Use social media to: 

• raise awareness of your course and encourage discussion
• motivate and connect new learners. Encourage your learners to find and support each other on their social networks
• demonstrate value to a wider audience. Share expertise, topical commentary, and news stories in relation to the course subject, which is of value to both your existing learners and potential future learners
• offer learners the opportunity to share examples of non-compulsory work, if an exercise step or external tool is not deemed appropriate. Adoption and support of social media can vary greatly between audiences, so any activity in social media should be optional, not compulsory unless that is the subject of the course).

Create a hashtag specifically for your course 

If you’re unfamiliar view Twitter’s explanation of how to use hashtags.

1. Once the course title has been agreed, consider your course hashtag. You may wish to use a few hashtags, but only one can appear on the Course Description Page (CDP)

2. Search to see if anyone is using that hashtag for something else. 

3. Our standard is to use ‘FL’ at the start to help make the hashtag unique and for consistency with other courses on the platform.

4. A good course hashtag should be:

• as short as possible
• self-explanatory
• unique
• easy to spell and easy to say (imagine having to say it on the radio—how easy would it be for listeners to remember?)
• easy to read (using CamelCase)

For example: #FLHamlet, #FLSustain

With longer or more complex course titles and subjects, there will be some compromise to find a hashtag that works.

5. Add the hashtag to your Course Description Page by entering it into the field within ‘course run details’ (in the details tab in Course Creator). 

6. Remember to use it when talking about your course on social media and in course emails. Monitor the hashtag. Learners will be creating materials and sharing their ideas and opinions often without being asked. These can be easily re-shared and are an easy way to demonstrate the fun of taking part in a course. 

Marketing external courses and products within courses

If you have designed your FutureLearn course to be a pathway to a specific course or product and you want to gather learners’ contact details (i.e. ‘leads’) to then directly market to, you must use the Lead Generation tool. This is a paid-for service and the only way to collect personal data for marketing purposes.

In-course mentions

If you have non-FutureLearn courses that are directly related to your FutureLearn course you can mention these in the final step of your course. For example, other courses that feature the same educator or are part of the same project. 

This final step must also contain opportunity for learners to reflect on what they have learned etc. 

If you wish to dedicate a step to advertising your degree programme, you must make use of the lead generation tool, which is optimised for this purpose, including code to track referrals to the link.

Any URLs should not link to customised pages designed to collect learner data. 

See our guidance about the different course email types and what they can include. 

Terminology on this page that you aren’t familiar with? Check out our glossary. 

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