This post is sponsored by Skillshare.
Social media: It’s great to waste time for fun, but not so much for work. Am I right, fellow entrepreneurs? If you’re struggling to create effective social content that reliably improves your home business’s engagement online, you’re not alone. And who wants to spend all their time trawling through blogs that claim to demystify Facebook or Pinterest – only to realize that half of them are the opposite of the other half? Nobody does. Nobody wants to do that. And this is where a great online learning community like Skillshare comes in with a cup of coffee and a helpful smile
What is Skillshare?
Skillshare This is a fantastic site that connects experts (often other entrepreneurs like you!) who have something to teach small business owners, freelancers, and anyone else.
They offer classes in a variety of industries, from creating logotypes and mastering illustrator courses to becoming a better on-camera presenter and creating a wicked social media strategy in less than 90 minutes.
Skillshare has a free membership tier that gives registered users access to a limited selection of free classes (both on the site and in their app), and then a premium membership that costs $15 per month (or $99, which works out to $8.25 per month).
Premium membership gives you unlimited access to their entire catalog of over 19,000 classes – which is constantly growing – and even better, they’re offering a special offer. 7 days free unlimited classes Now for my readers.
(Interested in becoming a teacher at Skillshare? Get those details here.)
With such a smorgasbord of courses at your fingertips, you might be wondering where to start – so I’ve put together this list of 8 courses that will help you grow your home business with savvy and confident social media marketing strategies.
In Ohn Mar Win’s “Instagram Success for Artists: 2 Week Challenge to Grow Your Following,” he tackles best practices for growing your follower account on Instagram through regular application of your art. (Note that this course is primarily for entrepreneurs working in the art, illustration or design industries.) Ohn is an artist who started her Instagram in 2014 with “a blurry picture of a pear sketch” and is now celebrating over 100,000 followers. His course is divided into 12 videos totaling 49 minutes, and covers how to grow your profile, how to establish audience expectations, and the general best practices I mentioned earlier. It also has an overwhelmingly positive review from students, so it’s a tough choice to top on Instagram!
Gary Vaynerchuk, wine guru and CEO of VaynerMedia, has been an entrepreneur since childhood and turned his family’s million-dollar business into a multi-million dollar company; Now he helps Fortune 500 companies build their brands and establish their digital social footprints. In his 23-video series “Context Is Key: Social Media Strategy in a Noisy Online World,” Gary takes 1 hour and 31 minutes to tailor your brand’s content to the social platforms you’re sharing and tell the right story to maximize its effectiveness. Previous students have found her content to be specific and extremely helpful in developing their own social media campaigns – as you can imagine with her background!
With Rand Fishkin’s class, “Introduction to SEO: Strategy and Tactics for Entrepreneurs,” you’ll work through 12 videos (90 minutes total runtime for the class) that cut to the heart of SEO and how you can effectively apply it to your content. Optimize. Everything you need to know about Rand Fishkin can be summed up in his adopted nickname “Wizard of Moz” – he’s not afraid to stand out from the crowd, he can tell a story with a single phrase, and he’s the founder and former CEO of Moz. (which is an SEO software and inbound marketing company). His classes will take you through the basics of what SEO is, how to understand and use analytics, best practices with keywords, and how to set up a site and specific posts for success. Even better, it’s a free class on Skillshare!
Buffer is an excellent tool for social media management, allowing you to schedule social posts in advance across several popular social platforms. Brian Peters is actually Buffer’s digital marketing strategist, and he’s the author of “Introduction to Social Media Strategy Learn with Buffer,” a 9-video, 43-minute course on how to create an effective social media strategy for your business. You’ll learn which social media platforms work best for your industry, how to create eye-catching content, and Brian’s “5-Step Facebook Advertising Plan.” This class is respected for being very clear and straightforward, and especially helpful for those new to social media – as Brian’s overwhelmingly positive reviews show.
In “The 2018 Guide to Facebook and Instagram Success” by Everett Bowes, you can benefit from the latest information to develop strategies that work to power your business with a smart, intentional social media campaign. Everett Bowes is a brand strategy and creative consultant who’s been helping companies with their branding for over 20 years – and he thrives by staying up-to-date on how these social media platforms tick. This course aims to demystify sluggish post engagement, why Facebook and Instagram aren’t sharing your posts with your followers, how you can improve follower gains, and more. Everett has a relatable attitude and emphasizes making connections – you can make one with him and learn something in this 33-video, 98-minute course!
Kate Arends is the creator of Wit & Delight, a website dedicated to self-discovery, mental health, and its 3 million readers — but it’s a brand that’s been evolving for nearly a decade. Along with this experience, Kate offers “Building Your Online Presence: Personal Branding through Social Media,” a course that covers 1 hour and 8 minutes (14 videos) and will help you define your brand purpose and develop an authentic personal brand. can do Really stand back. He gives you the tools and data to tailor his lessons to your personal ideas about your business’ success and purpose, including worksheets to help you put what you learn into action. He has worked with over 7,000 students on Skillshare and you could be next.
With “Pinterest Marketing 101 for Creative Entrepreneurs” by Peg Fitzpatrick, she wants to give you a basic idea of what Pinterest is and how you can use it for your business as a creative. If you haven’t heard of Peg before, the truth is that he co-authored a book with Guy Kawasaki (formerly Apple’s marketing expert, who also has classes at Skillshare). The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users. This particular class is about an hour long, divided into 12 videos. He covers basic Pinterest terminology, how to set up your own Pinterest, breaks down the elements of a great Pin, how to get people to your Pins, and more. She has received amazing reviews with consistent feedback on the clarity of her lessons on Pinterest basics.
As the Internet embraces video content, brands big and small are following suit and incorporating video into their marketing strategies on social media. Since much of building a brand is based on connecting with your audience, putting a personable face to your name can be a key component of your social media strategy. Josiah Brooks has over 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube and has made a full-time living as a YouTube creator since 2013. In “How to Speak and Present on Camera Like a Pro!”, Josiah aims to teach the basics of face-to-face. Camera with comfort and confidence; He shares a bunch of performance tips and tricks. The course contains over 3 hours of content in 10 videos – and 2 of these are raw footage he shot for the course so you can see how he temporizes and overcomes his own mistakes.
If you take even one of these classes, your new understanding of social media marketing will give your home business a great injection. Now is the time to go – so check out Skillshare and start learning! And remember, you can Click here To get that special offer for free for 7 days.
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