Social media analytics is the approach to collecting data from social media websites and using that data to make better business decisions.
Social media analytics goes past a basic look at engagement. Since data says 55% of consumers learn about new brands through social media, so this is not a tool to ignore.
This is why we’ve put together a list of some of the most up-to-date, overall best social media analytics courses available for you.
Udemy
Udemy is an online learning platform built to help students improve their lives. They offer several web and social media analytics classes.
Many of us have a strong base knowledge of how the various social media sites operate. However, not everyone is taking full advantage of exactly how much social media can help to brand and build up a company.
With these classes, many brands and companies can build their audiences and general brand awareness, create sales, drive product awareness, and get traction with website traffic.
Web and Social Media Analytics with R: 2-in-1
In this course, students can learn with hands-on projects and learn how social media analytics will help improve the website and business traction.
Students will also work to understand Key Performance Indicators, create goal tracking and measurement ability for their analytics, and learn about the basic principles of using RStudio, Google Analytics, and more.
The class is split into two sections with 46 lectures, totaling under 6 hours of work for those who want a mid-length class.
PR: Learn Social Media Measurement Analytics & Insights
This course offers in-depth insights specifically into Facebook and Twitter analytics, allowing you to gain better insights into the behind-the-scenes workings of these two popular social media websites.
Other parts of this class include learning about free analytic instruments, information about cost acquisition of customers, setting up KPIs for your business, and more.
This course is built for social media managers, marketing and PR professionals, or small businesses that need more complete data to evaluate their social media presence.
At only 30 minutes, this is a nice quick lecture series that you can get done in a half-day of work.
The Complete Digital Marketing Course – 12 Courses in 1
This course is a best seller on Udemy, and for a good reason.
This digital media analytics course has been split into 19 different sections, with a total of 246 lectures available to students – all of which come to just under 23 hours of informative content that can change your social media marketing strategy for the better.
This course covers twelve major marking topics, including:
- Email marketing
- Search engine optimization
- Youtube Marketing
- Social Media Marketing with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Quora
- Google Analytics
- Market research
- And much more
This class is also unique as one of the few that give information on understanding social media marketing and analytics for the website Pinterest.
Pinterest users are seven times more likely to be influenced by social media when shopping, understanding your analytics on this site can be a game-changer for small brands.
Another huge perk of this course is that once the class is purchased, you will have complete lifetime access to the course updates.
Since these websites are constantly evolving and changing, those who want to learn about social media analytics also need to be ready for new information at the drop of a hat.
Because of this, you will always be able to have the newest and most relevant information, not just in social media analytics, but much more.
Powerful Social Media Marketing For Beginners
This course is made for beginners with an interest in better understanding social media analytics and marketing but are not sure where to start or the jargon of the industry.
It is also helpful for small businesses that are already doing well but want to expand online for the first time or freelancers that want to build out their skillset.
The course, which takes just under nine hours, breaks down social media platforms and strategy, understanding data (and what to do with that data) from analytic tools, and much more.
While this information may be a little basic if you have any background in social media, this lesson is the best for those who are just starting.
Skillshare
Skillshare, a company formed in 2010, is an online learning community with thousands of classes available for those who want to learn more about nearly any subject imaginable.
Their courses primarily focus on interaction instead of just lecturing. Almost every class offered gives its users a goal of completing a project of some kind by the end of each section.
Skillshare offers classes through a paid membership and is particularly notable for having famous instructors like Gary Vaynerchuk, a social media marking expert.
These are some of the best social media analytics courses available on Skillshare.
Intro to Digital Analytics – history, strategy, tactics, myths, and much more!
This class is another beginner’s course that breaks down the importance of understanding social media analytics and the tools users can engage with to improve their businesses.
This class goes into the history of digital analytic tracking.
They also go over common myths and misconceptions in digital analytics, which can be especially helpful for those who have heard about social media tracking but do not know that much about it.
This course is just eight lessons and 26 minutes, so it is a good start for those who want to slowly dive into the real world of social media analytics.
How To Read Analytics + Report Results To Clients
This course focuses on growing and tracking your social media presence – either as a personal brand or for your company – as well as the beginning steps on how to offer social media management as a freelancing service or transition into the job market.
This class teaches how to track social media and web analytics and how to create a report based on the digital data gathered.
With the purchase of this class, you also get spreadsheets and report templates that share social media analytics with others.
Analytics & Authenticity on Instagram: Crafting Your Digital Presence
This 45-minute class is ideal for those that have identified Instagram as the best social media platform for their brand but are not sure how to make the most of the website yet.
The course gives advice on staying authentic on this image-driven social media site, breaks down social media analytic tools, and goes over how to track growth through analytics and capitalize on that growth.
Since Instagram engagement is notably higher than most other social media websites – up to six times higher than Facebook – it’s worth learning more about this unique set of data analysis to better use Instagram and create more efficient paid media advertising campaign.
Social Media Analytics with Python
If you do not have previous experience with Python or a basic understanding, this class might not be for you – however, if you consider yourself familiar with this high-level programming language, then you will likely love this course.
This class goes over the tools and technology that can be used to get social media data and breaks down how to analyze this data to create practical insights using everything from basic histograms to advanced learning techniques.
Course details include Twitter, Google Plus, and Facebook usage examples in python such as sentiment analysis, along with an introduction to use cases.
They promise that by the end of the class, students will run a complete project and integrate it into an existing business.
Coursera
Coursera is an online course provider founded in 2012 by two computer science professors from Stanford University.
The business is notable for working with many different universities to offer degrees, professional certifications, and other online courses in several different focuses.
Around 150 universities work with Coursera to offer over 4,000 courses to students from around the world.
Introduction to Social Media Analytics
This Emory University-sponsored class is number five in six courses for the class Foundations of Marketing Analytics Specialization.
This session promises to educate students on the benefits and limitations of using social media data compared to traditional methods, how social media data can be used to provide market structure insights, and much more.
The class offers an opportunity to assess data and participate in practice quizzes, discussion boards, and various assignments.
It takes about nine hours to complete. If you do this class along with the others in the overall Foundations of Marketing Analytics Specialization, you will earn a certificate that you can share with employers.
Applying Data Analytics in Marketing
This course is part of the Business Analytics Specialization offered by the University of Illinois in association with the Master of Business Administration degree.
This intermediate to advanced course focuses on how to make marketing decisions based on social media research and gathered information about customer satisfaction levels using social media and other analytical tools.
The insightful course is best for those with some kind of background in statistics, as the instructors will go over customer satisfaction measurements through various approaches.
That includes:
- Sentiment analysis by using information from social media data
- Text summarization with social media data
- digital media analytics Influence analysis data
Meta Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate
This professional certificate by Meta will give you the tools and certificate to make a total job switch into social media marketing.
Meta, which was formerly known as Facebook, Inc., is one of the leaders in understanding social media analytics, and they always have the most updated information.
The five-star class takes five months to complete, so you have to be committed to the course, but it’s worth it for those ready for a career change into social media analytics and marketing.
The course beings with a basic introduction to social media marketing and management. By the end of the class, you’ll be taking courses on how to measure social media campaigns through analyzing dashboards and evaluating ROI.
These courses also give you the business intelligence skills to present the results of the social media analytics in a digestible way to a team.
Social Media Data Analytics By the University of Washington
This course is offered through the University of Washington and has several different learner outcomes that help individuals better understand social media analytics.
This is more of a beginner to intermediate course, as learners will not only use API services to collect data but also learn how to process that unstructured data.
Students in this class must complete a series of assignments and projects that will teach them about social media analysis, data science and presentations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the answers to some of your most commonly asked questions about social media analytics and the courses you can take to learn them.
Conclusion
There are many different social media analytics courses for a range of skill levels.
Whether you’re a beginner in understanding social media analytics and marketing or if you’re looking to update your knowledge with a free course or more advanced lessons, there’s a class for you.
Do you have comments or a course suggestion? Let us know!
Additional Resources
Stieglitz, S., Dang-Xuan, L., Bruns, A. and Neuberger, C., 2014. Social media analytics. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 6(2), pp.89-96.
Fan, W. and Gordon, M.D., 2014. The power of social media analytics. Communications of the ACM, 57(6), pp.74-81.
Zeng, D., Chen, H., Lusch, R. and Li, S.H., 2010. Social media analytics and intelligence. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 25(6), pp.13-16.
10 Social Media Analytics Tools that Will Do the Math For You – Hootsuite
What is social media analytics? – IBM
Know What’s Working on Social Media: 27 Paid and Free Social Media Analytics Tools – Buffer
