There are hundreds of social media training courses out there. It’s not easy to choose which ones are right for you.

If you’re in this situation, you’ve come to the right place.

Today, we’ll give you 15 social media training courses that are worth taking. By “worth taking,” we mean they’ll teach you everything about social media marketing, from basics to advanced skills.

After that, you’ll have the confidence to run a social media campaign for your business or reach the next level in your career.

And the best part is many courses on this list are completely free of charge. You don’t need to pay a dime to join.

Ready to dig in? Let’s do it.

Social media training courses for beginners

1. Social Marketing Training | Hootsuite Academy

Cost: $199

Length: 6 hours

Instructor: Hootsuite’s social marketing experts

1-sentence course overview: If you’re looking for a course that makes you a better social media marketer, this course is the best choice for you.

What’s included:

• Social media networks overview
• Optimize your social media profiles (best practices included)
• Social media strategies
• Build your advocate community
• Social content marketing
• Social advertising fundamentals
• Social media marketing exam (optional)

Pros:

• Several learning materials format: Videos, quizzes, texts, PDFs
• Perfect for beginners and intermediate learners
• Learn from Hootsuite social media marketing strategists and practitioners
• Easy to apply techniques in the course
• Free demo available

Cons:

• Does not include advanced knowledge (but Hootsuite offers more advanced course options here)

2. Social Media Marketing Foundations | LinkedIn Learning

Cost: Free

Length: 52 minutes

Instructor: Brian Honigman, Marketing Consultant, New York University, Adjunct Professor

1-sentence course overview: This course gives you an overview of social media marketing, from why it benefits your business and how to define a target audience to steps to create a social media strategy and measure your success.

What’s included:

• Social media marketing definition
• Social media strategy
• Publish on social media
• Interact with customers
• Sell on social media
• Measure social media activities
• Innovate with social media

Pros:

• Includes videos, quizzes, and text
• Best suit beginners
• An overview picture of social media marketing
• The course is divided into many short lessons, which helps easy to learn
• Support transcript

Cons:

• Lack of intermediate and advanced social media education
• Don’t have certification
• Generic social media marketing techniques

3. What is Social? | Northwestern University, Coursera

Cost: $67 per month with a 7-day free trial

Length: About 8 hours for 4 weeks

Instructor: Randy Hlavac, Northwestern University & CEO of Marketing Synergy

1-sentence course overview: This course explains how to create a successful social media marketing plan.

What’s included:

• Introduction to social marketing
• Social trends
• The business of social
• Social overview

Pros:

• Video, quizzes, texts, peer-graded assignments
• A clear explanation of social and its benefits
• Certificate included

Cons:

• Some additional content available for the paid course only
• Not focus on social media marketing strategies
• Lack of actionable guides

Note: Remember to choose Audit to learn this course for free.

4. Social Media Marketing MASTERY – Learn Ads on 10+ Platforms | Udemy

Cost: $12.99 (at the time of writing this post)

Length: 8 hours 12 minutes

Instructor: Coursenvy

1-sentence course overview: Learn the basics of the top 10 social media platforms and access useful additional knowledge with this course.

What’s included:

• Social media marketing overview
• Lectures about Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Ads and Google My Business, YouTube, LinkedIn, Yelp, Snapchat, and Tiktok
• Landing pages and blogging

Pros:

• Covers a detailed overview of all popular social media platforms
• Offers bonus material and learning recommendations
• A good choice for beginners

Cons:

• Lectures for Yelp, Snapchat, and Tiktok are text only
• Some knowledge is repetitive throughout the course
• Includes too many downloadable sources and external links, which distracts from the learning process
• Lack of real-world, advanced techniques

Advanced social media advertising training courses

5. Advanced Social Advertising | Hootsuite Academy

Cost: $249

Length: 4 hours 30 minutes

Instructor: Hootsuite social media marketing experts

1-sentence course overview: This course is designed for marketers who want to master the art of running paid advertising campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

What’s included:

• Social advertising landscape
• Critical elements of a successful social media ad campaign
• Advanced best practices for targeting social media advertisements
• Creating and iterating on social ads
• Bidding and buying social ads
• Measuring social ads performance
• How to create successful social ads with Hootsuite

Pros:

• Learn with videos, text, quizzes
• Free demo available
• Provide certification exam
• Advanced social media marketing training

Cons:

• Not a good choice for beginners

Platform-specific social media training courses

6. The Essential Guide to Facebook Ads | Facebook Blueprint

Cost: Free

Length: 22 minutes

Instructor: Facebook

1-sentence course overview: Created by Facebook, this course shows you how to start an advertising campaign.

What’s included:

• When to advertise on Facebook and Instagram
• A quick guide to Facebook Page Ads
• Where people can see your Facebook Ads
• Facebook advertising tools
• Steps to create a Facebook ad
• How ad objectives impact ad creation

Pros:

• 100% free
• Perfect for anyone new to Facebook Ads
• Short lessons which help absorb knowledge easily
• Includes screenshots of real Facebook ad campaigns

Cons:

• Limited learning materials
• Limited learning formats (only text)
• Lack of intermediate and advanced knowledge
• No quizzes, no exam, no certificate

Note: Facebook also offers other free Facebook ads courses for beginners.

7. Instagram for Business | Facebook Blueprint

Cost: Free

Length: 10 minutes

Instructor: Facebook

1-sentence course overview: Learn how to promote your business and increase followers on Instagram.

What’s included:

• A beginner’s guide to Instagram for business
• How to create an Instagram Business account
• Tips for telling your business’s visual story on Instagram
• Instagram Insights
• How to promote your Instagram posts

Pros:

• 100% free
• Short, easy-to-understand lessons
• Suitable for beginners
• Includes visuals that aid the learning process

Cons:

• Limited learning materials
• Limited learning formats (only text)
• Lack of intermediate and advanced knowledge
• No quizzes, no exam, no certificate

Note: Click here to access other free Instagram courses from Facebook.

8. Marketing on LinkedIn | LinkedIn Learning

Cost: Free

Length: 51 minutes

Instructor: Marcus Murphy, sales expert

1-sentence course overview: This course teaches you how to make use of LinkedIn to generate leads and build your brand.

What’s included:

• Optimize your LinkedIn profile
• Company pages
• Share content on LinkedIn

Pros:

• 100% free
• Skip or jump to any lesson you want
• Provides certification at the end of the course

Cons:

• Limited learning formats (only videos)
• No quizzes, no exercises, no exams
• Lack of intermediate and advanced instructions

9. The Quickstart Guide to YouTube | YouTube Creators

Cost: Free

Length: 12 minutes 30 seconds (in total)

Instructor: YouTube

1-sentence course overview: Learn how to quickly set up your YouTube channel and make it work for your business.

What’s included:

• YouTube basics
• Channel branding
• YouTube policies and guidelines

Pros:

• 100% free
• Official training course from YouTube
• Learn through videos, quizzes, and text
• Provide an exam and letter of completion

Cons:

• Limited learning materials
• Very basic knowledge of YouTube

10. Twitter Flight School Course 1 & 2

Cost: Free

Length: 2-4 hours

Instructor: Twitter

1-sentence course overview: Join Twitter Flight School to learn everything you need to know about Twitter Ads.

What’s included:

• Twitter Ad fundamentals
• Twitter Ads Manager
• How to create and execute video campaigns on Twitter

Pros:

• 100% free
• Courses are available in many languages (i.e., English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and Korean)
• Detailed knowledge of advertising on Twitter
• Offers a Twitter Flight School Badge (note that it’s not the same as a certification)

Cons:

• Limited learning format
• Limited learning materials
• Lack of advanced practices

11. Master Marketing with Pinterest Academy

Cost: Free

Length: Less than 1 hour

Instructor: Pinterest

1-sentence course overview: Learn how to run marketing campaigns and promote your business on Pinterest with nine short courses from Pinterest Academy.

What’s included:

• Pinterest overview
• Campaign objectives
• Creative strategy
• Creative inspiration
• Targeting and buying
• Set up a Pinterest business account
• Build and launch a campaign
• Manage and measure your campaign
• Plan and strategize a campaign

Pros:

• 100% free
• High-quality visuals that help speed understanding
• A detailed overview of Pinterest marketing

Cons:

• No videos, no quizzes, no exams
• Doesn’t offer certification
• Lack of advanced practices

12. How To Build Your Personal Brand On TikTok | Influencer Marketing Hub

Cost: Currently, you can learn this course for free (it’s 100% off). But the cost might be changed in the future.

Length: About 3 hours

Instructor: Shelby Leimgruber and Ed Lawrence

1-sentence course overview: Take this course to discover TikTok, and then apply what you’ve learned to build your community (and make money) on the world’s fastest-growing social network.

What’s included:

• Tiktok basics and features
• Set up a TikTok account
• TikTok’s audience
• How to make winning TikTok videos
• How to create engaging content
• TikTok’s “For Your” page
• TikTok for businesses
• TikTok ads reach

Pros:

• Learn through videos, interviews, and quizzes
• Includes 10 well-designed and easy-to-consume modules
• Offers free additional resources, including templates, case studies, and tool recommendations

Cons:

• No exams, no certification
• Limited knowledge of TikTok Ads

Social analytics and campaign evaluation training courses

13. Social ROI and Value Analysis

Cost: $249

Length: 3 hours

Instructor: Hootsuite social media marketing experts

1-sentence course overview: Learn how to measure and demonstrate your social media campaigns’ return on investment (ROI) with this advanced course from Hootsuite.

What’s included:

• Social ROI introduction
• Connecting social strategy with social ROI
• Providing the value of social media
• Paid social advertising’s ROI
• Mastering Hootsuite Analytics
• Understanding Hootsuite Insights and Impact
• Hootsuite third-party integrations

Pros:

• Perfect for marketers, solo entrepreneurs, or small business owners who want to control their social media marketing efforts.
• Learn through videos, text, and quizzes
• Provides an exam and certification
• An in-depth course of social ROI and value analysis

Cons:

• Not suitable for beginners

14. Google Analytics Courses | Google

Cost: Free

Length: 4-6 hours

Instructor: Justin Cutroni, Krista Seiden, and Ashish Vij

1-sentence course overview: Become a Google Analytics master with these six free online courses, officially provided by Google.

What’s included:

• Google Analytics for beginners
• Advanced Google Analytics
• Google Analytics for power users
• Google Analytics 360
• Data Studio introduction
• Google Tag Manager fundamentals

Pros:

• All courses are free of charge
• Learn through videos, quizzes, and additional content
• Includes basic and advanced knowledge of Google Analytics
• Provides an exam and a certificate of completion
• Courses are available in many languages (Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese), Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese)

Cons:

• English can be mixed in some translated text
• Some lessons don’t cover Google Analytics’ new capabilities and features.

15. Get Insights With YouTube Analytics | YouTube Creators

Cost: Free

Length: About 15 minutes

Instructor: YouTube

1-sentence course overview: Take this course to learn about Youtube Analytics so that you can know what’s working and what’s not with your YouTube campaigns.

What’s included:

• Decode YouTube Analytics
• Learn about your audience
• Understand your video reach
• Know how much you earn with YouTube
• Get answers to common YouTube Analytics questions
• Measure YouTube engagement

Pros:

• 100% free
• An exam available
• Provides videos, quizzes, and additional content

Cons:

• Lack of advanced tips and tricks
• Provides a letter of completion only
• The course exam doesn’t show scores or how many questions you answer correctly/incorrectly.

Mark Cuban once said, “Learn, learn, learn. The greatest competitive advantage is knowledge.”

It’s time to invest in yourself because that’s the highest ROI you can make.

Ready to start your learning journey? Join Hootsuite Academy today to access the best social media training courses created by practitioners and experts at Hootsuite. Then, equip yourself with industry-recognized certifications to level up your career!

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