“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death” — Albert Einstein

If that quote doesn’t motivate you, what will?! For many people, marketing and social media feel like overwhelming tasks that are just too much to learn. But don’t let that stop you from growing your skills. Albert Einstein said so!

There is no better time to grow as a professional, especially since quarantine is keeping us from doing much else. There are a million marketing classes out there — so how do you decide which ones to take?

We compiled some of our favorite WHIP-intern-tested-and-approved marketing classes to help you step up your marketing game from home. Not only will this further develop your skills, but it will help you build the brand that your business needs to succeed in a crowded digital landscape.

WHIP Communication’s Beginners & Basics

Download: free

Okay, so it’s not technically a class, but our Beginners & Basics series is a collection of information, tools, and tips that are designed to help beginners with social media.

We created this to help anyone — including you — understand the basics of communications, social media, and marketing. In this booklet, we explore the basics of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Hootsuite Platform Training

Class: Free / Certification Exam: $99

Hootsuite is a popular social media management tool. It offers a range of services from scheduling posts to monitoring engagement, Hootsuite can act as your one stop shop for social media organization. Their platform training class provides an in-depth understanding of the resources and services the site provides in only 2 and a half hours.

The class itself is free, however there is a fee for the certification exam. While having the official stamp of approval never hurts, the knowledge that you hold is far more valuable. If you feel confident in your skills, don’t stress about taking the actual exam.

Pros:

• Hootsuite is a well-known platform used by many companies
• The class dives into all aspect of the program providing a broad and applicable well of knowledge
• You’ll learn how to schedule out social media content ahead of time

Cons:

• The certification exam is not free

HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification

Class: Free / Certification: Free

This might be one of the most popular marketing classes out there, and for good reason. HubSpot is a software company that provides tools for marketing, customer service, and sales. One of their best resources, however, is their team of employees dedicated to educating professionals with an interest in marketing.

Inbound marketing is a strategy used by businesses to develop a marketing plan that is based on human connection. It uses content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization and branding to breed connections with consumers. The experts at HubSpot break this technique down part by part to prepare viewers to build their very own inbound marketing strategy.

Pros:

• Provides great examples to enhance understanding
• Makes you think about how to apply this strategy to your own professional endeavors
• Completely free!

Cons:

• This is a lengthy course, so you have to prepare to dedicate about 5 hours to learning. The good news is that you don’t have to do it all at once —  breaking it up over a few days is a great option. Professional growth cannot occur without a little stretching (no pain, no gain!), so we promise that the time is worth it.

Hubspot Social Media Marketing Course

Course: Free

This next course offered by HubSpot, again, is a bit lengthy but is totally worth it. Social media is at the forefront of nearly everything we do these days. We love it, but we know it is not everyone’s cup of tea.

This class explains how effective social strategy means, effective marketing, which will in turn boost business. It also piggy-backs off of the inbound marketing course by explaining social media’s role within your inbound marketing strategy.

Pro:

• Connected to other HubSpot courses, allowing you to deepen your knowledge
• Provides a mix of videos, quizzes, and lesson overviews to keep you engaged

Cons:

• Again, a little lengthy but it is worth it!
• Slightly repetitive if you take the Inbound Marketing course as well

Udemy Social Media Ethics Course

We live in a world where you can Tweet whatever you want — whether it’s true or not. This course does a great job of summing up ethics in terms of social media. It explains some of the laws that apply to social media as well as describing how ethics policy relates to social media content and engagement.

This will help you understand social media best practices so you can continue to build your business in a way that is accurate and ethical. “Just because you can tweet it, doesn’t mean you should. Learn to do the right thing on social media” (Udemy).

Pros:

• Free
• Explains legal concepts in a way anyone would understand

Con:

• Little to no interactive aspects

These are a few of the marketing classes you can utilize to master social media marketing at home. All of these websites offer a number of other courses and programs we didn’t feature, too! You are never too old or too far along into your career to learn something new. Take time to invest in you!

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