Being able to use social media to promote your online course is a powerful way to increase engagement, drive traffic, and boost sales. With the right tools, you can create an audience that influences your content, gets inspired by what you share, and eventually becomes buyers or at least fans of yours.
Running an educational business means marketing. It’s impossible to avoid it unless you don’t want to be rich! And while there are many ways to market yourself and your products and services, there’s one area most people forget about when they should be investing their time, energy, and resources — all those things including the money we talk about like “marketing”, “resources”, and “money”.
That area is social media.
There are several reasons why this is overlooked, but mostly because people aren’t sure how to use it effectively. Plus, some feel overwhelmed by the number of platforms out there. (A lot of them seem to be changing their algorithms, logos, and features constantly which adds more confusion!)
Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. I’m going to go into great detail on everything you need to know about promoting your online education using social media in our article below! So stay tuned and read on.
Create a website if you want to use social media to promote your online course
After you have gathered enough materials for your course, it is time to start creating your online classroom!
You will need to create an easy-to-find web page that contains all of the necessary information students will want to know before investing in your courses. This can include your brand, the curriculum, costs, and timing commitments.
In addition to these general features, you will want to make sure you are clearly defining who your audience is, what they should learn from you, and how much money you expect them to spend. All of this makes up the tone and style of your site, which will play a large part in whether or not people choose to interact with you.
Interacting with others through social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube allows for both universal sharing and influence. By creating a space where everyone can participate, more people will feel comfortable doing so.
Surveying the fields, there are many ways to use social media as a tool to promote your content or find new opportunities to share yours. With the right balance of engagement, exposure, and interaction, you will be able to connect, motivate, and inspire other individuals.
Buy advertising space
Advertising on social media sites is a great way to promote your online course. There are several ways to do this, but you should know what kind of ads will work best for your marketing strategy and budget.
Google Ads and Facebook advertisements are two of the most common types of paid advertisement campaigns. With Google Ads, you can create general product advertisements or targeted advertisements that are specific to products or services in the shopping section. You can also use their cost-effective CPM (cost per thousand views) platform to gain more exposure by spending less money per click.
With Facebook, you can choose to advertise either a Page or an Ad. A page ad will show up on the News Feeds of people who like your Page, so it is better to have a wider audience rather than focusing on a few individuals. An advertised article will appear as a news story that seems natural to spread through word of mouth.
If you are new to using social media, start with just creating a profile before investing in expensive advertisements. Test out different mediums to see how effective they are for your business!
Another option is to join Communities and Groups related to your field. By doing this, you will get free content and feedback from others who may or may not be interested in buying your product.
Join social media sites
One of the best ways to use social media to promote your online course is to simply join the different networks and use them for educating and informing people about your business!
By joining these sites, you get the chance to spread your message wider than if you were just posting information yourself. By doing this, you increase your exposure and thus, your audience.
Most educational institutions have accounts on all of the major social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), so why not take advantage of them?
Running an online course means that you’re always teaching someone else something, which is what will bring in new students. Getting other people to share their knowledge with others is one of the main strengths of education, so capitalize on that by linking to related lessons and courses.
Your followers can easily pick up where you left off when they find a lesson helpful or even teach each other through comments and questions. These types of interactions are valuable for your career as an educator and marketer, so make sure to contribute.
Encourage social media posting
After you have created an online course, your next step is to start promoting it! While some people may feel nervous about marketing their courses due to the very nature of how educational settings work, using social media to promote your course can be a lot less intimidating.
In this era where almost everyone has a phone with internet access, creating posts on social media sites is easy for almost anyone. If you are more comfortable doing that, then you can go ahead and do it yourself. Some things you can share on social media to draw in new students include:
Introductory messages such as “Start your free trial today at ______” or “Discover what life is like after college with a free membership of ___”
Case studies and testimonials are great ways to inspire potential customers. You can use your own experience to add weight to their importance or you can find others who have done so and received feedback from them
Keep it professional but friendly.
Distribute promotional materials
One of the most important things you can do to promote your online course is to spread word-of-mouth marketing via social media. People are sharing experiences they have with your product or service, so take advantage of this by adding comments and/or shares for these posts!
You could also create an Instagram picture or video using content from your website or that of another site and include a link in the caption. Or if you both share similar content, people might like to see it together!
Another way to use social media to promote your courses is to find out which ones other instructors or professionals are active on and invite them as followers. You could also join groups related to your field to see what topics people are discussing and comment on those.
Offer a reward
One of the most effective ways to gain new followers is by offering them something in return for their time. This could be anything from reading an interesting article or listening to a funny podcast to watching a product you recently reviewed.
By giving away these rewards, you create a sense of obligation towards your follower which helps promote trust.
Your followers will feel obligated to work with you because they want what you have. Make sure to keep it natural and organic though!
No one wants their hard-earned money being spent on products that don’t work or are outright scams. You can also use direct appeals like “I am having such good luck using this tool so why wouldn’t you try it?” or “You get a free copy if you order through the link I provided”.
Reminder: Don’t spam people! Even a very small amount of effort will result in no engagement at all – even negative comments.
Whenever possible, add links to resources or descriptions of the product within the text. That way your visitor doesn’t need to go look up the product themselves. They can easily click the link and check out the details there!
Running a giveaway is a great way to grow your online course.
Distract with humor
Starting your social media campaign with a joke is a great way to gain attention. People love a good laugh, and if you can make them chuckle or smile, then they will look at your posts more closely to see what you have to offer.
Your audience may not know who you are yet or what you stand for, so starting your campaign with a funny anecdote or picture that relates to your field is a good way to get some initial engagement.
Tell your audience what to do
As we mentioned before, you can use social media to promote your online course by telling people how to access it. You can put links to the course anywhere — websites, blogs, forums, etc.
Your link may lead directly to the main page of the course or another section such as Lessons or Tools. Make sure to include important linking details like URLs and Calls To Action (CTAs) that direct users to where they can find more information or take action on the course.
In addition to giving access to the course, you can also tell their friends about the content, reward them for listening or reading, and so on!
This is an effective way to spread word-of-mouth about your course and generate new followers and watchers. If possible, add value by including insights and tips related to the subject matter in the message.