The bit every other course skips
Almost every social media course in the market sells you the same catalogue whoever you are — the same first video to a total beginner and to someone who has run paid social for three years. We checked fourteen of the best-known providers. Not one of them assesses you first.
What it actually does
Asks what you can do
Six skill areas, one self-rating each. This part is quick and it is not the answer — it is the claim.
Checks the claim
Scenario questions probe the level you claimed. A wrong answer at or below your claimed level moves you down one in that area. A right answer confirms it. Crucially, scenarios can only ever lower a rating — so an optimistic self-assessment cannot land you somewhere you will drown.
Branches, so it stays short
Claim level 1 in an area and the deeper scenarios for it never appear. The assessment is 20 questions at its longest and far fewer for most people — about five minutes, closer to ten if you know a lot.
Builds the path
All 28 modules, ordered by your level and your goal, with modules you have evidenced marked as tested out. You are never charged to sit through something you have already proved.
Because nobody is one level at everything
A single overall score hides the thing you most need to know. Plenty of people write beautifully and cannot read an analytics dashboard. The path is built from the six numbers, not the average.
Writing for social
3 modules sit in this area.
Video and production
3 modules sit in this area.
How the feeds work
1 modules sit in this area.
Measurement
4 modules sit in this area.
Paid social
1 modules sit in this area.
Strategy and governance
8 modules sit in this area.
What a level means
| Level | Name | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Foundations | Knows the vocabulary and can follow instructions |
| 2 | Practitioner | Works unsupervised on routine tasks |
| 3 | Marketer | Sets the approach and can justify it with evidence |
| 4 | Leader | Sets standards others work to, and owns the outcome |
A profile you can actually show someone
Re-take it whenever you like — every quarter is a sensible rhythm — and your profile records the movement. You can turn it into a link that shows your level in each area and the date it was assessed, which is a more useful thing to put in front of a manager than a completion badge.
Sharing is off unless you turn it on, and it never exposes your answers.
Take the free assessmentSix numbers, one date
This learner would start on measurement, not on the writing module they would have been given by default.
