Social Media Marketing Complete Beginner's Course For 2026

Explore Instagram as an instant messaging platform for video, photos, and text messages, with a store and news features, plus insights into its 2 billion monthly users.

Learn essential Instagram terms and concepts, from profile basics, profile picture, followers and posts to hashtags, stories, and reach, with clear definitions and practical insights.

Create an Instagram account by choosing a username, setting a strong password, adding recovery options, and learning how to switch between multiple accounts and complete signup.

Master the Instagram home page, posts, stories, and actions including like, comment, save, and share; learn to drag down to refresh and to post with plus sign while navigating profiles.

Explore how to read and manage Instagram notifications and activities, including follows, likes, comments, messages, and unrecognized login alerts across home and private profiles.

Explore the messages feature to search profiles, view chats, and filter unread or flagged conversations; send text, photos, and voice messages, and use saved replies and stickers.

Explore page overview: discover how Instagram recommends posts and reels based on your likes, comments, and follows, and how search, hashtags, and locations shape results.

Learn to customize your profile, edit your name and bio, add a link tree, and manage posts, highlights, and insights to boost reach and engagement.

Explore Instagram reels and learn to view, like, comment, follow, and post your own reels, using audio, filters, layouts, timers, and uploads.

Learn how the Instagram shop links posts to product pages, allowing viewing, saving to a wish list, and direct purchasing via the shop and search features.

Compare private vs business Instagram accounts, highlighting that private offers limited reach and minimal insights. Business profiles boost reach, provide detailed insights, enable shopping and ads, and link products.

Switch your personal profile to a professional business account via settings, account, and switch to professional, then choose a category and decide whether to display it.

Explore Instagram basic settings to customize notifications, privacy, payments, monetization, and brand content, then tailor messaging, saved posts, close friends, and theme for a secure, personalized account.

Brainstorm potential names, ensure harmony with your profile picture, and optimize sound, recognition, and long-term wellbeing to fit your target audience and boost memorability on Instagram.

Examine a social feed as posts plus profile visuals, colors, and descriptions to understand its overall aesthetic; compare your feed with niche accounts to gauge content style.

Explore essential Instagram equipment for beginners, from cameras and smartphones to lighting, microphones, tripods, and Canva or Photoshop for post creation, with or without live streams.

Explore Instagram on PC by using the browser version to upload posts directly from desktop, view larger images, and access home, messages, posting, explorer, notifications, profile, and saved posts.

Discover how to add emojis on PC for social media posts using Emojipedia, copy the emoji, and paste into the description with Ctrl+V.

Explain how to optimize an Instagram description by using keywords in the name and username to boost ranking and visibility, and how to use a link tree for multiple links.

Explore how to use special fonts for Instagram descriptions and profiles. Find fonts at IG fonts.io, paste into posts, and make text bolder.

Learn to craft effective call-to-action descriptions on social media with links, using emojis and directional cues to drive clicks. Test one emoji-text combo for a week before adjusting.

Learn how to set up and optimize a Linktree to organize multiple links for your social profiles, using free features, basic analytics, and optional premium options.

Learn why having an imprint on your Linktree profile is legally required in the EU, with practical tips to place it within two clicks to protect your business.

Spradley offers a free, GDPR-compliant alternative to Linktree for creating a digital business card, enabling you to add social links, profiles, and animated elements.

Explore how saves drive Instagram reach by examining saved posts and audios, likes, comments, and per-post insights, and learn to organize saves to boost exposure.

Learn how likes, comments, and saves affect reach on Instagram, why hiding likes is not ideal, and how post insights reveal these metrics for better strategy.

Explore how sharing and recommendations drive reach, with sending posts to friends, saves, and CTAs that boost engagement, while EU privacy rules hide share data in insights.

Explains how Instagram's algorithm weighs likes, comments, shares, and especially saves to boost reach and explore page exposure, with attention to engagement rate and ghost followers.

Upload an Instagram post from your computer, select and edit images, apply filters, add captions and up to ten slides, and include location and alt text for accessibility and ranking.

Upload an Instagram post from computer or phone, choose size (original, 4:5, 16:9), add up to ten slides, edit with filters, and write a caption with hashtags and alt text.

Choose the right location to boost post reach by tagging a place, such as Naschmarkt or Vienna, and balance engagement to appear in the top results.

After posting, access post functions menu to share, copy the link, save or unsave, generate a qr code, and manage archiving, hiding like counts, turning off comments, pinning, or deleting.

Learn how hashtags identify topics on social media, boost discoverability on Instagram and Twitter, and help your posts rank higher using up to 30 hashtags.

Explore how to use hashtags and keywords across profile descriptions, posts, comments, stories, and reels to boost reach and discoverability, including community hashtags, usernames, and story stickers.

Master four hashtag types—personal, trending, low search volume, and popular—using Google Trends to spot topics; pick 1–2 personal tags and 7 from other types to build a precise hashtag strategy.

Limit hashtags to 5–6 or use about 15, then weave them into a readable sentence to boost reach from the explore page while avoiding Instagram spam warnings.

Discover how Instagram Reels became the primary engagement and traffic source with short vertical videos. Use reels and posts to grow traffic and followers, featuring text and music.

Create engaging Instagram reels by recording in app or via Canva, exploring vertical timelines from 15 to 90 seconds, music, filters, layouts, timers, cover, and feed posting options.

Learn to create Instagram reels with Canva, recycling content from YouTube or posts into 1080x1920 frames. Use templates and quick edits, including green screen, to achieve high views.

Utilize Canva to craft Instagram reels by layering videos and posts, applying end frames and drop shadows, choosing templates or building your own, and export for Instagram or TikTok.

Learn to boost reels reach by reusing high-performing clips, testing underperformers, and repurposing content across TikTok and Instagram while avoiding watermarks for higher engagement.

Learn to use Instagram stories to build community, promote posts, and drive sales with hashtags, tagging, polls, quizzes, affiliate links, and swipe up links within 24 hours.

Explore how to create Instagram stories using the plus sign or profile picture, switch cameras, and edit with text, boomerang, layouts, and filters for engaging stories.

Explore Instagram story text and pen features, including adding text with fonts, color, alignment, background options, tagging people, adding location, and drawing with varied pen colors, sizes, glow, and undo.

Explore how to add location stickers, mentions, hashtags, and GIFs to your Instagram stories, search for locations, link profiles, and customize GIFs to boost engagement.

Explore how to use voting, sentiment barometer, and questions stickers to engage audiences, run polls with yes/no options and percentage results, host questions, and design quizzes.

Learn to create engaging social media stories using super zoom, boomerang, and filters and effects, then edit and upload your story.

Explore how Instagram's swipe-up concept evolved into the now universal link sticker, letting any creator add links to stories, customize text, and guide followers to websites or YouTube channels.

Learn how to post and share stories, manage audience with close friends, story settings, and cross-post options to engage followers effectively.

Create Instagram stories in Canva by starting with a 1080 by 1920 canvas, using free templates, and customizing backgrounds, icons, and frames, then download as png and share to Instagram.

Learn to use Instagram highlights to turn past stories into permanent profile categories like polls and books. Create, name, and cover highlights, then select stories and edit or delete them.

Explore how Instagram story likes may influence reach by encouraging engagement through hearts, likes, and comments, while noting the lack of conclusive measurements and ongoing evaluation.