Best Free Social Media Marketing Resources & Tutorials

If you are considering switching to a new career as a Social Media Marketer, there are many free social media marketing resources you can take advantage of before paying for classes. These include video tutorials on YouTube, other tutorials, podcasts, and books.

Read on to learn more about the different types of free resources and tutorials available to help you learn 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.

Free Social Media Marketing Resources

Noble Desktop’s YouTube channel offers many free social media marketing video tutorials, and the content is updated regularly to present the most up-to-date information in the rapidly changing world of social media marketing. The videos are each about an hour long and include graphics, images, and explanations by social media marketing instructors. Watching these videos is a great way to learn the basics of digital marketing and decide if you want to change careers.

The Pillars of Digital Marketing Success introduces digital marketing, including social media marketing, and is a good place to start. It covers an overview of different channels, presents a framework for digital marketing success, and discusses the importance of market research and how to do it.

Intro to Social Media Marketing focuses on the four fundamentals of social media: determining the right social media platform for your goals, developing a successful social media strategy, creating content that increases engagement and drives sales, and gaining a following and expanding your reach.

Intro to Social Media Marketing with Video shows you how to make an engaging and lasting impact through video. This tutorial mainly focuses on YouTube and TikTok but also touches on Instagram and Facebook videos. The main points discussed are setting goals and tracking results, knowing your audience and engaging with them, scheduling your content and maintaining consistency, and determining a strategy for paid advertising.

Intro to Facebook Marketing covers the fundamentals of Facebook marketing, which are similar to social media and video marketing but more specific to Facebook. This tutorial covers how to create earned media and the ins and outs of Facebook Ads.

Website Fundamentals & Conversion Optimization covers best practices for building an effective website, including tips for increasing your website and actions to improve website performance. It also covers how to track website activity and conversions, which is crucial to increasing sales.

Intro to Google Analytics gives an overview of web analytics and Google Analytics in particular. Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of web data to understand and optimize website performance. Google Analytics is a free tool within the Google Marketing Platform that collects data and compiles it into useful reports that you can use to see who is visiting your website and what they are doing there.

Dominate Local Search with Google My Business focuses on the importance of local search listing and how to use Google My Business (GMB). The tutorial demonstrates how to add your business to GMB, what is included in a GMB listing, how to complete your GMB profile, and where to get additional help setting up your listing.

Other Free Tutorials

Facebook Blueprint is a collection of more than 80 courses on Facebook advertising and how to use it. You need to create an account, but the classes are free.

The Strategy of Content Marketing through Coursera covers how to plan, organize, and implement a successful content marketing campaign.

HubSpot Academy offers a free SEO certification course covering search engine optimization (SEO) to improve website performance and paid and unpaid advertising strategies.

SEMRush Academy is a collection of free classes from the company that creates SEO tools. Topics include SEO crash course, content-led SEO, and How to Get Hired as a Digital Marketer.

Social Media 101 Constant Contact offers free seminars on the basics of social media marketing. They cover the differences between using social media as a private person and using it as a business, how to create a business page and profile, creating effective content to increase engagement, and using paid advertising.

Internet Marketing for Smart People This free class from Copyblogger covers the four pillars of online marketing: building relationships, creating quality content, marketing that content, and having something work selling.

Podcasts

Podcasts are a great way to learn about social media marketing and keep up with current trends. Here are some popular offerings.

Paid Search Magic with Amy and James Hebdon on Apple Podcasts. The Hebdons run a marketing agency of the same name and share their wisdom on paid search marketing.

The Content 10X Podcast with Amy Woods covers content marketing. Episodes cover things like content recycling, adapting content for different social media platforms, how to respond to a crisis, and other topics.

The Blogger Genius Podcast is by Jillian Leslie, founder of MilTree.com and CatchMyParty.com. She focuses on blogging, entrepreneurship, and what is happening in the world of social media marketing.

The Suitcase Entrepreneur with Natalie Sisson is on Apple, iTunes, and Stitcher. Sisson builds a successful online business in order to have the freedom to travel and live the way she wants. She is especially good at helping listeners discover what they are passionate about in their product or service.

Books

While books are technically not free, you can borrow them from the local library without paying for them. Here are some that are highly recommended.

The End of Marketing: Humanizing Your Brand in the Age of Social Media by Carlos Gill. This book discusses bringing a human touch to social media marketing by understanding the newsfeed algorithm and creating a better paid-strategy plan.

Social Media Marketing Workbook: How to Use Social Media for Business 2022 by Jason McDonald. Recently updated for 2022, this book covers content marketing, different platforms, and email marketing with downloadable worksheets to fill out.

Everybody Writes: You Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley. This is a guide to content strategy, including advice on writing, storytelling, and helpful content tools.

Taking the Next Step

Once you have watched several free tutorials, listened to some podcasts, and read a few books, you may be ready to take the next step and sign up for a paid class in social media marketing. Many schools offer online courses in social media marketing, some of them as asynchronous classes that you can take in your spare time. Certificate programs take two to four months to complete. These are intensive courses focusing exclusively on digital marketing subjects.

Noble Desktop offers a Social Media Marketing Certificate. The course curriculum includes a LinkedIn Marketing Bootcamp, YouTube Marketing, TikTok Marketing, Social Media Content Marketing: Blogs and Twitter, Instagram Marketing Bootcamp, Facebook Marketing Bootcamp, Streaming for Social Media, and Social Media Industry and Portfolio. This class will give you the tools and techniques you need to succeed in social media marketing. In addition to the interactive training, you get four 1-on-1 mentoring sessions that you can use for a portfolio review, review challenging concepts, polish your resume and LinkedIn profile, get advice from a marketing professional about applying for jobs, and ensure you are on track with your learning goals.

You can take live online classes from anywhere in the world with a set-up similar to in-person instruction. A real-time, remote instructor can answer questions and has the ability to share your screen to show you how to do things. You get the same level of attention as in in-person classes. When you complete the course, you will receive a verified digital certificate of completion licensed by the New York State Department of Education. The certificate does not expire.

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.

Key Insights

There are many free social media marketing resources you can take advantage of, including:

• Video tutorials on YouTube
• Other tutorials
• Podcasts
• Books
• While classes aren’t free, they are the best way to learn social media marketing if you want to change careers.
• You can receive comprehensive social media marketing training through an in-person or live online course with Noble Desktop.