social media marketing courseOur social media marketing course equips you with the skills you need to help you use popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and many more, as powerful marketing tools.

Each lesson includes a practical assignment which is based on the real world of social media marketing. All assignments are personally marked and graded by your tutor, so you’ll be receiving expert feedback from a social media marketing specialist at each stage of the course.

There are six things to keep in mind when writing Facebook posts:

1.Ask a question

People automatically try to answer questions, so, when they do that, you already have them hooked.

2. Keep it short

Make every word count, and don’t waffle. Try to stick to a maximum of 160 characters.

3. Tell people exactly what you want them to do and provide a link to where you want them to go next

If you have asked them a question, you need to show them where to find the answer, and of course, get them to go to your website and buy something. Make this as easy as possible, using simple and clear language, so that anyone will understand it.

4. Offer useful information

Don’t tell them everything you want them to know, but give them an enticing snippet to excite them and make them want to click on your link to find out more.

5. Be positive and upbeat

If you are positive, inspirational or funny, people will engage. If you say something negative, they may agree, but then may go away depressed or angry and not click on your link.

6. Almost always post an image or a video

Images, graphics and videos receive the most interaction on social media, so you should always include one or the other.

When and how often to post

There are no set rules about the best time to post to Facebook, or the frequency of your posts. It all depends on who your audience is, where they live, what their daily schedules are like, etc. It also depends on when your posting is relevant: for example, timed for a launch, or a special offer.

So, the best way to find out is to watch what happens when you do post. Start off posting regularly, a few times a day, and check your Facebook Insights to see how your audience responds.

Just check out your page Insights. This will show you how and when your audience has responded.

Click on any of the items in the left-hand menu to see more detail. For example, if you click on Posts, you will see the times your audience was online.

Based on these insights analysed over a period of time, you can then set up a Facebook posting calendar. Google calendar is good because it will email or pop up reminders.

You can also use Facebook’s scheduling tool.

Or, you can use a scheduling tool like Hootsuite, or Later. If you are consistent, your audience will see that you are reliable. Just be sure not to overwhelm people with posts. It can be annoying.

See our Social media marketing course