Managing social media is more than just playing on Facebook all day. In order to get results you have to be strategic towards your goals by creatively curating content, making it visually appealing, and scheduling it during peak engagement times.
Creativity and time management are the two most important skills for any social media manager.So important that a suite of apps have been developed to address this need. Not only are they fabulous at helping your posts look creative and professional, but most come with a free version! I personally use all four of these apps when managing my clients’ social media.
Create Imagery Using Canva
Canva is an amazing image creation tool. It has thousands of pre-made editable templates, fonts, layouts, and stock-photos. You can add your own photos and easily lay text over them. When you begin your project it will ask you what platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blog, Powerpoint, etc) you are designing for and will AUTOMATICALLY size it for you. How cool is that!?! It’s also super easy to use for a creatively challenged marketer like myself. The inspiration alone is worth a browse. Most recently I used Canva to create an image for a Google Review Contest we are hosting for new tenants.
Create Video with Text Overlay or Music with iMovie
The iMovie app is a beginner-friendly video editor that makes it easy for you to produce videos to fit your needs exactly – without the limitations of a required template.
iMovie lets you use previous photos and videos or create new ones while giving you easy editing abilities such as text overlay and easy slide transitions. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound. I created this iMovie from photos of Next Door Self Storage Plainfield in less than 5 minutes to help showcase their new SmartKIOSK.
Curate and Share Content with Cloud Based Google Docs
Not as glamorous as the fun image and video creating tools, but a worthy mention. Google Docs is a free Web-based application in which documents and spreadsheets can be created, edited and stored online. Files can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection and a full-featured Web browser. When creating content that needs approval or input, Google Docs is the way to go. It’s easy to share with anyone by sending a link or adding their email address. It’s impossible to create conflicting versions as it’s a live document. No more saving, emailing, and waiting for your team to send a document back to you. I also love that it works on all my devices. I can use it from my laptop or iPhone from anywhere if inspiration strikes.
Save Space and Stay Organized with DropBox
When you are constantly taking photos and creating media, it’s easy to fill up the storage on your phone and other devices. DropBox is an easy way to save your files and organize them. You can also share files or folders with anyone through their cloud based system. It also has easy integration to your laptop/desktop so if you save to a folder on your smartphone, it will sync to your laptop/desktop. It really makes file sharing a breeze.
Marketing doesn’t have to be a scary disorganized mess. These free apps will help you elevate your messaging and branding while saving you time and staying within budget, even if you are as creatively challenged as I am. Do you have any life saving apps that you can’t live without? I would love to hear about it in the comments!