4 tools to make social media content creation easier
From Jade McAuley, Rebel Marketing
Don’t go to my Facebook page. Seriously, please don’t. I can’t remember the last time I put out a random post, let alone set up a bunch of well thought out, strategic scheduled posts. If you’re in the same basket as me today, then hopefully this post will pull us both out of our slump and get our social media firing again!
These tools are free, easy to use and can help inspire you to create more engaging and interesting content. The idea is, instead of doing another post that’s a photo and with a bit of text above it (or below it, if you’re on Pinterest) – you can create your own visual content online for free.
For example – say you receive a stunning testimonial from a client. Rather than banging it up on FB as plain text, and maybe looking a little self-congratulatory, you can turn this compliment into a quote image – like the ones you see floating around from famous people all over social media. This immediately makes it more likely that people will read the testimonial, and it looks a lot more professional than just copying and pasting from a client email into Facebook.
1. Canva
If you haven’t heard of this online design tool yet, then do yourself a favour and check it out. After creating a free account, Canva will take you for a test run of their system but the basic benefits are:
It comes pre-loaded with social media post sizes (eg Facebook timeline cover), as well as templates for other marketing type items
It’s drag and drop – with the option to choose a pre-set layout or to create your own with images, symbols, font stylings and more
You can upload your own photos (including your logo for branded posts)
There are some elements that are US$1ea but there is plenty you can do in here for free, then simply download and post onto your chosen social media network.
Use it for things like… creating your own quotes, turning facts/figures into visual data, a set of social promos (eg event date claimers, drip feed campaigns etc).
2. Pablo
Like Canva, this is an image creation tool but a very, very scaled back version. There are tons of images, a few pre-set sizes (just social media ones) and the ability to add text and your logo.
Use it for things like… basic quotes made really fast.
3. SlideShare
Now a part of LinkedIn, with this tool you can turn your PowerPoint or PDF into an online presentation. If you’re not sure what I mean, never fear for SlideShare’s own home page has plenty of examples from other people – as well as a searchable database of all SlideShare presentations. This one takes longer, but if you have a story to tell – super effective. And can then obviously shared onto FB, LI etc etc.
Use it for things like… breaking a service or product demonstration down page by page, sharing a case study or customer experience, top 5/10/20 etc type posts where you count down through a list of ideas or resources.
4. PowToon
This guy takes a bit of fiddling around with at first but it gets super simple, super quick. What you can do with PowToon is create a cartoon – it has a range of themes, animated elements, fonts, music etc so you can make a little cartoon video clip. The free version means the PowToon logo stays on your final video, but it’s a small price to pay for such a funky little tool.
Use it for things like… sales presentations, telling the story of how you started your business, showing clients how you have the solution for their problem (eg here’s Bob > Bob doesn’t like early mornings > then Bob bought a coffee alarm clock > now Bob is happy > buy coffee alarm clocks for everyone you know – from us!).
