Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram offer a free, organic way to market your course and get learner feedback.
Simple, regular posts on these platforms will increase awareness about your new course and a focus on audience engagement will help your post to get more shares and reach additional people.
Best social media for your goals
If your university or organisation uses these platforms, we recommend posting on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube and Instagram. Each of these platforms has a unique audience, so the copy of your post may need to be adapted to suit each one. Use your discretion to decide what posts will suit each of the audiences on your platforms.
The post copy is short and hashtags are included in our Twitter posts.
What your posts should have and look like
Your aim for your post should be to get as many likes, shares and comments as possible so when drafting copy and selecting images for your posts keep that in mind.
What works
1) Eye catching imagery
A strong image is crucial when posting. This is one of the main ways to stand out against the posts flooding your audience’s news feed.
2) Attention-grabbing opening line
Social media users have short attention spans. The first line will be what makes the reader decide whether to continue reading or scroll on. A strong statistic (reference your source), verified quote* or use of emojis will likely lead to increased reactions from fans.
*Quotes attributed to famous characters on the internet are often false. Be wary when selecting them and use multiple sources.
3) Keep it short and sweet
As mentioned previously, your audience on social media has a short attention span. Long paragraphs should be avoided, but if necessary, use line breaks to create a journey for your reader.
4) Invite a response
Think of your post as a conversation between you and your audience - you don’t just want to tell them things, you want them to talk back! Ask for your audience’s opinion or try a poll.
5) Differentiation
You may have a similar message for each of your platforms. Adjust the post copy for each platform so that it’s personalised for the followers of that platform. Look at the audience demographic to get an idea of who you’re talking to and adjust your message accordingly.
When to post about your course
1) Open for enrolment
Get your audience excited about your course by letting them know when it’s open for enrolment.
2) Two weeks prior to start
Start posting regularly about your course two weeks ahead of the start date. Ideally, you’ll have one promotional post a day talking about your course and other non-promotional content (i.e. news, articles and related events) that relates to it.
3) Course has begun
You’ll want a standout post that announces the beginning of your course run.
Post throughout the first week of it starting and highlight the benefits of the educator and learner interaction.
4) Check analytics and experiment best times to post
Some sites like Facebook tell you when your followers are online. Use this to give you an idea of what time to schedule your post. You can also look back at your best performing posts to get an idea of when would be best.
Make sure you tag @FutureLearn in your posts so our Social Media team can share as many of them as possible. We can’t wait to see your posts!
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