For people who have been handed the accounts
If you now run the social media and didn’t ask to, this is where to start. Our social media training for beginners is a half or full day, in your office or online, starting with your own accounts rather than theory. Half day £1,200, full day £1,800 for up to six people, excluding VAT. Nobody is made to feel behind.
How do you learn social media from scratch?
Start with one channel, not five. Learn what your audience actually responds to on that channel before adding another, publish consistently enough to gather evidence, and read the numbers weekly rather than daily. Most beginners fail because they spread across every platform at once and give none of them enough attention to work.
There is a great deal of free material and some of it is good. What free material cannot do is look at your accounts, tell you which of your last twenty posts worked and why, and stop you repeating the thing that is quietly costing you reach. That is the difference this day makes, and it is the only honest argument for paying for training.
Who ends up on a beginners course?
Rarely a beginner in the way the phrase suggests. Usually it is somebody competent at their actual job who has been handed the social accounts on top of it. A marketing executive, an office manager, somebody in comms at a charity, a business owner doing it themselves at nine at night.
They are not short of confidence with the apps. They are short of a framework, and short of anybody senior who can tell them whether what they are doing is working. That is what the day supplies, and it is why we start with your accounts rather than a slide about the history of Facebook.
What does the beginners course cover?
Eight things, in roughly the order a beginner needs them. You don’t need a marketing strategy written in advance. We start from what your organisation is already trying to do, and the strategy work proper, with budgets and reporting, belongs on the social media manager day.
1. Which channels, and which to ignore
What each of the main social media platforms is for, and who is really on it. Then an honest decision about where your target audience actually spends its time, and permission to stop posting somewhere that is doing nothing.
2. Your profiles, fixed
Bios, images, links and pinned posts sorted properly in the room. Small, quick, and usually overdue.
3. What to post
Content pillars, which is all a content strategy needs to be at this stage: four or five themes your audience cares about, written down and agreed. The weekly question then stops being what shall I put up today and starts being which pillar is next.
4. Writing and making it
The content creation basics: captions, images and simple video shot on a phone. What good enough looks like, because perfect never gets published. On a full day you leave with a week of posts drafted and a short video made in the room.
5. Planning ahead
Building a month in an afternoon, and the scheduling tools worth using at your size.
6. Growing an audience
What genuinely works now, hashtags included, and what people still do out of habit that does nothing.
7. Reading the numbers
The four metrics worth watching weekly, and how to tell a real change from normal noise.
8. Where AI fits
Useful for drafts, dangerous unedited. See AI for social media content.
What does the day look like?
| Time | Block | What comes out of it |
|---|---|---|
| 09:30 | Your accounts on screen | An honest read on where you are, without anybody being embarrassed |
| 10:15 | Audience and channel choice | A decision on where to concentrate and what to drop |
| 11:15 | Content pillars | Four or five pillars written down and agreed |
| 13:15 | Making content, hands on | A week of posts drafted, and a short video shot on a phone |
| 14:45 | Planning and scheduling | The next month in a calendar |
| 15:45 | Numbers and next steps | Four metrics to watch and a simple weekly routine |
A half day keeps the account review, the pillars and the plan, which is the combination that changes what happens on Monday.
Is a free social media course enough?
For understanding what the buttons do, yes, and we would rather say so. Meta, LinkedIn and Google all publish free training and it is competently made. Plenty of people running small accounts need nothing more.
Where free stops is judgement. It cannot tell you whether your last month of posting was any good, which of your competitors is worth copying, or why your reach halved in June. It also cannot get six colleagues into one room and agreeing on who does what, which for most organisations is the actual problem rather than a knowledge gap.
If a free course would serve you better, we will tell you on the scoping call.
Who runs the day?
I am Chris Norton and I run most of these sessions myself. I founded Prohibition, the PR, social and content agency behind this site, I have worked in public relations for more than twenty years, and I have been running training since 2009. I co-authored Share This Too, the social media handbook published by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
We have run more than 400 courses and workshops, for organisations including Skipton Building Society, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Northumbria University, Keepmoat Homes and Games Workshop.
Beginner sessions need a particular kind of patience. Nobody gets made to feel slow, there are no stupid questions on the day, and if somebody wants to ask what a hashtag actually does at half past three, that is a better outcome than them nodding along and going back to guessing.
Claire Hawkins said it in fewer words in a Google review of training I ran: “No question was a silly question and the support we received was great.”
What comes after beginners?
Social media managers
For somebody now doing it properly and needing strategy and measurement. See social media manager training.
Advanced and expert
For teams past the basics who want depth. See advanced training.
Whole team
When social is spread across a whole organisation. See whole team training.
Most organisations that start here book the manager level day nine to twelve months later, once the person doing it has grown into the job.
Beginner questions we get asked
How much does a beginners social media course cost?
Half day £1,200 and full day £1,800 for up to six people, excluding VAT, priced by the group rather than per head. That is around £200 to £300 each, and every session runs on your own accounts.
What if I am the only person who needs training?
One to one works and is often better for a genuine beginner, because nothing gets skipped for the sake of the room. It costs the same as a group, £1,200 for a half day and £1,800 for a full day, excluding VAT, because the whole day is built around one person. See one to one coaching.
Do I need to know anything before the day?
No. If you can use social media personally you have enough. If you cannot, say so at the scoping call and we will start further back rather than leaving you behind.
Which platforms will you teach?
The ones your audience is on, decided at the scoping call. Usually that is two or three rather than all of them, because concentrating beats spreading thin every time.
Do you cover paid advertising?
Lightly, enough to know when boosting is worth it. Proper paid buying is a separate day at paid social media training.
Will we actually make anything on the day?
Yes, and on a full day you leave with a week of posts drafted, a short video shot on a phone and a month planned in a calendar. A half day ends with your accounts reviewed, your content pillars agreed and the next month planned. Sessions where nothing gets made tend to change nothing.
Is it suitable for a small business owner?
Very. A large share of beginner bookings are owners doing it themselves. See small business training.
Do you give a certificate?
Yes, every attendee gets a certificate of attendance. It isn’t an accredited qualification. You also keep the slides, the content plan and the work made in the room. The plan is the part that matters.
How soon can you run it?
Usually two to three weeks, which allows the scoping call and time to look at your accounts properly first.
What are the 5-5-5, 5-3-1 and 5:3:2 rules on social media?
The 5-5-5 rule usually means liking five posts, leaving five comments and replying to five messages or posts. The 5-3-1 rule is similar: each day, like five posts in your field, comment on three and follow one new account. The 5:3:2 rule is about your mix of posts instead: out of every ten, five share other people’s content, three are your own and two are personal. All three are rules of thumb, and the details change depending on who you ask. They make a decent starting point for a beginner, because they get you sharing and replying as well as selling. On the day we swap them for your own content pillars and a weekly routine you can keep up.
How do I get into social media with no experience?
If you mean as a job, the quickest way in is evidence. Run a real account for a few months, for your own business or a local club, and keep a note of what grew and why. That will usually tell an employer more than a certificate, ours included. If you are already doing it at work without the job title, you are exactly who this course is for.
Is there any support after the day?
Yes, every course includes four weeks of post-course support. Any attendee can call us with a question about the course, or about putting it into practice on their accounts, and it gets answered rather than billed. Most beginner questions only turn up once you are back at your desk on your own.
Tell us who has been handed the accounts
Half day £1,200, full day £1,800, up to six people, excluding VAT. At your office or online.
One of the training levels we run, alongside every social media course. Delivered UK wide or online. Last reviewed October 2026.
