Can’t Afford to Go to Social Media Marketing World? You Can Still Learn from the Speakers for Free

I highly recommend attending Social Media Marketing World (a conference for content creators, social media managers and digital marketers) if you ever get the chance. The conference is held in sunny San Diego in March every year. If you can’t go in person, they offer a discounted virtual ticket that gives you online access to all the panels and speakers.

It’s very important to keep on top of what’s going on in the industry, learn from others, and keep abreast of new changes to social media platforms. A conference like Social Media Marketing World presents up-to-date news and tips from social media and digital marketing experts who are at the forefront of new changes. It’s worth your time to learn from them and get new ideas for your projects, creative endeavors and businesses. (And of course, you can learn a lot from the Social Media Examiner blog and its podcasts).

It’s expensive to fly to conferences though, with plane tickets, hotel rooms, restaurant meals and missed workdays. Not every digital entrepreneur will be able to spend the money to learn from the experts at this excellent conference.

You can still learn from the SMMW experts, however. Almost every one of them has a YouTube channel you can learn from, and many of them still write blogs. As you can imagine, many of the speakers offer trainings and paid courses, but there’s still enough recent content you can learn from for free.,

Let’s delve into the wealth of information on offer from this year’s speakers. I’ll organize them first by Track, then alphabetically for convenience. See our Part 2 and Part 3 posts for the AI and Marketing Track speakers and the Marketing Strategy and Paid Social Marketing Strategy tracks speakers.

Keynotes and Organic Social Marketing Tracks Speakers at Social Media Marketing World 2025

Michaela Alexis – LinkedIn

Instagram: @mickalexis LinkedIn: Michaela Alexis Website: MickAlexis.com YouTube: @MichaelaAlexis

Subscribe to her free LinkedIn newsletters The Linkedin Lowdown and Love and Coffee.

Daniel Batal – YouTube

Instagram: @daniel_batal LinkedIn: Daniel Batal Website: DanielBatal.com YouTube: @daniel_batal

Daniel’s recent videos are about using Da Vinci Resolve to edit YouTube videos. Visit his Community page on YouTube for helpful info.

Roberto Blake: YouTube

Facebook: RobertoBlake2 Instagram:@robertoblake LinkedIn: Roberto Blake Website: RobertoBlake.com YouTube: @RobertoBlake

You can subscribe to his LinkedIn newsletter, Creator Economy Insider. On YouTube, his recent helpful videos include “BEST Royalty Free Music for YouTube – 10 Best Sites in 2025,” “Why You Should Start a FACELESS YouTube Channel in 2025 (to Beat the Algorithm),” and “EXACTLY How To Get 4000 HOURS Of Watch Time On YouTube in 2025.”

Louise Brogan – LinkedIn

Instagram: @louisebrogan_ LinkedIn: Louise Brogan Website: LouiseBrogan.com YouTube: @raiseyourvisibilityonline

Louise runs the LinkedIn With Louise podcast.

Subscribe to her free LinkedIn newsletter, “Raise Your Visibility Online.” Watch her recent Reels on “What to do in 10 Minutes a Day on LinkedIn” and “Why Should You Be Doing More Video on LinkedIn?” Read her recent blog posts on “How to use LinkedIn Events to promote your next workshop” and “Are These LinkedIn Profile Mistakes Costing You Business?” Learn from her recent videos “Boost Your LinkedIn Profile With Featured Section Videos,” and “How to Create a Professional LinkedIn Profile: Step-by-Step Guide.”

Sean Cannell – YouTube Marketing and Podcasts

Instagram: @seancannell LinkedIn: Sean Cannell and ThinkMediaTV TikTok: @thinkmediaofficial YouTube: ThinkMediaTV and @thinkmediapodcast Website: SeanCannell.com

Latest content includes: How to Create YouTube Shorts for Beginners (No Editing Required!), How to Live Stream on YouTube 2025 (Complete Beginner’s Guide), The NEW WAY People Are Going Full-Time on YouTube!, and The NEW RULES of Personal Branding in 2025.

Amber Figlow – Instagram

Instagram: @amberfiglow LinkedIn: Amber Figlow TikTok: @amber.figlow Website: AmberFiglow.com YouTube: @amberfiglow

Amber runs The Content Collective podcast.

Listen to her latest podcast episodes, “How to Build a Content Workflow in 2025” and “10 lessons I have learned from creating content for 10+ years.” Watch her video on her formula for how to decide which platforms to post on. On YouTube, learn from her recent videos “3 platforms you should create content on for your small business,” “How I am using Canva to run my entire business,” and “How to Repurpose Your Content in 2025 to Post More in Less Time.”

Judi Fox – LinkedIn

Instagram: @judifoxrocks LinkedIn: Judi Fox TikTok: @judifoxrocks Website: JudiFox.com

She specializes in growing LinkedIn newsletters. Check out her LinkedIn Newsletter Do’s and Don’ts.

Liz Germain – YouTube

Instagram: @supersisterfitness LinkedIn: Liz Germain YouTube: @supersisterfitness and @LizDoesVideo Website: LizGermain.com and Vidfluence.com

Her latest video unfortunately is four months old, “Dr Beverly Yates Gained 10k Subscribers In 4 Months.”

Michelle Gifford – Instagram

Instagram: @iammichellegifford LinkedIn: Michelle Gifford Podcast: The Social Strategist with Michelle Gifford Website: IAmMichelleGifford.com YouTube: @michellegifford

Michelle’s training program is called Grow the Gram. Her recent videos are “TRIPLE Your Instagram Stories Views With This SIMPLE Strategy” and “GROW Your Audience With Trial Reels for Instagram.”

Eden Hazan – Instagram

Instagram: @thereelscoach LinkedIn: Eden Hazan

Learn from his recent Reels, including “How to Film an Easy Two-Shot Blackout Transition,” “How to Shoot a One-Shot Viral Speedramp,” and “How to Shoot a 1-Shot Speedramp.”

Keenya Kelly – TikTok

Facebook: Keenya Kelly Instagram: @keenyakelly LinkedIn: Keenya Kelly Podcast: If You Create It with Keenya Kelly TikTok: @keenyakelly YouTube: @KeenyaKelly Website: KeenyaKelly.com

Recent beneficial content include her recent podcast episode “The 2025 Social Media Strategy You Need to Grow Fast,” and her YouTube videos “90 Days of Content in 1 Hour,” “​​How To Film & Edit B-roll Videos,” and “How to Maximize TikTok Creator Rewards Program.”

Adley Kinsman – Video

Instagram: @adley LinkedIn: Adley Kinsman TikTok: @theAdleyShow Web.”site: Viralish YouTube: @TheAdleyShow

Her free info is mostly on LinkedIn but was mostly posted six months ago. Take a look at her humorous videos – they’re inspiring!

Melissa Laurie – Instagram and TikTok

Instagram: @themelissalaurie LinkedIn: Melissa Laurie TikTok: @themelissalaurie YouTube: @themelissalaurie

Melissa is a UGC expert based in Singapore. Her company is Oysterly Media.

Allie Mason – Instagram

Instagram: @thatalliemason LinkedIn: That Allie Mason Website: ThatAllieMason.com and Something Greater School of Social YouTube: @thatalliemason

Unfortunately I haven’t found any recent content on this speaker’s YouTube or social media channels.

Shannon McKinstrie – Instagram and Content Creation

Instagram: @shannonmckinstrie LinkedIn: Shannon McKinstrie Podcast: Good Content TikTok: @shannonmckinstrie YouTube: @shannonmckinstrie Website: ShannonMcKinstrie.com

Recent helpful content include this blog post, “Why Storytelling Content Works and Prompts to Get You Started,” plus her recent podcast episodes “Instagram Stories Work! Here’s how to make them work for YOU,”  “Making Sense of the Instagram Algorithm,” and “Put Yourself Back Into Your Content.”

Nick Nimmin – YouTube

Instagram: @nicknimmin LinkedIn: Nick Nimmin Website: NickNimmin.com YouTube: @NickNimmin

Nick used to host for Streamyard and you can find many older helpful videos from him on their channel. Nick’s recent helpful videos on his own channel include “How SMALL Channels Can Blow Up On YouTube In 2025,” “NEW Youtube Tools YOU Don’t Know About…That Actually Help You,” and “Small YouTubers With These Personalities Grow Faster.” Subscribe to his Nimmin Live show for weekly YouTube growth strategy tips.

Lucas O’Keefe – Instagram

Instagram: @thelucasokeefe LinkedIn: Lucas O’Keefe

Lucas doesn’t really update his YouTube; instead, you find him sharing Instagram and social media tips on Adobe Live and on other YouTube channels. Some of his recent appearances include Honeybook’s video “The Instagram content strategy you need in 2025,” Adobe Live‘s video “Plan Ahead: Upgrade Your Social Media For 2025” and “Engaging Carousel Posts for Social Media.”

Chelsea Peitz – Instagram

Instagram: @chelsea.peitz LinkedIn: Chelsea Peitz YouTube @ChelseaPeitz Website: ChelseaPeitz.com

Chelsea specializes in social media techniques for realtors. Her YouTube isn’t very,” updated. Check out her recent Instagram posts on “The 30 Second Social Media Formula that Works,” “Simple Changes = Better Watch Time,” and “When it Feels Like Your Content Isn’t Working.”

Jerry Potter – YouTube and Podcasts

Instagram: @mrjerrypotter LinkedIn: Jerry Potter YouTube: @mrjerrypotter Website: MrJerryPotter.com

Jerry hosts his own podcast, “Done by Lunch Entrepreneurs,” and hosts the Social Media Marketing Talk Show podcast. You might find his guide “How to Launch Your Podcast on YouTube” helpful, as well as his recent videos “Perfect YouTube Banner Dimensions (For All Devices!),” “How To Make A YouTube Channel (2025 Guide For Beginners!),” and “YouTube Video Ideas YOUR Audience Wants (YouTube Studio Inspiration Tab – Complete Tutorial).

Michelle J Raymond – LinkedIn

LinkedIn: Michelle J Raymond YouTube: @michellejraymond Website: B2B Growth Co.

Recent helpful videos include “Why Your LinkedIn Company Page Gets No Engagement And How to Fix It”

Nicky Saunders – Content Creation and Personal Branding

Instagram: @thisisnickys LinkedIn: Nicky Saunders YouTube: @thisisnickys Website: The Viral Online Content School

Recent content includes 4 Proven Ways Introverts Can Monetize Their Content, Algorithms Just Changed Again: The New Blueprint for Creator Success, and This EXPENSIVE Strawberry Taught Me 3 Viral Branding Lessons.

Mari Smith – Facebook

Facebook: Mari Smith Instagram: @mari_smith LinkedIn: Mari Smith TikTok: YouTube: @MariSmithVideos
Website: MariSmith.com

Recent helpful content includes Facebook Survival Guide; Download Your Facebook Live Videos; and TWO important Facebook and Instagram metrics you need to pay attention to in 2025! Also see her YouTube video on Why ORGANIC social media will dominate in 2025!.

Jessica Stansberry – YouTube

Instagram: @jessicastansberry LinkedIn: Jessica Stansberry Website: HeyJessica.com YouTube: @JessicaStansberry

Recent helpful videos from Jessica include “Getting Brand Deals that Pay the Bills (even as a small YouTuber),” “Master Storytelling on YouTube,” and “Edit YouTube Videos FASTER in ANY Software!.”


See part 2 and part 3 of this post for more speaker links and resources!

-Creator Inspiration

@creatorinspirationblog