Just on a whim I did a Google search for “online course in social media” today. There are 2.5 billion (with a “b”) results.
It’s hard for me to wrap my head around taking one, though I’ve taken dozens of online courses for other topics over the years. And I once started an online learning community where I asked people to pay me to teach them an online course in social media. I’m more of a trial-by-error learner and social media tools and strategies have always come intuitively to me.
But a LinkedIn connection asked me recently if there were any online courses in social media I would recommend. So I had to ponder it a bit. Certainly, I love MarketingProfs and it’s a whole website of online course materials, though not everyone digs the subscription model pricing. I even wrote and produced its online course on influencer marketing.
There are a number of resources out there from which to choose. And honestly, learning social media or even social media marketing from any one of a number of them probably won’t be a bad thing. The best practices are the best practices. It comes down to whose teaching method or user experience appeals to you most.
I took a look at Udemy recently upon their request. They seem to have a good array of social media marketing online courses, both free and paid, that are taught by real professionals. They’re very transparent about their instructors and even provide fairly extensive bios on them to make you feel confident in the learning.
I’ve taken Lynda.com courses on non-social media topics and have always appreciated their approach, too. The only places I would probably hold at arms length are those that offer any sort of certification with their courses. That always bugs me because you can’t offer certification in a topic when there’s no governing body or industry standard for such a thing. No one is qualified to offer certification on social media or social media marketing in general because no one organization or association oversees it all.
I am interested in your take, however. What online courses have you taken? Where? How did you like the experience? Jump in the comments and share so we can all learn … where to learn.
Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash