The Best (Free) Tools to Step Up Your Social Media
Have you ever wanted to make your graphics pop and stand out but have no idea how to do it? We’ve all been there. What’s great about the tools listed below is that they don’t require a graphic design degree or a year long course to figure things out.
Also, you never have to start from scratch. There are templates! If you see something that you like, click on the template, replace the words, and you’re done. You can get plenty of graphics done for free but of course, you can upgrade your free plan to get more templates, images, and fonts.
These programs have small learning curves and are extremely easy to use. Get out there and start creating graphics for your small business!
Desktop & Mobile Apps
Mobile Apps Only
Canva
Canva is a one stop shop for creating visuals for your brand. There are a ton of templates to choose from that you can make unique with your brand colors, fonts, and logos.
Whatever you create stays in a folder so you can easily pull from those graphics at a later date. You can create anything from Instagram stories to flyers you can print out.
A free plan will get you the basics (that are still great) or you can pay around $13 a month for a Pro plan. Check out our post on how to maximize Canva for your business.
Adobe Spark
A more expensive option for creating images around your brand is Adobe Spark. From simple editing of images to website pages to animated videos, this app has it all.
It might be worth the cost for this app because it is easy to collaborate with your team on design. It starts at $20 a month.
Word Swag
Word Swag is catered toward adding quotes and text over images. You can create your own quote or choose someone else’s wise words to place over a photo of your choice.
The app is free but has in-app purchases for a larger variety of fonts and graphics.
Over
Over is an app created by GoDaddy and started out as an app that overlaid text onto your photos. Now it has a ton more features including different fonts and design elements. It is free with in-app purchases.
Social Media Scheduling
Sometimes it can feel overwhelming attempting to post every day or every week. Things can get busy and before you know it the week is over, time has flown by, and your social media platform is empty of new posts.
But if your team sets aside time for social media scheduling at the beginning of the month, you all can discuss what you should post in the following days. This pre-planning will relieve a lot of that stress.
Once you have a calendar created, go ahead and make your content and use one of the tools below to schedule it. You can put your image, photograph, or video on the calendar and it will automatically post at the time you pick.
You can actively focus on your workday while passively promoting your business at the same time.
Facebook Creator Studio
Facebook Creator Studio or FCS only allows posting for Facebook and Instagram but has everything you need to get started with scheduling. A big plus is that if you already use Facebook, FCS will be familiar. In addition to scheduling posts, it gives you insight on your content and audience.
Buffer
Buffer allows you to schedule content across multiple channels, not only Instagram and Facebook. You can connect your online shop to your Instagram through Buffer as well.
The app makes working with your team a breeze. The free plan will allow you up to 3 profiles. What’s great is if you start to dig deeper into scheduling, or hire someone specifically for your digital marketing, this is a great place to expand with their paid tiers.
Metricool
If you’re looking for a robust social media / digital marketing tool with room to grow, Metricool is a great option for you. Starting at $0 for solo brand management, Metricool can grow with you and integrates with website analytics, Facebook, Facebook Ads, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google My Business, Google Ads, TikTok Ads, and Twitch in addition to creating a beautiful reporting.
Ease of collaboration with a team both large and small, this tool is an in-house favorite at Livlen Media.
Stock Images
Listen carefully to my next point because I’m going to potentially save you a lot of money here. You cannot take an image from Google and use it on your website or social media.
Although these images are viewable for free you (typically) have to pay for a license in order to use them. This goes for both online and in your store.
Using a single picture without the owner’s permission can result in a lawsuit that costs you thousands of dollars. It makes no sense to lose out on money like that when there are high-quality images available for free.
Canva Photos
Whether you are using the free or Pro version of Canva, they offer photographs and images for use. It is recommended to upgrade to the Pro version though, because that is where Canva houses the best selection of stock images.
Unsplash
This website has over 2 million images for you to choose from. The best part of Unsplash is that it is free! You don’t have to sign up to access these photographs.
They can be used for commercial or non commercial use without permission. This is a great resource for small, local businesses. No need to spend hundreds on purchasing stock images.
Pixabay
Pixabay is similar to Unsplash. It is a free stock image resource for commercial and non commercial use.
You can modify images you download from this site as well which is helpful if you want to adapt a photograph to line up with your branding. No sign up is necessary.
I hope this post was helpful. Check out our digital marketing blog to learn more.
