on social media. His approach is to teach you storytelling that works across social media platforms to cut through the noise and help you resonate with your audience on a deep, emotional level.
3: 10x Facebook ads
Best course for learning ad copywriting
Price: $497.
Instructor(s): Wahida Lakhani.
Length: There are 10 modules that’ll take roughly five hours to complete.
What you’ll learn:
- The fundamentals and advanced concepts of ad copywriting
- How to choose the right images and videos for your ads
- Conversion principles to write effective ad copy
Facebook ads are constantly changing. There's a new upgrade to the platform, updates to the algorithm, and whatnot. The 10x Facebook ads course is designed to withstand it all by laying a solid foundation of copywriting. It won’t teach you the latest trends, but it’ll work on tightening the persuasive psychology that works on all the different channels of internet marketing.
Wahida has earned multi-millions in revenue for clients, and she shares those lessons with you in this course. It has real-world applications that can endure all the changes Zuck brings to your ad account. This course is the perfect choice if you’re running ads on any social media platform.
1 course on creating visuals for social media
1: Premiere pro
Best course for learning Premiere pro
Price: $13.99 for lifetime access.
Instructor(s): Stephen Koel Soren.
Length: Four hours and 30 minutes of on-demand video.
What you’ll learn:
- How to earn money using video editing (basics)
- Beginner to advanced concepts of using Adobe Premiere pro
- How to use motion graphics, visual effects, and transitions
Creating video content has become non-negotiable in almost all social strategies. Video editing has become a desirable skill. When you’re ready to upgrade from native app editing tools within social media apps, CapCut, and InShot, use this course.
Stephen goes in-depth on how to use Premiere pro for video editing and creating an impact using video. Note that you will learn video editing in a silo. This course isn’t designed specifically keeping social media in mind. Because it’s on Udemy, you also get fancy professional certifications.
Remember: Courses aren’t a magic pill
There are plenty of social media courses out there. But ultimately, the real test is how you implement what you learn in the real, ever-changing world of social media marketing.
Many of these social media courses also lack up-to-date information because the digital world is always changing. This is why I’d always recommend taking a course that teaches you evergreen foundational knowledge — like finding your target audience, learning to read social analytics, how to reach your marketing goals, etc. that can last even as the platforms change.
And if you’re wondering whether you should just stick to free social media marketing courses or upgrade to paid ones, I’d recommend sticking to free courses until you feel they have nothing more left to offer you. Once you feel you need to learn more, invest in paid ones to learn advanced topics.