Learn Social Media Marketing — Best Resources and Free Ebooks for Beginners

Social media were just fancy little supplementary channels for marketing activity kept for odds & sods, memes, and try-outs. They were not taken seriously. But that was so long ago it is basically a Star Wars Story. Now it is high time to learn social media marketing and follow expert advice to boost your popularity and establish a strong brand.

At the moment, Social Media is all the rage. That’s where all the action is. No wonder — it is the place of gathering of an audience so wide you can fit an elaborate combination of an elephant, spider, rhinoceros, penguin, killer tomato and Lepus on a diverging diamond six-lane highway and there still be enough room to waltz a tornado. I.e. — A LOT of people all ready to react to your content.

However, because of that, to learn Social Media Marketing became a bit tricky thing. It is mostly the same as any other kind of marketing but there is some kind of difference that makes especially hard to master.

You can’t just go there and blow the roof off. It doesn’t happen that way. It all depends on your ability to maneuver in a tangled web of trends, behavior and basic laws of digital unreason. In order to pull it off, you need to understand the specifics of communication in the digital realm. That is how you learn SMM.

Here’s an assorted collection of various resources on Social Media Marketing. The collection is divided into two sections for sake of convenience.

Learn Social Media Marketing from these blogs

Social Media Explorer

Social Media Explorer is the place you need to check out regularly, probably on a daily basis from now and to the end of eternity.

Their blog is a huge ever-growing stockpile of various stuff regarding social media. There are some many insights you can get your 2001 moment almost instantly. Just enter your keywords and get loaded.

If you want to know something, especially the stuff about Social media marketing for beginners — chances are you can find a thing or two in SME archives.

On the other hand, because of its scope, it because a bit tough to get through at times. But who cares about such things when you have a seemingly infinite supply of insights, tips, and tricks.

Scott Monty

One of the best ways to learn Social Media Marketing is through following experts in the field. Not only it is a nice reading but it will also help you to stay up to date on the inside.

This guy is a go-to guy for all things marketing. His blog is a treasure trove of various tips, tricks, and observations. So many things were covered over the years — you can just take a deep dive into an archive and get yourself irradiated with his insights. If you want to learn SMM hard — that is the stuff to puff your nose in.

His “Week in Digital” is Philip DeFranco show for digital marketing folk.

However, there is a slight downside to this goodness. Given the fact that the guy is active in the business you need to be critical about things he’s writing about.

Why?

The way he elaborates on the topics has that particular marketing spin that makes it understandable but unusable without a key. You need dig into words in order to extract the essence. But hey, that is fun in of itself.

Social Media Examiner

Social Media Examiner is the universe of itself. It is one of the biggest and most thorough digital marketing blogs in the game. There are all sorts of stuff there. Social media reports, valuable tips, interesting observations, insightful case studies, good old secrets of the craft. All written by the pro’s on the top of their game.

It also works well as a way back machine of sorts. If you look through the archive you can find a lot of interesting stuff from the yesteryear. It’s a great provider of historical background on the subject.

Examiner’s biggest advantage over other blogs is the scope. If you are a sad and lazy person (at least deep inside) who wants everything in one neat package — then this site is all you need and even more.

HubSpot Marketing Blog

Since you’re using HubSpot anyway — why don’t read its blog. Sure, lots of stuff on it is written with a spin — but there are many many interesting things scattered around waiting to be applied. At times, it is all over the place — but it definitely makes it up for the scope of topic reach.

One of the greatest features of HubSpot blog are the selections of various links regarding the majority of digital marketing topic. These folks know what to recommend. And if you need to quick run-through the cream of the crop — this is the place to make a stop.

Social Media Today

Social Media Today is a BIG and sexy source of all things social media. You can find all sorts of news, trend overviews, insights into the best practices and plain fun reads about digital and social media marketing.

It is also one of the more comfortable for use — there are neat navigation and really responsible search that grabs everything you need and even more.

SMT is a fine place to stop by when you are in the heat of the moment and in the dire need of finding something that will start a chain reaction in your head that will forge that particular game-breaking insight.

As a side note — you can become a contributor yourself and share your insights with the world. Which is always a good thing.

Mashable

Mashable is a distilled selection of everything good, weird and inspiring on the web. Despite being broader than daylight and all over the place, its social media section is a valuable source of various news and insights from all over the world.

While it can’t give you anything, in particular, most of the time — it is a fine place to follow in order to stay in tune with what it is trendy in this sick and twisted world of SMM. And, as you know, staying in tune is a legitimate way to learn social media marketing.

Also, — you can contribute your own stuff, so double down on that.

These Books Will Help You Learn Social Media Marketing

The Beginner’s Guide – Social Media Marketing 101

Before getting into specifics — it is best to learn Social Media Marketing basics and this book is probably the best way to do it. Courtesy of MotoCMS, this guide is basically “everything you need to know about SMM gathered in one place and written in plain language without flowers and stuff”.

In many ways, using this book is closest we can get to “Social media marketing for Beginners”.

Over the course of mean lean 12 chapters, you will master the foundations of SMM and will know how to do the do. Also don`t forget to check other free marketing ebooks by MotoCMS.

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users

The Art of Social Media is written by Guy Kawasaki from Apple. He knows a thing or two about social media marketing. You should read it. There are no two ways about it — it is a must.

This book is not only a compendium of tips and tricks for every situation but also a fine look at how the entire mechanics of SMM had evolved over the years.

As a foundational document — it is an invaluable source of information for anyone who wants to get ahead in SMM.

How to Use Instagram for Business

Instagram is one of the most perplexing social media platforms out there. It is ever-changing quicksilver-like something-something and you never know how your post will perform in hindsight even if you have planned the hell out of it with the right time and tag combination.

Because of that peculiarity, it is extremely easy and at the same time extremely hard to do stuff on that platform. However, it is not exactly a Russian Roulette.

There are some methods to its madness. This fancy HubSpot step by step guide can help you to understand the basics of Instagram Marketing and start your own little blitz on the target audience with maximum conversion and minimal wasting time.

A Visual Guide to Creating the Perfect LinkedIn Company Page

LinkedIn is one of those social networks that are hard to get through if you are in for a lighthearted jest and easy-going attitude. LinkedIn is dead serious no-nonsense space where you need to go straight to the point in order to be heard and taken seriously.

This guide can help you to build an engaging and convincing company page that will boost credibility and attract positive attention from the target audience. It has everything you need — how to write a fine description, banner style, content scheduling, etc.

How to Attract Customers with Facebook

Facebook is basically a thing in itself that lives by its own rules. Because of that Facebook Marketing is a little different from any other kind of social media marketing. It’s like a parallel dimension.

This ebook is a thorough through and through the breakdown of how to build a successful marketing campaign on Facebook and to break into tears in the process. It goes from setting marketing objectives through the trenches of content to the outer space of stats.

As a “Social media marketing for beginners” document — it is a must. You can find various insights into different marketing approaches, fancy tips and tricks and also lots and lots of thought-provoking notes on optimization and content creation.

How to Get More Twitter Followers

Twitter is probably the hardest social network to work with in terms of social media marketing. Not because there are some bizarre inner workings or toxic environment but simply because everything is happening too fast and it all boils down to a grueling play of catch-up with high hopes on riding the wave by chance.

This little guidebook was made in collaboration with the Twitter in-crowd so there tons of really useful insights about how to make Twitter work for you and build your profile from the ground-up from an oddity to an opinion-maker influencer.

In Conclusion

This is it. A fine selection of the best resources of Social Media Marketing out there. Sure, there are plenty of more on the Internet, but these are cream of the crop.

I hope you’ve found this list useful.