Course title: Social Media Marketing: Get Paying Clients or Grow Your Business

Level: Beginner. If you can use WhatsApp and Facebook on your phone, you can do this course.

Duration: Self-paced — about 5 hours of reading, practice and quizzes across 7 chapters.

Format: Text lessons, short videos, hands-on practice activities, a quiz after every chapter, a final assessment and a certificate of completion.

What you need: A smartphone with internet. All the tools used are free: Facebook, Meta Business Suite, WhatsApp Business, Canva and Google Sheets. You don’t need to spend money on ads to complete the course.

Price: R199 once-off (online)

Certificate: PurpleGrowth certificate of completion, issued automatically when you finish all chapters and the final assessment

What this course gets you

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• Explain how businesses make money on social media and set up a professional page and WhatsApp Business

• Describe the ideal customer, choose content pillars and plan and schedule a content calendar

• Take good photos, design graphics in Canva, film short videos and write captions that sell

• Grow an audience, turn comments and messages into sales and measure results

• Plan and measure small ads without wasting money

• Follow the rules on copyright, POPIA, honest marketing and account security

• Build a portfolio, approach local businesses, set packages and land your first paying client

Who this course is for

• Side hustlers who want to earn by managing social media for local businesses

• Small business owners who want more customers from Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok and Instagram

• Job seekers applying for social media assistant, community manager and digital marketing roles

• Admin, sales and reception staff who are asked to “look after the social media”

Further free resources

Free tools and sites you can use to create, learn and find work after the course. All free at the time of writing.

• JobAlertsZA — a free tool that finds matching jobs for you: set alerts for social media and marketing roles — https://jobalertsza.com/

• Meta Business Suite — free tool to schedule posts and manage Facebook and Instagram — https://business.facebook.com/

• WhatsApp Business — free app for small businesses — https://business.whatsapp.com/

• Canva — free designs, templates and video editing — https://www.canva.com/

• Pexels — free photos and videos you can use for business — https://www.pexels.com/

• Meta Blueprint — free official courses on Facebook and Instagram marketing — https://www.facebook.com/business/learn