Social Media Marketing Training Cost

Looking to learn social media marketing?You can learn social media marketing by watching free video tutorials and studying independently, but this will only get you so far. Beyond this, you’ll want to consider the cost of social media marketing training. You can expect a live online social media marketing certificate course to cost around $2,500, although on-demand video courses tend to be cheaper than in-person or live online courses. Read on to find out more about how much you can expect to spend on learning social media marketing.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing uses platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok to connect with a target audience. According to Hootsuite’s Digital 2021 report, more than 4.48 billion people use these platforms daily, making social media marketing a smart choice to help drive website traffic, build a widely-known brand, and gain revenue.

There are two types of social media marketing: paid and unpaid. Paid marketing means buying ads on different social media sites, while unpaid marketing relies on high-quality content, clicks, likes, and shares. It’s also called “earned marketing.” While earned marketing is valuable because it doesn’t cost any money, it can take a long time to see results, so Social Media Marketers need to be patient and persistent.

A social media marketing campaign is based on these five essential activities:

• Strategy–setting goals, choosing the best channels, and deciding what type of content will attract your audience.
• Planning and publishing–understanding your audience, knowing what and when to publish, and maintaining consistency.
• Listening and engagement–interacting with your audience and tracking changes in the market.
• Analytics–collecting, tracking, and analyzing data on social media accounts so you can figure out what is working for you.
• Advertising–earned and paid advertising.

Read more about what social media marketing is and why you should learn it.

What Can You Do with Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing is a powerful way to get the word out about your product or message, and one of the best things is you can do it for free. It doesn’t cost anything to open accounts on the different social media platforms, and many of the digital marketing tools you need are free to use or have a free version.

Data analytics tools allow you to research the market, identify a target audience, and tailor your message directly to them. Engagement tools let you interact with potential customers, get important feedback, see what your competitors are doing, and change your campaign as you need to. Social media marketing creates and maintains a community through regularly posted, high-quality content.

It can take a bit of time to see organic results, but you can use paid advertising to speed things up. Advertising increases engagement and is a good investment. Social media marketing tools allow you to pinpoint your audience and advertise just to them.

In-Depth Review of the Training Cost

It is totally possible to learn social media marketing for free. There are many free video tutorials and podcasts that can get you started, and once you learn to use Google’s free marketing tools and the analytics tools offered by the different social media platforms, you are set to get started. One of the best ways to learn social media marketing is to start with your own social media accounts. But this can be a hit-and-miss way to learn, and spending some money on classes can get you much further faster.

Signing up for Classes

Signing up for paid social media marketing classes is an excellent investment in your future if you want to switch careers and become a Social Media Marketer. While free tutorials can get you started, a class taught by an experienced instructor can get you working as a Social Media Marketer much more quickly.

You can choose from in-person classes or online courses. Some online sessions are pre-recorded, which is convenient because you can watch them anywhere and anytime you want. You can also go back and rewatch the videos to review something you missed or didn’t understand. However, there is no live instructor to answer questions like there is in an in-person class. In a live online class, you can join from anywhere, but there is an instructor to help you when you need it.

How Much Do Classes Cost?

This can be difficult to answer. There is a wide variation of cost from course to course, and some training programs charge tuition, while others have a subscription fee that provides you access to the classes. Online social media marketing programs can run anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. Reliablesoft’s Social Media Marketing Course is a one-week class for beginning or intermediate students and costs $119. Coursera’s Social Media Marketing Specialization costs $343 and lasts seven months. The Online Marketing Institute offers a six-hour Social Media Marketing Course for $859.

Although taking courses may help you land a career that will ultimately enable you to command a larger salary, you’ll still need to keep your current budget in mind. Do your research: many longer bootcamps and certificate programs offer payment plans, financing, scholarships, and other ways to offset the upfront costs.

Free Introductory Social Media Marketing Course Online

Free courses can give you a brief introduction to some aspects of social media marketing. This can help you decide if you want to pursue the field further. If you are not ready to commit to the time and expense involved with a bootcamp or certificate course, you can find free introductory video courses and tutorials. Noble Desktop offers Intro to Social Media Marketing, a seminar that introduces students to social media marketing and how to successfully leverage it to increase the reach of their brand. The tutorial emphasizes the importance of choosing the right social media channels for the right message and cultivating an authentic brand voice. Students learn to research what works and what doesn't for their brand, then discover what makes for good storytelling in a social media context. By the end of the tutorial, students will have a firm understanding of social media marketing and how to create an action plan to generate organic brand engagement.

Some other free online introductory courses and tutorials include What is Social? from Coursera, WordStream Learn’s PPC University, Social Media Quickstarter from Constant Contact, and Google Analytics Academy, a series of free classes about Google’s measurement tools.

There are many options for free social media marketing tutorials on YouTube. Simplilearn offers a six-hour Social Media Marketing Full Course tutorial for beginners. Neil Patel has several free tutorials on learning social media marketing and other digital marketing topics. Other YouTubers offering free online tutorials include Maggie Stara, Jordan Platten, Dan Lok, and Santrel Media.

Key Takeaways

• Opening a few social media accounts and learning social media marketing on your own is possible, but signing up for a class can make the process faster.
• You can find social media marketing certificate courses for as little as $99 up to a few thousand.
• On-demand video courses are less expensive than in-person or live online instruction, but you don’t have the opportunity to interact with students or the instructors.
• You can also find free social media marketing classes.
• You can receive comprehensive social media marketing training through an in-person or live online course with Noble Desktop.

Learn Social Media Marketing with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop’s social media marketing courses teach skills that can help you start a career in the industry. Classes are small, with expert instructors, and you can retake a course for free up to a year after you take it. Those ready to dive into the field can attend in-person classes at Noble Desktop’s New York City location or attend live online social media courses from anywhere in the world.

In Noble Desktop’s Social Media Marketing Certificate, you can master successful social media marketing tools and techniques. You will learn about strategy development, content creation, brand building, analytics, and conversion optimization.

Noble Desktop also offers more detailed courses for those looking to hone their skills on specific channels, such as Facebook Marketing, email marketing, Social Media Content Marketing: Blogs & Twitter, and Video Marketing: TikTok & YouTube, or go for a Social Media Marketing Certificate. Other Noble Desktop resources that can help prepare for a career in digital marketing include its digital marketing blog, which has detailed articles about social media marketing, SEO, and other essential tools for digital marketers. Further resources include Noble’s seminar on YouTube entitled The Pillars of Digital Marketing Success.