This course has been certified by the CPD Certification Service as conforming to continuing professional development principles. Find out more.

Learn how to effectively use social media for business

What is social media, and how can it help your business? With this course, you’ll explore these questions and more. You’ll find out why social media marketing skills are becoming essential for all kinds of organisations, as well as some of the ways you can use them.

You’ll explore how you can use social media to create and develop your brand, as well as some of the tools that can help as you do so.

If you’re wondering what a Social Media Manager does and what responsibilities they have, you’ll find details here. As well as looking at how business social media works, you’ll also discover why it can be so useful.

Whether you’re hoping to get a job in the industry or learn social media best practices, this is the course for you.

You’ll learn about the key steps in promoting your brand through social media, including setting campaign objectives, identifying the target audience and the right channels, creating engaging content and managing your presence.

If you’re searching for social media courses that can get you up to speed with the essentials, you’ve found the one you need here.

To help you get started with your business social media, you’ll learn about some of the fundamentals needed to run an effective campaign.

As well as looking at examples of different social media channels, you’ll explore some top tips for using them and how to measure success. You’ll also learn about some of the social media management tools that can help you succeed.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 10 seconds Hi, I’m Emer and I work in digital analytics. Welcome to the Social Media module. This module has four lessons.

Skip to 0 minutes and 18 seconds These are: An introduction to Social Media, Social Media journey, Social Media channels and top tips, and Measuring success. By the end of this module, you’ll be able to understand what Social Media is and why it’s important for your brand or business. You’ll be able to understand the journey to establishing an online presence for your brand, which includes setting objectives, selecting your target audience, selecting the right channel, choosing the right messaging, and managing your presence online. You’ll be able to understand examples of different Social Media channels and get some top tips for getting started on these. And, finally, you’ll be able to understand how and why you should measure the success of your efforts on Social Media.

Skip to 1 minute and 4 seconds This module is assessed in two ways. At the end of each lesson, there will be a multiple-choice quiz with five questions, which will cover what you learned in the videos. You can use this to check what you have learned. At the end of the module, there is a task, which will go beyond what you learned in the videos and give you the chance to learn even more about Social Media. You can upload this task to the website. We hope you enjoy the Course.

What topics will you cover?

Week 1

What is social media?
Target groups
Social media channels
Managing your social media presence
Social media management tools

Week 2

Social media top tips
The importance of performance measurement
Social media listening

Who is this accredited by?

The CPD Certification Service:

The CPD Certification Service was established in 1996 and is the leading independent CPD accreditation institution operating across industry sectors to complement the CPD policies of professional and academic bodies.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and learn at your own pace. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

Available now

Learning on this course

You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

Explain what Social Media is
Describe how it can be used to build a brand
Explain what target groups are
Identify social media channels
Explain tips for messaging
Describe the role of a Social Media Manager
Identify Social Media Management tools

Who is the course for?

This course is for those seeking to develop their skills in social media for business. If you’re preparing to enter the workplace or looking to change careers, you’ll have the opportunity to learn about social media management. No prior experience or qualifications required.

Who developed the course?

Accenture

Accenture Digital Skills is a free, interactive series of courses which help and prepare people to build the digital skills necessary to gain a job or start a business.

What's included?

Accenture are offering everyone who joins this course a free digital upgrade, so that you can experience the full benefits of studying online for free. This means that you get:

Unlimited access to this course

Includes any articles, videos, peer reviews and quizzes

Tests to validate your learning

A PDF Certificate of Achievement to prove your success when you’re eligible

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps, but you can complete them as quickly or slowly as you like
Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn