We all know that good attractive visual posts are really important for our social media presence, especially on Instagram and Facebook. But I think that many are not sure how to go about creating these posts, and often don't have the time or skills to do it!
Today I want to share with you a few of the skills that I have learned. I am certainly no expert and will never profess to be one, but I know I have really enjoyed learning and becoming more competent in areas like this. The knowledge I have gained has greatly benefited my social media journey, and I hope that it will do the same for you!
You really don't need to be a design expert to create good posts, are there are a number of different resources that offer good design tools and templates.
- PicMonkey - offers a 7 Day Free trial but charge after that.
- Canva - has a free version and if you want to try the Pro Version they have a 28 day free trial.
- Easil - free Easil Basic version and a monthly charge for Easil Plus that has many more features.
I first started working with PicMonkey some years ago, but I have now gravitated towards Canva after watching a fabulous video tutorial, called Good Design Matters for Your Business by Zoe Adam-Jones. For me, Canva offers almost everything that I need to create great posts!
As Easil is very new to me, so I really cannot give any constructive information about this app but it was mentioned recently on a podcast that I was listening to and thought it would be worth mentioning. If you use Easil, I would love to hear your feedback!
To assist with this tutorial, I have made a video that shows how to find great FREE resources that can be used as part of a social media content schedule. I will also demonstrate a few of the many benefits of using the paid Pro version on Canva (I recommend that you try out the 28 day free trial to see if the investment is worth it for you and your business.)
It is important to have a variety of different post types, as this will help to attract new followers as well as keeping your current followers engaged and stimulated by your posts. It is just as easy to lose followers as it is to gain them!
Post content can vary from;
- Product Posts
- Promotion of a Blog Post
- Competitions
- Behind the Scenes
- Videos
- Questions
- Holidays and Special Events
- Quotes
In this tutorial we will look at how to create a selection of creative posts that will help you to create exciting content for your social media campaigns.
Qualatex Free Marketing Materials
How lucky are we that the Qualatex team is constantly looking at ways to help and support the ballooning community. Have you seen the fabulous range of free marketing materials that are available to use?
These are:
- Ready-Made Social Media Posts
- Coronavirus Marketing Materials
- Facebook Cover Photos
- Qualatex Lifestyle Images
During the video we will look at each of these marketing materials and talk about how we can use them as part of our marking program.
To access the full range of Qualatex Marketing Materials click HERE
Check out this video where you will learn how to access all the free marketing resources on the Qualatex website and more!
Canva
I have already mentioned that I use Canva as my preferred design tool. But watching Zoe's tutorial really helped me to get started! Canva also have their own Design School with some fabulous free tutorials that cover a wide variety of topics.
Templates
For non-designers business owners, having ready-made templates available to work with can really help. Professional designers have done all the hard work; all we have to do is make a few minor adjustments to make the design template work for us.
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| Original Canva Template |
The above examples are the Canva templates that I selected with a few simple edits that I made. I tried to keep the essence of the template the same - which is what attracted me to the template in the first place.
If you have set up your brand kit, you may want to use your brand colours for your background and your brand fonts for the text.
When you change the images, change them to similar sized images.
If you attempt to change too much you will completely change the 'look' of the design and it will probably end up looking messy.
Try to make any changes like-for-like - if you change the font, do not change a bold font to a soft whimsical script. If you change a background colour from dark to light, be sure to make sure that you change the font colour so that it stands out and is easy to read.
Check out this great video where you will learn how to create posts using Canva Templates.
Watch out for Part 2, where I will show you many more exciting ways to create inspiring posts and a very simple way to remove the not so great backgrounds from some of your photographs!
Happy designing!
Sue
Follow me on Instagram @suebowler