7 free social media courses to take while you're in quarantine

As the world practices social distancing to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, many people find themselves stuck at home with a lot of free time. What you do with your time at home is your prerogative, but one valuable way to spend it is to learn new skills. Keeping your mind active by learning or brushing up on a skill can help prevent you from feeling sedentary and reduce anxiety.

To help people ease into an extended period of staying at home, businesses, institutions, and individual instructors have stepped up to offer free premium courses and resources on a seemingly endless variety of topics. Here, we’ve gathered a list of free social media courses and resources to help you take advantage of your time at home.

Ahrefs, the popular digital marketing analysis tool, is offering free premium educational content through their Ahrefs Academy. Here, readers can view in-depth tutorials on SEO tactics, topic research, outreach, and more.

The Blogging for Business course offers especially great savings for users. Formerly priced at $799, this course is now free. The course offers ten video-led lessons on how to create and promote great content. Those interested can get started here.

Not only is Facebook providing free ads to the World Health Organization, but they also recently launched their new Business Resource Hub.

The Business Resource Hub aims to support businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides tips and resources to help brands navigate and mitigate the problems caused by this crisis. Additionally, readers can find information on the Facebook Small Business Grants Program in the resource hub.

Udemy is a popular virtual marketplace for educational courses. Here, users can learn from professionals at an affordable price; in fact, many of their courses are free. Users can learn about photography, development, design, and more through Udemy’s free courses. Of particular interest are the courses on social media marketing.

Some of the most popular courses in this area cover:

• Social media management
• Social media marketing for beginners
• Advanced social media marketing

If you’re interested in learning more about these courses, you can do so here.

Skillshare, another online learning community, recently announced that they are offering two months of free premium access to their courses for those who have .edu and .k12 email addresses or are otherwise in need.

Skillshare offers a wealth of courses on a variety of topics, including marketing. Visitors can browse marketing courses by specific skillset to find the perfect class for them.

Here are a few of the most popular courses:

• Personal Branding: Crafting Your Social Media Presence
• Social Media Marketing: Top Tips for Growing Your Followers & Going Viral
• How to Create Engaging Social Media Content

If social distancing or shelter-in-place orders are negatively affecting your business, you may be searching for new ways to connect with your clients and customers. One social distancing approved way to engage your audience is with video content on YouTube.

Don’t be alarmed if you’ve never created video content before! YouTube developed the YouTube Creator Academy to help new users learn the ins and outs of creating and promoting video content. Users can take in-depth courses on content strategy, production, channel optimization, and more. For beginners, the quickstart guide to YouTube is a good place to start.

Coursera is a platform that hosts a variety of courses taught by instructors from world-class universities and companies. Users can choose from three different course types:

• Courses. The standard courses, delivered as video lectures and exercises, help you learn a new topic or skill in four to six weeks.
• Specializations. Specialization courses are for those who want to master a specific career skill. These more in-depth courses typically last four to six months and involve learning how to tackle real business challenges.
• Professional certificates. Professional certificate courses are perfect for people who want to start or change their career. These intensive courses involve hands-on projects and are meant to have you job-ready in under a year.

You may be interested in the Social Media Marketing Specialization specialization, offered by Northwestern University. In this specialization, you’ll complete six units meant to help you learn how to expand your online audience and establish your brand. Best of all, you can enroll today for free.

Do you want to connect with and engage more customers on the web? You’ll need to be fluent in social media and customer care. You’ll find free checklists, ebooks, webinars, and more on these topics in the Khoros Resource Center.

Here’s a sneak peek at some of the valuable resources available:

• Stand Out on Social Media Through Brand Awareness Marketing eBook
• Crisis Management in the Digital Age Tipsheet
• Scaling Customer Service with AI Webinar

Use these resources to make the most out of your time at home during this quarantine. Not only will these courses and resources keep your mind active, but you’ll also learn valuable skills that will translate into your professional life or boost your business and customer experience.

To learn more about how to manage your brand during this crisis, head to our blog.