August 19, 2017
Marketing Tip of the Month: How to Create Social Media Graphics
That’s because recent studies have shown a significant emphasis being placed on social media graphics. What’s more, our knowledge about how human beings recollect messages suggest that an emphasis on social media graphic design is a smart investment for small business owners.
But creating solid social media graphics takes time and money, both of which are precious commodities for small business owners. Our small business social media tip? Use these tools:
1. Canva
Canva is a great tool to start your venture into social media graphic design. With plenty to choose from in terms of symbols, images, backgrounds, fonts and colors, you can make a high-quality social media graphic with zero technical expertise. You can easily create custom graphics from a blank canvas, or simply insert your branded message into an existing template.
Canva offers a free and premium version. Some of the symbols and images they offer cost $1 each, but there are plenty available for free. It’ll depend on your needs whether you want to upgrade to the premium version.
2. Pablo Buffer App
Pablo is a simpler alternative to Canva. There isn’t anything you can do in Pablo that you can’t do in Canva, but it’s a bare bone interface ideal for non-creatives. Its convenient integrations with social media, templates and filters make it the fastest way to get yourself some branded, professional social media graphics together and out into the world.
And if you’re sick of handing your email address out for every tool you use, we’ve got good news: Pablo doesn’t require a sign-in.
3. CloudApp
CloudApp takes visual content creation to another level. You’ll have to download and install this app to your operating system, but it’s well worth it. CloudApp is positioned more like a “practical” image tool compared to Canva and Pablo. It makes taking screenshots, screen videos and GIFs very easy.
With the click of a button to start the recording, you can conduct product demos and tutorials. But CloudApp takes ease-of-use up a notch by automatically generating a shareable link to your screenshot, screen video or GIF. Then, the app saves to your very own CloudApp storage space that you can access from any web browser. From there, you’re free to annotate your screenshots as you wish.
If you like Evernote, you’ll likely appreciate CloudApp. Pro plans (the most basic) start at eight dollars per month.
4. Placeit
Placeit is a useful resource for creating both digital and apparel mock-ups. Placeit has a database of stock images and videos with a placeholder for your image. All you have to do is upload your branding image and Placeit takes the image and inserts it into the video or picture of your choice.
You can purchase a subscription to Placeit which gives you a certain number of images and/or videos. Subscriptions range from $29 per month to $199 depending on your needs. You can also purchase images one at a time for around $8 per image and videos around $25 per video.
5. Powtoons
Powtoons helps users produce animated videos and presentations. Like Canva, it has a free service available, but unlike Canva, if you plan on using this tool frequently, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Powtoons makes the complicated task of animation easy by giving users the ability to build videos scene by scene, customize templates, add voice overs and upload images. The biggest time saver is undoubtedly the templates. With template categories like Sales & Marketing, Company Guidelines, Explainer Videos and much more, you won’t have to reinvent the wheel to create a memorable animation.
It's definitely worth it to create an account and check out Powtoons’ templates to see if you think it’s a valuable tool.
No time for social media graphics? Hire a freelance graphic designer!
Among our business social media tips, implementing high-quality visuals in your content is at the top of the list. But even with the help of these tools, this stuff takes time. If you’re spread too thin to take on another project, you may want to consider hiring a freelance designer or social media manager to take care of your social media graphics. If your needs aren’t too advanced, you’ll be able to find a designer capable of addressing your needs at affordable prices.
If you're interested in learning more about business marketing, check out our free small business marketing guide.