The 9 Best Social Media Marketing Courses to Elevate Your Skills in 2026

Social media marketing is more complicated than ever. You need a proper strategy, content creation skills, copywriting formulas in your back pocket, and a knack for tying it all together. 

It doesn’t hurt to borrow the hard-earned lessons of industry experts who’ve come before you. Here are the top 12 courses to improve your social media marketing skills.

Some of these courses are free. But even the paid courses are worth every penny, I promise.

There are two types of courses on this list:

• Cohort-based courses: These courses have a fixed start and end date. You’ll work through the material in real time with other students and your instructor(s). These courses are excellent for accountability and networking, although they aren’t as accommodating to your schedule.
• Self-paced courses: These courses usually have pre-recorded content that you can download and learn at your own pace. These courses are much more flexible than cohort-based courses, but there’s little to no accountability or community learning present.

There’s no one “better” type of course. Cohort courses are best when you want a structured and communal learning experience. Self-paced courses are a better choice when you have a busy schedule and want to learn independently.

🎁 5 free social media marketing courses (by social media platforms)

Before we begin to learn social media marketing as a whole, it’s critical to acknowledge that every social media platform has its own playbook. Almost all social platforms create courses designed to ace its algorithms and learn more about all its features. Here are all of them:

1. TikTok academy: to learn everything that TikTok can do for small businesses.
2. Growing your business with LinkedIn pages: for learning how to use LinkedIn for business.
3. Instagram’s creator best practices: for learning the basics of the platform, understanding how to create Instagram Reels, and ways to earn.
4. Meta Blueprint: for learning about the basics of digital marketing, Facebook, Instagram, and ads.
5. Pinterest Academy: for learning the ins and outs of Pinterest advertising.

5 courses on building a social media marketing strategy

This section is dedicated to courses that help you build a social media marketing strategy from scratch. Many of them also contain directions for creating content, writing A+ captions, and more.

1: Meta’s social media marketing course

Best course for beginners seeking to receive professional training

Price: Free.

Instructor(s): Anke Audenaert, Daniel Kob.

Length: The course lasts five months and requires 10 hours/week. You can learn at your own pace.

What you’ll learn:

• How to build a strong social media presence
• Analyzing your social media performance
• The ins and outs of Meta ads manager
  

Meta’s social media marketing course is one of the best free courses to learn the basics of social media marketing directly from the horse’s mouth. It’s a pretty popular course with over 17,000 raving reviews.

It’s designed for beginners. You might not get the highest return-on-investment (ROI) from this course if you’ve already been at the social media marketing thing for a while. But if you’re at the beginner level or someone who’s just got their foot in social media from another career, Meta’s course is the perfect place to begin.

It also offers a completion certificate, so it’s a good choice if you want to stamp a social media certification on your resume.

2: Impactful social writing

Best course for becoming a thought leader in your niche

Price: To be confirmed when the next cohort starts. Previously $127.

Instructor(s): Erica Schneider, Kasey Jones

Length: Not publicly available. There are five modules of content.

What you’ll learn:

• How to build your personal brand
• How to stay consistent on social media
• How to generate social media post ideas that your audience would actually want to read

Impactful social writing is taught by industry pros Erica Schneider and Kasey Jones. They’ve built successful businesses via their own social media channels, and this course helps you learn the principles they followed via frameworks and real-world examples.

It’s not a free online course, but I’d argue it’s a better choice for someone who wants to build a personal brand, hone in on their target audience, and find their unique voice on social media.

If you want to become a thought leader in your niche, there’s no better choice. Don’t believe me? The course offers a 14-day money back guarantee if you don’t think the social media marketing course is worth your investment.

3: HubSpot’s social media marketing course

Best course for small business owners seeking to learn the fundamentals

Price: Free.

Instructor(s): Crystal King, Jason Hsaio

Length: There are nine lessons that you can complete at your own pace within five hours.

What you’ll learn:

• How to develop a social media marketing strategy as a small business owner
• How to drive inbound traffic that’ll help you grow your revenue
• Basics of social media advertising

HubSpot academy isn’t an unfamiliar name in the social media marketing world. This free course by the company is a good start for any small business owner looking to kickstart their social media marketing efforts.

Meta’s course might be more geared towards its own networks, so HubSpot is a good choice if you want a well-rounded free course. The module includes basic knowledge about social media marketing for marketing professionals for all social media platforms. Like Meta, it also offers social media certification if you need it.

4: The creator project collective

Best course for creators who want to build an audience and earn an income

Price: There are three pricing tiers. The cheapest one is priced at $197/quarter.

Instructor(s): Jade Beason.

Length: Not publicly available, but there’s a library of over 50 masterclasses.

What you’ll learn:

• How to get brand partnerships
• How to grow your following on any social media platform
• How to earn an income via your social media marketing efforts

Jade Beason started earning six figures soon after she uploaded her first YouTube video. How? Because of her 8+ years of business and marketing experience. Through her creator collective community, she’s teaching other digital marketers how to do the same.

The best part is that Jade has designed her entire course to include a community and run on a subscription model. This means you can keep learning from her and the experts she invites on the go, live, as you progress in your own social media marketing efforts.

There’s a whole mobile app dedicated to this community. This course is perfect for you if you want to grow your following and develop a social media marketing plan to earn a sustainable income as a full-time creator.

5: Social media united

Best course for aspiring social media managers

Price: Free.

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