Which Social Media Marketing Training Format Is Right for Me?

Almost 5 billion people use social media across the globe, making it a perfect way to reach out to potential customers to promote products. Social media marketing careers are expected to grow by as much as ten percent over the next decade, so many people are pursuing social media marketing training. When comparing types of social media marketing courses, there are many factors to consider. Everyone learns differently, and choosing the right kind of training is critical to your experience.

Keep reading to find out more about the different formats of social media marketing training, how they compare to each other, and how to determine which is best for you.

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.

Training Formats for Social Media Marketing

You can learn social media marketing in person, live online, on-demand, or through free tutorials. The method you choose should depend upon how you learn best and what you plan to do with social media marketing.

In-Person Social Media Marketing Training

Some people prefer to attend in-person classes at a brick-and-mortar location when learning new information. If you like to interact face to face with your instructor and classmates, this would be a good option for you when it comes to learning social media marketing. In an in-person class, you can ask the instructor questions, get help when you have difficulties with assignments, make connections with other students and do some networking. Of course, there are drawbacks to in-person classes, too. There is time spent commuting to the site and finding parking or paying for transportation, and sometimes the class timing isn’t convenient.

Noble Desktop offers a Social Media Marketing Certificate in person in New York City from a state-of-the-art campus in Midtown Manhattan. Students use classroom computers with the necessary tools downloaded, and the instructor is in the room. Other in-person training options include Brainstation’s Social Media Marketing Certificate, General Assembly’s Social Media Bootcamp, and a collection of social media marketing classes by Certstaffix Training.

Live Online Social Media Marketing Training

Certificate programs are designed to give you the skill set you need to succeed as a Social Media Marketer. 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 are intensive courses focusing exclusively on social marketing subjects and take two to four months to complete.

Noble Desktop offers a Social Media Marketing Bootcamp covering the tools and techniques you need to succeed in social media marketing. This course covers the social media giants, including Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and introduces students to the optimal social media strategies for brand building to enhance a business. Topics include social media strategy development, content creation, brand building, analytics, and conversion optimization. This program also includes a free retake option so you can come back within a year to refresh the material.

You can also take a Social Media Marketing Certificate through Noble Desktop. 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.

Free Online Courses & Tutorials

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.

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.

On-Demand Classes

Some companies offer asynchronous online classes that you can take according to your own schedule. You can watch the videos from work or home and move at your own pace. Udacity offers a class called Become a Digital Marketer, and Udemy offers VIP Digital Marketing Master.

One advantage to asynchronous video classes is that you can go back and watch the material as many times as you need to if you are having trouble with a concept.

Comparison of Social Media Marketing Training Formats

You can learn social media marketing in different environments: in-person, live online, or on-demand online. Each setting has its own advantages and disadvantages, and your choice of how to study social media marketing will depend upon your comfort level, the time you have to devote to study, and how much you want to interact with students and an instructor. Don’t worry that you won’t learn as much in an online class as you would in an in-person class. Research shows that students learn just as well (and sometimes even better!) when taking virtual courses.

In-person instruction and live online classes are the most engaging and interactive formats. Students can ask questions and receive immediate feedback, receive guidance on building portfolios, and interact with like-minded peers. Face-to-face training offers additional bonuses like networking opportunities and computer labs with up-to-date software.

Live online social media marketing classes, bootcamps, and certificate programs provide the same advantages as their in-person counterparts: they’re interactive, comprehensive training courses led by expert instructors. Virtual courses offer flexibility for attendees who may not be able to travel to in-person classes, so students have the chance to master digital marketing from the comfort of their homes or offices. Thanks to virtual options, you can benefit from online classes taught anywhere, no matter where the school is based.

On-demand learning is typically the most affordable option and can be a good way to start learning the basics, but this method doesn’t offer the benefits of live instruction and has the potential to be outdated. You can watch videos at your own pace from anywhere with a stable internet connection.

Is it Possible to Teach Yourself Social Media Marketing?

How you choose to learn social media marketing is up to you. You can watch free video tutorials like Noble Desktop’s Intro to Social Media Marketing to get an introduction, but after that, the best plan is to sign up for a class. You can take live in-person classes or choose online instruction. Some people prefer to attend brick-and-mortar sessions when learning new information. They prefer having an instructor in the room and like to get to know other students. Unfortunately, that option isn’t always available. If you can’t find an in-person digital marketing class, you can take one online.

On-demand classes on the internet are the most prevalent, and one of their big advantages is that many of them are free. These classes are pre recorded, and you can watch them whenever and wherever it is convenient. You can find hours and hours of on-demand classes on YouTube on digital marketing. The main drawback to on-demand classes is that you can’t contact the instructor and ask questions or get help if you need it.

One of the best ways to learn social media marketing is through live online classes. This hybrid model blends the best of in-person classes with the convenience of online instruction. You have access to a real-time live instructor, but you don’t have to commute and can take the class from anywhere with internet access. Live online classes usually run at the same time as an in-person class, and tuition costs are the same.

How to Decide the Best Way to Learn Social Media Marketing

What is the best way to learn social media marketing? That is up to you to decide. You can take an in-person class or study through a live-online program. You can choose courses that meet during the week, on the weekends, or in the evenings. And you can select the level where you feel comfortable starting.

If you are just starting with social media marketing, you might be more interested in a general overview of the key features of social media marketing, such as what it is, how you do it, and what tools you need. Many free introductory seminars, such as Intro to Social Media Marketing from Noble Desktop, offer this overview for beginners of social media marketing.

Once you understand social media marketing fundamentals, you might want to learn more about content creation or analytics tools. You can sign up for a bootcamp course that covers social media marketing in more depth, like one of Noble Desktop’s social media marketing bootcamps. These bootcamps deliver targeted instruction on the different social media platforms, Google Analytics, content marketing strategy, and search engine optimization/SEO.

If you want to master social media marketing for a new career or pivot from another industry, a social media marketing certificate course can help you stand out from other candidates. Noble Desktop’s Social Media Marketing Certificate covers the major social media platforms and their analytics and advertising programs, plus how to manage content and boost business. This full-length course includes 1-on-1 mentoring and assistance with designing and assembling your professional portfolio.

Key Insights

• You can learn social media marketing for free by watching video tutorials and studying on your own, but signing up for a paid class can take you much further.
• You can choose from in-person instruction, live online classes, or on-demand videos.
• It is possible to learn social media marketing on your own, but it is much more efficient to take classes.
• You can choose the level of class you want according to what you want to do with social media marketing.
• You can receive comprehensive social media marketing training through an in-person or live online course with Noble Desktop.