Make Your Social Media Better with... Canva!

One of the sections of my Social Media Marketing for Small Business class is about creating content. Some content types would be video or photos, or just like I'm doing here, blogging. The best online marketing content has a visual element. Even just posting social updates should have a great visual attached, as stats show that posts without visual content are most likely to be passed by.

The first couple of classes I went through content creation basics and other than Photoshop, didn't have a great resource for students to create graphics. Then I found Canva!

Canva is a free (you can upgrade to "Canva for Work" for more functionality) online app that has tons of pre-made templates for all occasions. Without having to worry about figuring out dimensions and resolutions, you can pop your photos or creative into an appropriate template and have a great looking graphic in minutes.

There are templates for Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest posts, LinkedIn headers and even blog posts! It's super easy to use and you can save your output in .jpg, .png or PDF formats. With the paid version, Canva for Work, you can also create animated .gifs and video clips, import your own fonts and colour schemes. It's not just for online graphics either. There are a ton of templates for all your standard graphic design projects. Some templates are paid, but quite inexspensive.

Democratizing Design

Canva's mission is to "make design simple for everyone. Driven by a team of talented thinkers, an amazing culture and remarkable growth trajectory – we’re out to change the world, one design at a time." I've even seen one of their "evangelists" say Canva was about "democratizing design." I'm all 'bout that, because I understand that small business owners generally don't have the budget to have a graphic designer touch every piece of content they need.

So I challenge you to check out Canva, and get your social media content looking great. The one thing that I would encourage you to remember is that all your content needs to be on brand, so try to use your corporate colours, fonts and tone of voice. Other than that, get creative and get that content flowing!!!