If you’re still dragging your feet when it comes to social media marketing (SMM), it’s most likely because you haven’t taken enough time to learn about social media marketing and how it works. Because if you know what you’re doing, it does work.
On top of that, today, people expect to find your brand on social media. In many cases, if they can’t, it’s taken as a red flag—one that suggests your brand is behind the times and struggling. Potential customers or clients look for reassurance that you’re a good choice in an engaged, approving social media following. It’s a kind of social proof.
If a lack of familiarity has kept you away from embracing this essential area of digital marketing, below are some helpful beginner’s resources to learn about social media marketing. And don’t worry about the budget; they’re all available for free.
Resources to Learn About Social Media Marketing
- Social Media Examiner – This site is an excellent place to start, with lots of content geared toward getting you acquainted with the basics of SMM.
- Social Media Explorer – Here’s another website that publishes an extensive amount of material to help social media marketing novices.
- Quick Sprout University – There’s an entire library of free video content indexed here to help you learn about social media marketing.
- The Beginner’s Guide to Social Media – SEO giant Moz offers this excellent e-book for free on its website.
- Buffer Blog – Buffer is all about SMM, and its blog is a great resource. Some of the content is fairly advanced, but there’s also a lot to help you get started.
- HubSpot Marketing Blog – This blog covers a lot about digital and traditional marketing, but there are plenty of insightful posts about social media marketing throughout.
- How to Reach and Engage Your Audience on Facebook – Another resource from HubSpot, this free e-book covers a lot about using the leading social media network to build your brand.
- Quintly Academy Social Media Analytics Course – To succeed with SMM, you have to know how to gauge the results. This free online class introduces you to the analytics used for this purpose.
- Ted Talks – Here you’ll find many interesting and useful Ted Talks on SMM indexed in one place for your convenience.
- Social Media Strategy for Small Businesses – This free online course from Alison only takes about two to three hours to complete.
