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Did you know how much exactly social media can affect consumers? According to the data provided by PwC, reading or writing social media comments and reviews affects 67% of consumers, greatly influencing their shopping behavior. So it isnt surprising that companies invest so much time and money into marketing specialists and their education.

However, even if you arent an employee working for a company that is willing to invest in your skills, you can still learn. The internet offers plenty of opportunities to do so these days, granting you access to some top social media marketing courses.

Perhaps, theres even too much of them for an inexperienced person to pick easily. So if you did your research and are confused by the number of options available, we are here to help you. Here are top free social media marketing courses that can boost your marketing and social media skills, even if you are a beginner.

This is an impressive online social media marketing course co-offered by Coursera to anyone, who wants a proper introduction to social media. It is suitable for executives, business owners, and marketing professionals as well, and gives clear and actionable advice on how to grow a social media strategy.

If you want, you can continue learning after finishing this course its a part of a six-course specialization called Social Media Marketing: How to Profit in a Digital World. This social media training offers you social media marketing certification on completion.

Another great course for beginners, whore looking for a way to enter the social media world without any troubles or complications getting in the way. It offers you a clear and detailed guide to building a social media presence on the most important social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and so on.

This is a beginner course as well, but a more tailored one its focused on social media analytics only. Even those of us, who arent familiar with marketing much, know how important it is to drive trading and increase revenue with the help of social media and how powerful tool for that the social media could be if used right. However, to achieve impressive results in it, you need to understand how social media analytics works and this course can help you do so. The Free Social Media Analytics Course offers you social media marketing certification on completion.

Daily writing habit is one of the most valuable habits you can have! To help you get started, we have created a 30-day email program that will help build your habit. Every day for the next 30 days we will send you a writing prompt. As this is a social media and content marketing site well send you prompts about these topics. But occasionally we add some free writing and other stuff, too. Sign up for your 30-day writing challenge.

Just as its name says, this course is indeed a quick and straightforward introduction to social media strategy. It lasts only 45 minutes but helps you craft an impressive social media foundation for your business and brand. You should take it if you want to get a grip on the basics quickly and start doing something for your business today.

Find out How to Create Your Perfect Social Media Strategy.

This social media marketing course could be a great guide for those who want to learn how to monitor their audience. Not only it gives you all the guidelines on how to do that but also provides detailed examples of monitoring, allowing you to learn from them. Like many other Udemy courses, the social media monitoring course offers you social media marketing certification on completion. Check out free social media monitoring tools to use.

It doesnt matter if you are a business owner or a marketer either way, you can benefit from this course. It allows you to line up your business goals with your social media strategy, driving real and measurable value from it.

Unlike many social media marketing courses that focus on social media content development and creation, this one focuses on measuring your social media investments and on using them in the most beneficial way for your business. Social media marketing certification means that you can earn official recognition for your skille, and share your success with friends, colleagues, and employers.

And unlike the previous one, this course focuses exactly on content creation. Not only it helps you understand which types of content work the best for social media but also gives you practical tips on how to create content that sells and how to promote that content right. The benefits of content marketing certification by HubSpot Academy: grow your career, business, and join a community.

This social media course is also focused on content creation more specifically, on how to create content that can become viral. While there are no specific characteristics of viral content that you can use in your work, there are some tips that could make your content instantly better. But whats even more important is that this course helps you understand how the content works in the first place and what is required for it to catch the audiences attraction. You can get social media marketing certification from Coursera.

Interested in understanding B2B marketing and learning how to use it right? In this case, try this course. It offers you the B2B basics as well as explains how you can use it to boost your business.

This course offers a unique perspective into the differentiating aspects of the business to business (B2B) marketing that can be contrasted to traditional business to consumer (B2C) marketing that is the subject of most other marketing curricula. Moreover, as one of the courses in the Specialization: International Marketing & Cross-Industry Growth, here too there is an emphasis on how companies can expand by cross-country and cross-industry innovation.

And even if you do have some social media and marketing experience, you can still polish and strengthen your skills for example, with the help of this course. It doesnt include any beginner tactics instead, it gives you more complex tips that could help you pick up the clients with the help of social media more quicker.

Another extremely important and extremely specific course. We dont hear about social media ethics much in our daily lives however, its important to understand it if you do want to use social media not only effectively but ethically too. This course helps you do so, touching various laws and explaining what is legal for social media and what is not. Like many other Udemy courses this course offers you social media marketing certification on completion.

These online social media marketing courses are mostly for beginners as they help to understand the basics of social media and marketing as well as find out more about every aspect of the marketing and learn how to tailor these aspects to your business. However, more experienced marketers can learn something from these social media marketing courses as well.

Of course, to make the most out of learning, youll have to work hard. The tricky thing about online learning is that its much easier to drop or manage than offline one. Picking a couple of social media marketing courses at a time might be tempting but it might as well leave you covered in assignments or lead to you dropping all of them because you cannot find time for them. Thats why choose wisely, start slowly, and remember that taking your time is always better when it comes to learning: the more time you invest, the better your results will be.

The courses above are free. Make sure you select one that will help you in the area where you are not yet most comfortable. More knowledge will translate into better ideas, and faster results and that, in turn, will build your successful career.

BIO: Lori Wade is a content writer for EliteEssayWriters whos interests range from education and online marketing to entrepreneurship. She is also an aspiring tutor striving to bring education to another level as we all do. If you are interested in her writing, you can find her on Twitter or Google+ or find her on other social media. Read and take over Loris useful insights!

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12 Free Social Media Marketing Courses to Boost Your ...

For one to get the most out of using social media in his or her business, it is important to develop a social media marketing plan that enables one to understand the goals and objectives of the business and most importantly to measure his or her success. Social media has been in existence for quite some times now meaning that information can easily be found. Some of these information are complete while the rest require one to do more research and cobble together so as to come up with a complete strategy.

Here are some sample templates to help you.

Objective determination objectives of the social media marketing plan are the goals that inform ones strategy for what platforms to be on, some of the things that he or she should post and the kind of metrics to track and this is a determination of ones investment returns. Some of the main goals include; increasing the awareness of the brand, driving sales, lead generation and creation of a community around the brand.

Making a platform decision there are three considerations that have to be made here. These are; the amount of tie that one can devote to a social network per week, the availability of the resources to come up with a designation capturing the users attention and lastly is the appearance of a target demographic.

Profile optimization some of the things that need to be optimized here include the headers together with the profile images, provision of a complete information about the company, the search engine optimization, inning of the best content among others. It is important to note that the appearance of website is a responsibility of the owner.

Getting the right tone the best way to do this is to keep in mind the target audience. Mid-management professionals for example require a professional tone in the same way, an audience of you people require one to post contents that are behind the scenes and that have a casual voice

Coming up with a calendar a social media content calendar gives a social marketing plan an outline of the kind of content that is being pushed and on which platform. Having this calendar makes social media posting a little bit simple as there is an outline of what to do and when.

The above steps provide a road map to having a successful social media marketing plan. Above all, one ought to remember to be social, to have consistency while posting and to make a great investment in the field of visuals. Above all, one should involve testing and measurements in his or her work so as to have an evaluation of progress.

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Social Media Marketing Plan Template - For (Word, PDF)

Social marketing theory is a collection of theories that focus on how socially valuable information can be promoted. This theory has been used by social and welfare organizations to help promote or discourage various behaviors. The theory is administrative in nature in such that it seeks to outline a framework that can be used to design, implement and evaluate information campaigns. The target audience is identified based on their information need. Once this is done information is packaged and distributed in a manner that will be easily accessible to the intended audience.

cacaroot/dollar photo club

The theory is an attempt to clearly understand how societal and psychological factors work to successfully manipulate them in order to increase how effective mass media information campaigns are. The theory focuses on helping identify the various social and psychological barriers that hinder the flow of information through the mass media and offers ideas and ways to overcome these barriers. These strategies range from being indigenous to the use of saturation advertising.

Features of Social Marketing Theory

1. Creating Audience Awareness

When there is a need to promote any new idea, person or behavior, the first step is to create awareness that such a new concept or individual exists. Awareness is created by using all available channels at ones disposal like news media and even new media like the internet. One of the easiest ways to create awareness is having a saturation television campaign. But the drawback is thats a costly affair. The benefit of using newer media on the other hand is that a wider range of audience can be reached out to. The use of internet helps reach younger audience who may not read newspapers or depend on television for information.

2. Targeting the Right Audience

When disseminating messages, it is important to first identify the audience that requires the message and then finding the most efficient means of reaching them with the message. This helps cut costs and ensures higher levels of audience penetration. For example, if the message is intended for old people, using the internet to spread information would be a waste of time as most elderly people do not use computers. A more effective way would be to use radio and television to get the message across.

3. Reinforce the Message

When people receive a new message once, they tend to forget it easily. Its therefore necessary to reinforce the message by repeatedly ensuring that individuals are exposed to the message from different channels. Promoting the media in various mass media, going door to door, holding group discussions, having debates on television are ways in which messages can be reinforced. People can eventually change themselves as agents when they start spreading the message that they have received from others.

4. Cultivate Images or Impressions

When the audience is not interested in the person, product or service being promoted, they will not seek out any information about them. In such a scenario, image advertising is used. Here recognizable and easily understandable images are shown and the new product or service is shown in relation to that image. This helps create a favorable setting for promoting the new product. For example, watching an old couple reminisce about their college days and romance while sipping a hot cup of coffee is a tactic where a familiar event is used to attach happy emotions to a new coffee product, thus developing its image.

5. Stimulate Interest

To make audience seek information, it is necessary to grab their attention and stimulate interest. Once this is done, information should be made easily accessible to the general public. Dramatic events or unexpected actions help capture the interest of the audience. A politician photographed cleaning a beach helps drive home the point that he cares for the environment. A dish washing product that claims one bottle will clean a thousand plates could organize an event where a thousand or more plates are washed in real using a single bottle. This event could be promoted as breaking the Guinness Book of World Record and immediately causes people to become interested in the product. Similar ideas could be used to further social welfare schemes and products.

6. Induce Desired Result

Once information has reached the intended audience, efforts should be taken to ensure that the desired decision is arrived at. A campaign against smoking needs to ensure that people stop smoking. A new product being introduced should result in actual sales or usage.

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Social Marketing Theory

1. Introduction

In order to be able to follow the content of this e-book, you will first learn about marketing and social media which will help you get deeper understanding of how these two are connected.

2. Social Media Marketing

This chapter is focused on explaining what social media marketing is, as well as which types of social media websites are available to the online marketers. Mobile social media is also the focus of this chapter.

3. The Most Important Social Media Websites

You can start promoting through social media as soon as you know which websites would be perfect for your business. This section highlights the most important websites and particular features each website provides for online promotion and exposure.

4. Blogging

Blogging is a type of social media marketing, which is why the entire chapter of this e-book is devoted to explaining what blogging is and which platforms you can use for blogging. You will also find out about recommendations related to improving your blogging activity.

5. Social Media Engagement

In this chapter you will learn about the term of social media engagement, why it is important to work on increasing engagement, and how to increase social media engagement.

6. Social Media and Target Audience

Target audience is the group of people you are trying to reach, and here you will learn about how to define your target audience, how to use social media to learn more information about your target audience and how to target the people you are trying to reach through social media.

7. Sharing Content on Social Media

Sharing content on social media includes sharing different types of content, such as photos, graphics, videos, and links. You will learn some important things to have in mind when sharing content in order to make sure you get the most out of it.

8. Social Bookmarking Websites

This chapter introduces the topic of social bookmarking websites and how those can help with promoting your content and reaching more people. Recommendations on the most popular social bookmarking websites you can use are also part of this section.

9. Approach to Social Media

Defining your approach is important part of successful social media marketing, which is why this chapter contains some of the best tips to help you refine your approach and learn how to be more successful on social media.

10. Dos and Donts of Social Media

This chapter features recommendations on what to do and what not to do on social media, and how those actions reflect on your business and popularity of your social media accounts.

11. Social Media Strategy

Detailed guide on how to create and implement your own social media strategy is going to help you boost the performance of your social media accounts.

12. Tips on Using Social Media in Marketing

This chapter contains some of the tips on how to optimize your social media accounts and how to evaluate the performance of social media accounts.

13. Using Social Media for Promotion

There are two types of promotion available on social media, paid advertising and free promotion. Learn about both of these and which one you should use for your business.

14. How to Promote Using Social Media

Here you will learn how you can use social media for promotions and how different approaches can be used to develop social media promotion strategy.

15. Social Media ROI

ROI helps you compare your investment and the results, which is perfect for evaluating the achievement of your goals, providing insight into efficiency of social media activity.

16. Using Social Media for Branding

In this chapter you will learn what branding is, how social media is connected with branding and how being active on social media can help you with branding.

17. Using Social Media for Establishing Relationship

Social networks are based on user interaction, which is why establishing relationships via social networks is very important in order to be successful in social media marketing.

18. Social Media and SEO

Both social media and SEO are part of internet marketing, and in this chapter you will learn how those two are connected.

19. Tools for Managing Social Media

This chapter includes recommendations on which tools to use to plan, manage and monitor the activity of your social media accounts.

20. Social Analytics

Monitoring the performance of social accounts is very important, which is why you need to learn what social analytics is and how to use those metrics to increase your performance.

21. Automation and Social Media

In this chapter you will find out how automation is used in social media marketing, as well as some benefits and disadvantages of automation you should be aware of.

22. Social Media and Other Types of Marketing

This is where you will find out more about other types of internet marketing and how they are connected to social media marketing.

23. Social Media Marketing Glossary

The glossary contains all of the most important terms related to social media marketing which will help you understand the content of this e-book and it can always be used as a reference.

24. Sample Questions

Contains list of questions and their answers for exercise.

25. Conclusion: The Importance of Social Media in Marketing

The book ends with explaining the importance of social media in modern business, and how social networks have become part of internet marketing.

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Social Media Marketing Course and Certification (FREE)

Every year, I make predictions about what the coming years potential developments in the world of social media marketing. And every year, I have to think back and chuckle at all the people who claimed social marketing was just a fadas little as a few years ago.

Its clear now that social media marketing is here to stay, and its massive staying power is attributable to one key characteristicthe fact that social media keeps evolving. It responds to new tech like mobile devices, constantly exceeds users expectations, and competes within itself to bring us more and better features.

So what does 2017 have in store for us social media marketers?

1. Snaps Evolution Will Result in Interesting New Opportunities.

First up, Id like to mention the enormous evolution Snapchatnow called Snaphas undergone, and where it may be headed in the future. Already, Snap has transformed user expectations and major trends in the social marketing world. Its helped bring back a more moment-focused view of communication, leading to more in-the-moment and live content, its facilitated more mobile-centric app developments, and its introduced vertical videos into the mainstream. But now, its looking to develop products outside its main means of exchanging messages, introducing real-world glasses to help users capture first-person visual information. Expect big things from this recently-renamed company in 2017, and huge marketing opportunities to go along with them.

2. Twitter Fatigue Will Worsen.

Twitter isnt doing so hot. People have been predicting the death of Twitter for the past few years, but Im not here to say whether or not Twitters going to survive another year (it probably will). Instead, Id like to point out one potential factor for the apps decline, what I call Twitter fatigue. Twitter built itself on fast, bite-sized updates, but this leads to a barrage of both incoming and outgoing tweets. This was novel and exciting at first, but now users are starting to crave something differentbigger, more detailed, more interesting pieces of content that roll out slower, like once per day. You can see this trend taking hold already in platforms like Instagram.

3. Users Will Crave More Vicarious Experiences.

People are also starting to demand social media as a conduit for more vicarious experiences. Its no longer enough to post your sentiments about an event; you have to show your users what its like to be there. You can do this with things like live video, 360 images and video, and even just more real-time posting. The idea is to make your users feel like theyre a genuine part of the experience, as its unfolding.

4. New Areas of Communication Will Emerge.

Historically, social media existed as a way for individual people to communicate online. When brands caught on, it also became a way for brands to speak to and advertise to consumers. But now, social media is evolving in new communicative areas. Some platforms are offering means of customer service, increasing the significance and interactivity of exchanges between brands and consumers. Others, like Facebook, are delving into more professional communication. Expect to see more diversity here as more brands catch onto the potential.

5. An Ad Renaissance Will Occur.

Organic visibility has been declining for a while now, as platforms try catering to individual users over companies and organizations. But the secondary benefit for social platforms is that it forces more companies to dabble in paid advertising. Increased competition and pressure to become (or remain) profitable have also forced social platforms to come up with more ingenious and creative advertising options for businesses. The combination of these factors may lead to a new resurgence in social media advertising in 2017.

6. Inspiration and Imagination Will Become Fashionable.

Practical posts get a lot of consumer attention. Emotionally charged posts have a greater likelihood of circulating virally. But inspirational and imaginative posts are starting to make their appearances as even stronger candidates for social media success. These are often artistic in nature, giving users something pretty as opposed to something pragmatic or reactive. It also forces a separation from any kind of company positioning or low-key advertising, giving users something truly valuable. In 2017, it will be valuable to forgo some pretense here, and just post beautiful images or sentiments.

7. Brands Will Choose Social Platforms According to Survival of the Fittest.

Every year, new social media platforms emerge to try and disrupt the status quo or find their place among the heavy-hitters of the social media world. But obviously, entrepreneurs and marketers cant jump on every single platform that comes along. Instead, in 2017, well see more of a trend toward refinement; rather than spending equal effort on five different platforms, more businesses will find one platform that works especially well for them, and narrow their focus on it. As a result, we may see greater stratification between the major platforms of our era.

These are some of the most important trends I forecast for social media in 2017. Its going to remain a strong branch for any content or SEO strategy, and is a must-have for any business attempting to market themselves on a frugal budget.

You dont have to incorporate all these trends into your strategy for the coming year, but theres a good chance youll stand to benefit from at least dabbling and experimenting with them.

Then again, predictions in this field are tenuous at bestso well just have to wait and see what comes.

Want to get started with your own social media strategy? Grab my eBook, The Definitive Guide to Social Media Marketing.

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7 Social Media Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2017