Free social media classes you can take online

In today's digital age, it is important that individuals have the ability to catch people's attention via social media and build an engaged audience that looks forward to their posts and updates. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so many more are used by people to express their personality online. Being able to prolifically use these sites to one's advantage is considered an essential digital skill in this 21st century knowledge-based economy. Whether you're hunting for a new job or trying to establish yourself as a freelancer, your social media presence and personal website provides prospective employers a window into your personality and interests. Digital media expert Kyle Pearce has assembled on his website a series of free social media classes you can for free on the internet. If you want to improve your social media skills or build a career in the digital space, here are a few courses that will help you get started and learn the ropes:

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Inbound Marketing Certification – Hubspot Academy

Hubspot is known to offer a variety of free inbound marketing certification programmes. While most of their courses are directed at people in the digital marketing industry, you will be able to learn a lot about content marketing if you put your mind to it. You can watch their videos at your own pace and then take an exam to get a certificate from Hubspot.

Diploma in Social Media Marketing – Alison

You can now obtain a diploma in social media marketing in a matter of just 15-20 hours with this free course. Through this programme, you'll learn the use of email marketing, Facebook marketing, affiliate marketing and so much more. You'll also be trained in the use of social media tools like podcasting and blogging.

Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content – Coursera

This is a relatively new course which teaches you the key ideas and concepts behind viral marketing and creating content that inspires people to share it with their friends. Some of its popular content includes – ‘The Power of Word of Mouth’ and ‘What Makes Ideas Sticky?’ The course has two options, one paid and the second unpaid. The second option allows you to access all the videos but doesn't give you a certificate.

Social Media Marketing : How to Profit in a Digital World – Coursera

This course is specially designed for marketing professionals and business owners who want to develop a social media strategy to take their business to the next level. The specialisation consists of six social media courses that you must complete and projects that help you apply what you've learnt. At the end, you are given a certificate to highlight your new skills on your resume.

Writing For The Web – Open 2 Study

This course is especially helpful for aspiring bloggers. The course includes several topics, some of which are – ‘Why Writing For The Web Is Different’, ‘Writing Effective Content’, and ‘Characteristics Of Good Content’. By the end of this course, you'll be able to create content for the web with a content strategy, write content that can be scanned easily, and train your focus on page ranking.

Once you've gained insight from the above courses, you'll have to put your knowledge to practice to hone your social media skills. As Malcolm Gladwell once said, “It takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field.”