This is the last installment of our ‘Building Your Digital Landscape’ series about the best practices you can use to construct a strong digital presence. If you’re catching up, you can check out our Digital Marketing Acronym Reference Guide, Head into Header Tags for SEO, Find Five Truths for Your Social Space, Get Back to Basics at Social Media Bootcamp, Vertical Video: From Fringe to Featured or The Case for Facebook Business Suite.
Taking on the content creation of a brand account for social media can be a daunting task.
However, the prospect of creating content shouldn’t be overwhelming. No longer is a subscription to Adobe Creative Suite a necessity. More tools have been cropping up in the marketplace and becoming the content creator’s dream team. Whether you’re just starting out on this path or looking for great tools to try, here are some of our favorites.
Canva
Initially created with a few templates for social media posts, Canva has become the all-around content creator’s go-to. You can use it as an individual for free or bring on a team with a paid account. Assign your logos and brand colors to keep things consistent and then run wild with templates for everything from print projects to social media to video. More and more platforms are integrating with Canva to make transition from creation to publishing that much smoother. One final note on Canva, if you are looking for a way to isolate the foreground of a photo to integrate into a design – instead of laboring over an outline in Photoshop – you can pull that photo into Canva (paid plan) and have it do its magic of cutting out the background of that photo with just a click of a button.
Animaker
Animations are just as popular as ever. Whether you’re creating content for kids or you’re putting together an explainer video, having the ability to animate exactly what you want when you want it is a pretty enticing idea for many. Animaker is one of the best animation creation platforms out there. Although you can do some for free, many choose a paid plan for upgraded characters and tools. Admittedly, this is not the easiest content creation tool for anyone who has no video creation or video timeline experience. However, Animaker does provide ample amounts of tutorials and educational videos.
Animoto
Have videos that you’ve taken with your phone? Want something in the cloud to use for editing rather than using iMovie or complex video software? We get it; we’ve done our fair share of on-the-go videos. One of the easiest platforms for the non-videographer is Animoto. Its extensive templates are available for a plug-and-play kind of creation. They can easily mix video and photos as well as make a robust slideshow with just photos. You can do some with the free version; but to incorporate branding, teams and easy approvals, you’ll want to upgrade to the paid plan.
Easelly
How often have you either been asked or wished you had an infographic to display your data in a more visually appealing way? If you’ve been through some of the same business conversations we have, it’s a pretty regular request. Easelly is one of the simplest tools out there for creating infographics. The platform has an abundance of templates to work with, a gallery to get ideas and inspiration from and really great guides to help teach how to use its platform.
If you’re just starting out or just need encouragement that you can tackle content creation regardless of your background, this list should give you the charge forward you need.
Would you rather leave content creation to the pros? Well, that’s where the team at Westcomm can easily come in and take that weight of your shoulders.
