Social Media Marketing is huge right now.
It’s one of those skills you’ll find really useful in the current era, and millions of people are rushing to learn all about it.
Technically, it falls under the umbrella of Digital Marketing, but you can achieve a lot by focusing specifically on Social Media Marketing and not worrying about all the other skills that come with the broad world of “Digital Marketing.”
Marketing on Social Media is an extremely valuable in today’s market.
If you’re an entrepreneur, then knowing the popular platforms that the masses interact on are pretty much mandatory and a “need to know” in order to sell your products and market your brand.
For those without a company or brand of their own, their swift education and well-versed usage of the primary Social Media platforms can further make them an asset to any brand or company that they could get hired into.
Selling your social media marketing knowledge to the highest bidder can further help you to notice just how lucrative managing another’s social media accounts can truly become.
Your choices for employing these skills in a profitable manner can range from actively pitching prospective clients as a freelancer to developing a permanent employee for a huge brand.
Of course, before you do any of this, you’ll need to actually learn about Social Media Marketing.
You can’t just “wing it.”
Before I began dabbling in the social media aspects with a serious tone for their business and employment capabilities, I was already successful with a local lead generation for small businesses agency that I had started up back in 2014.
Basically, this type of business model has allowed me to leave a 9 to 5 (who probably laughed every time they wrote me a check for any portion of my $35,000 in compensation) because this side hustle was making more in 3 months than my entire salary – and it was coming in from part-time efforts.
Basically, the lead gen sites pay me anywhere from $750 to well over $2k each month, and they look a lot of this tree care site from Grand Rapids, MI – that has been dishing out the goods for the last handful of years (check it out for yourself in the image below):
For me, I see it being an extremely profitable method because…
- People go on search engines to find something they know they need right away
- Social media is a place for people to hang out – not to look for products or services
- Lead gen sites operate on free traffic, which means no one has to pay for an ad online
There are many other benefits to it, but the gist of it is that I learned from our coaching program – and if you’re a solo entrepreneur or looking for a career change, this could be your opportunity.
CLICK HERE to check it out, and let’s engage in some meaningful conversation over what it is you’re looking to accomplish if you were to build 45 lead gen sites (like I did) paying you nearly $1k to $2k+ in near 100 percent profit margins – this is the best business model for 2019, no doubt about it.
Although there are some paid strategies with using social media to get in front of your target audience, the truth is that – unlike local lead generation for small businesses – you’ll have a long-term play here in trying to gain traction and attention for a good reputation that has people of your target market tossing your name around like you’re the hot shots of the community.
Luckily, there are a ton of resources on the internet that make learning about social media both quick and affordable.
Whether you’re looking for a free course or a recognized certification from an institution of higher learning, there’s a course out there that can be a great fit for someone hungry to understand what the best way to engage with your target audience might be.
We’ve narrowed down the options to 7 of the most respected and popular courses in 2019.
Every single one of these courses will equip you with all of the tools you’ll need to succeed in the world of Social Media Marketing.
Up First: Social Media Marketing by Wharton Online
Spend 6 weeks on this course, and then, prepare to take on the world with some serious Social Media Marketing skills under your belt.
Wharton Online is actually a digital learning platform which was set up by the University of Pennsylvania.
There are some similarities with this curriculum and others on the market – in the sense that Wharton Online focuses their content around the working professional, as in someone who is already gainfully employed and/or could have a strong expectation from management to be ready to handle the company’s social media presence upon completion of the curriculum.
Upon registration, your following six (6) weeks will require a minimum time investment of only 2 to 3 hours of weekly study sessions.
That’s a grand total of 12 to 18 hours to cover all the bases that you needed in order to effectively navigate the primary bases of social media and please the leadership in your corporate chain.
Despite even the most hectic of schedules, this seems to be one schedule that nearly anyone can accommodate to learn a new – and potentially profitable – skillset.
If you think this course isn’t ideal for some companies, there are other uses for social media than simply branding and trying to get some attention.
That means that Wharton Online can better advise it’s students (which could be you some day, potentially) on some beneficial topics, including (though is certainly not limited to):
- Social Media Marketing skills,
- eCommerce tactics, and…
- Digital Marketing (and helping to envision the bigger picture of how all the pieces fit together into a strategy that your company – or client – could benefit from).
More specifically, you’ll learn about…
- digital tools,
- advertising,
- social targeting and advertising (which is a different form of engagement altogether)
- mobile marketing, and…
- influencer marketing.
If you want to learn the basics of Digital Marketing – with a focus on Social Media – then this course is definitely for you.
However, the deep divers and enthusiasts of Social Media Marketing (specifically) might not learn enough information within the confines of this particular course.
At only $585.00 USD, the University-based Social Media education has an unbeatably low barrier to entry that just about any working professional could appreciate.
Up Next: Social Media Marketing Mastery 2019 by Udemy
As the title suggests, this Udemy course focuses specifically on Social Media Marketing.
If you want to skip all of the “filler” Digital Marketing foundations and basic usage skills, then this course can be a great fit for you.
Running past the fundamentals, you can leap straight into specific aspects and techniques of the overarching concept (that this course was intended for anyway) in the implementation of Social Media Marketing for a brand and/or business to benefit from.
You’ll learn all about marketing strategies with all the big platforms, including:
- Facebook,
- Twitter,
- Pinterest,
- Instagram,
- SnapChat,
- Tumblr,
- WhatsApp, and…
- many more that you may not have heard of (but would benefit greatly to know about).
Having served over 15,000 students since its inception, the Social Media Marketing Mastery (SMMM) curriculum has developed a syndicated vote of popularity globally.
Normally, you can happen to find a course like this promoted on special holiday deals at the extremely affordable sale price of nearly $10 bucks!
A great example of an opportune time to try and snatch something like this up might be a Cyber Monday sale – which, depending on the time of year, might actually be a similar price to what you could find it for right now.
The price isn’t guaranteed, of course, and I don’t own the training or the platform so please don’t quote me on this price.
That said, I’ve seen it a few times in passing (especially over the past year or so) and I’ve noticed that the cost of this precious education has still remained relatively affordable.
You can purchase your way toward over eight (8) hours of extensive, professional-grade training for extremely reasonable pricing.
You can’t go wrong with such great value; the education you’ll receive is all you’ll need to market successfully with social media.
That said, social media is truly a beast all of its own and the results that you could get from your efforts on this platform could be incredibly difficult to track.
Unlike the methods that my company uses through local lead generatio – like a tracking line that records calls and counts how many actually come through, so we can know whether a campaign is actually successful and/or profitable.
There are little tricks of the trade that are learned from a lead gen coaching program – with a method of capitalizing off free traffic from search results (which are also free) – that I used to break free of the 9 to 5.
This map listing is what the results of my efforts from the advice given in this coaching program for local lead generation look like – it’s a little, fun thing I like to call: Total Market Domination! (See the image below.)
Actually having the financial freedom and spare time to investigate business courses (like these social media courses), and getting to write out a thorough blog post that helps you find what might be a better fit for you, is what I’ve been wanting to do with my time for a number of years now.
Thanks to this local lead generation coaching program, I can afford to help my readership by providing valuable information that I hope gives you what you need to make the best, informed decision that you possibly can.
It’s cool; I’m happy to help!
Our Third Platform on the List: Social Media Marketing by the University of Illinois
I couldn’t resist mentioning this outstanding course that is brought to the masses by a reputable institution of higher learning: the University of Illinois supporters and avid fans of Chief Illiniwek (which was the mascot until it’s recent retirement by the school’s board of education – which still carries some long-standing collegiate controversy to the Midwest; yeah, these are the things you hear about when you spend time on social media).
Respected globally as one of the most mandatory certifications for professionals in our day and age, this higher education course provides genuine quality information that is sure to edify even the most seasoned of social media and branding professionals currently working in the space.
Since graduates have left the program with a positive reputation (as acknowledged by the extensive volume of high-marked reviews), you can be confident that your investment in the training will be worth every penny.
Garnering a thorough understanding of Social Media Marketing (in parts, and in whole), the University of Illinois seems to have really pulled out the stops and crafted this course full of essentials – delivered in a comprehensive, yet digestible training schedule that you can work through in a sensible approach.
The fun doesn’t end there, however.
You’ll find yourself picking up some additional gems and knowledge bombs that broad stroke the Digital Marketing umbrella of theory and concepts, including the ever-famous buzzword: Digital Marketing Channels…
Are you not clear on what that word is referring to?
It’s cool; by the end of this course, you’ll be walking around your office with a confident chip on your shoulder like you know what it means to engage a variety of digital marketing channels to accomplish a goal (and which ones should – and shouldn’t – be considered for a particular digital advertising campaign).
Analytics is another buzzword that is brought out time and again.
One of my bigger concerns in addressing this includes the stigma that floats around by business owners and boards of directors that claim the numbers need to add up in order to make a sound decision.
Let’s be clear, however. The digital marketing numbers were made up by software, and those were designed by human beings; therefore, the expensive data platforms that companies tend to pay for really end up borderline lying to the people that claim they need a source for the information they’re receiving and can’t move forward without the numbers being crunched.
That said, the right types of analytical tools for anything – from search results and leveraging free traffic to assessing web traffic and better grasping the current state of social media accounts – can make for a better understanding of how things are moving in the marketplace and guide the decision makers through trends and averages of what these tools can yield for the decision makers.
Learning this will only serve to better your company and facilitate the reason that social media employees are compensated.
Analytics are a big focus of this course and such skills can help in ongoing development of social media marketing strategies.
One of the
This is something you can actually use in your own business endeavors – especially if you run a business for yourself or you wish to get a head start on a project that you were looking to push into social media anyway.
The catch to the varying costs of this program is that you’ll need to access the University of Illinois digital education platform and online system; since tuition and other factors influence the pricing of something like this, it would be a disservice to you to post a price when it could change in a few days or weeks from the time you read this.
The Fourth Course: Digital Marketing Masterclass 2019 by Udemy
Sometimes, who is teaching the course is more important than where you’ll learn it.
Sure, this Udemy program isn’t taught at a University.
Keeping that in mind, what it does have includes two of the world’s leading and well-respected course instructors for social media education: Phil Ebiner and Diego Davila.
If you’ve been researching the world of Digital Marketing, you’ve probably heard about these names before, and the pricing can be competitively low – which is great for you – because it’s available on the same platform as some of our courses on this list (through Udemy).
If you don’t remember – or haven’t read about the courses listed above – Udemy often has sales going on at various times of the year, and you might be able to pick up your very own copy of this curriculum for the awesome price of nearly $10.
In fact, I’d strongly urge you to take a gander and quickly see if it’s still at that low price right now.
Feel free to drop me a message and let me know if you’re finding something higher or lower than that – and whether you think this would be a good investment for you to make money from home with. (If it’s not, you’re welcome to explore our lead gen coaching program.)
At rock bottom pricing, you’ll gain access to well over thirty (30) hours of sound education on tons of Digital Marketing concepts.
It’ll cover all the basics of Social Media Marketing that you would expect from a course like this, with the inclusion of primary platforms, such as…
- Facebook,
- Snapchat,
- Twitter,
- Instagram (and even Pinterest).
Want an awesome bonus? You’re in luck because I know that the Digital Marketing Masterclass 2019 can better prepare you for other forms of digital marketing – that aren’t often thought about in the same field of social media but work very well in tandem:
- Email Marketing, and…
- Quora.
These are useful subjects that you definitely won’t find in every single Social Media Marketing course on today’s market.
Let’s tally up the value points in what you’re getting through this digital training:
- several hours of education,
- a low, low price, and…
- top-notch instruction.
You really can’t go wrong with the Digital Marketing Masterclass of 2019 (found only on Udemy).
Fifth on our List: Free Social Media Marketing Courses by Skillshare
What’s even better than a course which costs almost nothing?
How about a course that costs literally nothing?
That’s right, this course won’t cost you a dime, and you can find it on Skillshare.
Technically, Skillshare is only accessible by paying a monthly fee but remember to take full advantage of their free two-month trial.
They’re actually open to giving you more than sufficient time to complete the curriculum in this course for under the length of time they’re making a trial available… so be sure to do your homework and get through the content quickly.
That should give you plenty of time to complete this course.
Actually, there isn’t one particular course on Skillshare that we’re pointing out for you to attend and specifically explore.
In general, there are simply multitudes of courses on Skillshare; in fact, some of them specifically address varying topics that hone in on Social Media Marketing overall.
Amidst the 15,000+ Skillshare courses you could look into, you’re bound to find information about social media marketing within your two-month trial (at no cost).
Further, you have the opportunity to expand your horizons by getting your hands on some follow-on courses that could better help you to understand the digital marketing landscape and how other platforms are used to bring in more customers to a business, for a product, or to have the masses appreciate a service provider in a particular industry, including:
- SEO,
- Adwords,
- Email Marketing…
I’m always amazed at the wealth of information someone can find on Skillshare; the way I see the platform is that they’ve got it if you know how to name the general idea of what you’re looking to learn more about.
For those of you that end up giving Skillshare a solid try and find out that it’s simply not for you, please remember that you can end your free trial to the platform promptly.
Our Sixth Place Educational Platform is: Social Media Training Bootcamp by CreateLive
When I was going to college, one of the things that I had always appreciated includes having a professor present (and in real-time) so questions can be asked when content just didn’t seem to click right away.
I wasn’t a nerd or anything, but I really enjoyed having an instructor present for when I enjoyed the content and wanted to really grasp a concept that I could use later in life.
However, one of the biggest issues of online courses is that they tend to gloss over some pretty important points; in the social media spectrum of online courses, one of those topics could be as significant as how to actually implement the strategies they’re supposedly “teaching you” and lecturing about.
It’s all fine and dandy to further acknowledge why Social Media Marketing is so important.
Where the curriculum (across the board) could improve might be to pick up the slack with some students that…
- Have never tried these strategies before.
- Aren’t familiar with social media… period!
- Are really hungry to serve more customers in their target market but just don’t know how to get the necessary attention in order to bring more customers to request appointments or quotes for services.
What good is a course that advocates it can teach you how to perform a certain task if you don’t actually know how to make it work?
One course that doesn’t suffer from this glaring problem is the CreateLive Social Media Training Bootcamp.
You’ll learn how to actually pull off what some of the proven social media expert techniques are, and you’ll be guided by the experts themselves.
A total of 9 experts will be your instructors for this extremely hands-on course.
Topics include the primary platforms and some less than commonly spoken of (but, all the while, valuable) audience-engaging social media, such as…
- Facebook,
- Blogger,
- LinkedIn,
- YouTube,
- Pinterest,
- Instagram, and…
- Tons more to help you with.
Keep in mind that this is actually a physical event that you would have to attend in-person.
For the low, low price of only $199, you’ll be able to attend 13 classes that are packed (to the maximum capacity) into a brief, and extremely busy, 5-day learning schedule.
Just in case you end up becoming one of their countless students that carry a forgetful nature about them through this course content, you’ll actually be able to download all of the course materials and lectures so you can follow along in the best learning modes that fit your personal needs.
Yes, indeed; these courses will be just a click away for the rest of your life; no ongoing monthly maintenance costs are involved just to continue having access to the information here.
You know what that means?
Don’t let it go to waste; you’ve picked it up and now it’s time to dig in and get to work.
Our Last Course for the List: the Complete Digital Marketing Course by Udemy
Yes, we have a third-party platform of recorded trainings on here – including…
- Skillshare
- Udemy
- And others.
Sometimes, the affordable levels really make all the difference and carry some of the best information on the marketplace.
When you’re looking at a higher-ticket entry for a curriculum, it would benefit us to ask ourselves whether they’re really asking for a higher price because they want to improve the perception that their course is bringing the heat (when, in fact, they very could be lacking some things).
I’d like to follow that thought up with the belief that this might just be the best all-around option on our list.
The Complete Digital Marketing Course (by Udemy) couldn’t be more insanely popular than it already is.
With over 70,000 students having sat through the course content so far, the program continues to grow, update, and provide more value as time progresses.
Many people consider it to be perfect…
Unfortunately, it can be a challenge to find some unbiased aspects of this course online – to include a sincere struggle to explore any adverse or negative reviews about the company or the curriculum.
I believe that one of the reasons for it being sincerely difficult to actually pinpoint any negative aspects of the Complete Digital Marketing Course is because the stellar reviews are all coming from graduates of the program.
I’m not saying anything bad about the company – or Udemy, for that matter – but I’m seriously wondering as to whether or not the course content can stand alone if only graduates can have the ability to provide publicized feedback.
As with previous statements about Udemy, you can continue to look for courses similar to this and attempt to uncover huge savings around holiday seasons or other times of the year – when dramatic price cuts are common and Cyber Monday-styled deals exist…
A good example of that would be an expensive course like this being made available for less than the typical price of a romantic dinner for couples.
For this price, you’ll get almost twenty (20) hours of top tier education from some well-respected instructors in the industry.
What you’ll find here is a very thorough course that seeks to truly be a one-stop shop for all things social media marketing-related. This course covers all the basics, for starters, including…
- Facebook,
- SnapChat,
- Twitter,
- Instagram,
- Pinterest,
- YouTube, and so on.
The Complete Digital Marketing Course doesn’t stop there, however.
You’ll be able to stumble upon other topics not readily found in other social media training platforms, such as…
- Email Marketing,
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – what is used to rank properties on Google search results,
- WordPress (which is a website building platform—for those not currently familiar with it), and…
- Copious amounts of other topics that can be sure to have exposure to, and training on how to manipulate to your advantage in the marketplace.
The extra level of education is a nice bonus, as it’s actually relevant to the Social Media Marketing world but in different ways.
If you really want to learn as much as you can about Social Media Marketing in 2019, we can’t really think of a better option.
How Local Lead Generation is the Best Digital Marketing Training in 2019
It’s no secret that social media is popular and potential customers are on there each and every day.
From hangouts to private messaging, and from some
Then again, if you can do it both strategically and successful, then there could be an opportunity to make some serious cash – either as a social media service provider, an employee that works on the social media platforms for a business, or even if you are a business owner.
It’s hard, sometimes, to make a decision on where to turn to for your social media education.
It’s hard to make a choice on where you can get the best bang for your buck – especially if you don’t know anything about the topic or what you should be looking for in a quality social media course from the start.
What makes one social media training course superior to another, anyway?
Is it a finance-based decision?
Do you need one that is convenient and accessible through your already busy schedule?
There are plenty of courses on the market – some of which have affordable pricing – that you can jump into immediately and get your feet wet on what it really takes to make some magic happen in the world of E-Commerce and business in our digital era.
That said, I still believe that Local Lead Generation for small business – which runs off of the Free Traffic from search results in the world wide web – is the #1 choice for training and providing value for any employee or business owner.
If you’re looking to use the internet to turn a profit, then you can’t go wrong with…
- Building web properties
- Ranking them online
- Profiting from the free traffic
- Repeating the aforementioned process to expand your profits.
That’s the essential curriculum of what is taught in our lead gen coaching program; it’s a simple business model – one that Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, and many others enjoy working daily.
If they can do it, then why can’t you?
They had to have started some day and at some point in time; just like I had to start in the lead gen industry approximately 5 years ago.
Fast forward to today, I have…
- No corporate 9 to 5 anymore.
- A luxury of money in the bank.
- Bought my time freedom back.
- Own a home (instead of a low-rent, smelly apartment that always got infested with bugs).
- Have a reliable car (in case I want to drive anywhere since – you know – I don’t have an obligation to walk in the snow to a corporate gig anymore).
And I accomplished all of this by owning 45 lead gen sites that each produce about $750 to a few grand in monthly, passive income.
Where did I learn all this?
I’m telling you — it’s from the #1 top business model in 2019, and it’s taught the best in our lead gen coaching program.
This organic ranking image (see below) is a snapshot of something that I had pieced together well over 4 years ago and is still paying me some cold hard cash every month for the leads it is sending to the top limo service in Lansing, Michigan (the capital of the state):
All of this came from having stumbled upon a lead gen coaching program, where the mentor (a guy named Dan) showed me what it takes to make my first $10k per month that let me quit my job within 1 year of starting the course.
That’s not necessarily an indication that anyone can jump in and make $10k that fast – there are simply no guarantees in business, and that’s it how things go.
That disclaimer aside, members within our coaching program are achieving milestones like this each and every month; they aren’t all marketers from previous professions or paid actors, either.
They’re real people that had a real profession once upon a time, and they made a decision to have something more in their life.
Since they’ve decided to invest in our coaching program that teaches them how to build lead gen sites and profit from them through free search traffic, they also enjoy the following…
- No Corporate Job Anymore: Work from home or anywhere in the world that their laptop and internet happen to be (and, it goes without saying, but a little electricity couldn’t hurt either).
- When you’re the boss, you don’t have to arrive at work at a certain time anymore; that means you could sleep in as late as you want, give yourself time off, or even take a dream vacation; since this business is on AutoPilot (meaning, you’re not checking Facebook Ads or anything daily), you can just keep an eye on things from your laptop in less than an hour a day – if that – and enjoy your time off… like I do every day!
- Real, Passive Income on AutoPilot – in the event that some of you are reading this and believe that there’s really no such thing as autopilot income, I can assure you that the majority of my 45 lead gen sites (which pay me monthly to this day) I haven’t touched in years but the checks keep coming in. I’ll let that sink in for the naysayers.
- The competition for this type of business is ridiculously easy – tons of industries and cities in which to find a small business that you can help by bringing them more customers. That means that you’re truly making a lasting, positive difference as you make your living – and I think that’s something to be very proud of with local lead generation.
- Ever dreamed of having that multiple 6 figure income but never imagined being able to be a doctor or a lawyer? Now you can have the opportunity to build up your annual income through setting up multiple lead gen properties – and let them act as your virtual real estate so you can rent them out for monthly income. Want more money? With this business model, just make more offers to partner with small businesses who take the results of your digital real estate and cut you in on the back end of the deal each and every month!
I know that it may be difficult for some readers to believe that such an income is plausible when they haven’t met a single person in their life that has an income of over $10,000 in a monthly basis – in gross revenue or net income – that also has the time freedom in their day to spend their waking hours as they so choose.
Thanks to this lead gen coaching program, I was able to make that in part-time, monthly, passive income in less than a year — which gave me the freedom to fire my boss and live my life on my terms!
I’m happy to share with you the lead gen site that goes with the search results proof (see above) where you were privileged to notice the map pack and organic rankings – which are properties that I personally own – and I’m still getting over $750 each and every month for a project that took me less than 10 hours to piece together and rank for real results (see the lead gen site below):
If you’re ready for these kinds of results, and to start building your 6 figure (or multiple 6 figures) annual income from your part-time efforts – which could turn into 7 figures someday – CLICK HERE to learn more about whether our lead gen coaching program is for you.
Operators are standing by; I’m just kidding, I’m a real person and it’s just me.
My time is limited – and so are the spots that are available in our coaching program, so this is for serious people who want to make a real change in their life and they’re ready to invest in a positive change for their future!
CLICK HERE and we’ll chat it up very soon!