social media

Creating your own content for social media can be difficult and time-consuming. Especially if you don’t have the best tools to write and design in. I love Photoshop, and it’s pretty awesome, but not every business owner has the money or time to learn how to use it! This is why I’ve created a list of awesome free resources for creating your own content. I’ve tested all the products to make sure that they are awesome before recommending them to you. Actually, I like them so much that I use them for creating social media content!

1. Canva

canvaCanva is great for when you need a nice image for social media and don’t have the time or resources (like Photoshop). Canva has free options and paid options (if you want to use their stock photos you need to pay $1 apiece).

Pro-tip: If you know absolutely nothing about design, stick to their templates– they’re fantastic! If you are creating multiple designs with Canva, try to use similar templates to keep your look and feel consistent.

2. Pixabay

Pixabay   Free ImagesNeed a good photo but don’t have time to take one yourself? Pixabay is perfect for you! It’s your source for free vectors, photos, and drawings. You can use the images without attribution in digital and printed form, even for commercial applications!

Pro-tip: Try to use stock photos that look like natural pictures for a realistic feeling. Some stock photos look too stiff and will make your final product look corny.

3. Alltop

Alltop

Alltop is a website that categorizes all the top headlines from popular topics around the web. On Alltop you can find trending articles on health, culture, tech, news, sports, and much more.

Pro-tip: Need to post something on social media but don’t have any new content for yourself? This is a great resource for finding articles your followers would find useful.

4. Google Docs

Google DocsCreate and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations that are web-based. With Google Docs you have the flexibility to access your documents from any computer.

Pro-tip: You can download the Google docs app for your iphone, ipad, or android devices allowing even more freedom.

5. Hemingway App

Hemingway Editor

This app is a powerful editing tool! You can see which sentences you need to simplify or edit and what the reading level is. It can even tell you the word count and how long it will take for someone to read it.

Pro-tip: We recommend getting your thoughts down before using this app for editing grammar. It can be distracting to see your grammatical errors while you are trying to write down your thoughts.

AND A BONUS! Because who doesn’t love MORE FREE STUFF!

6. Blog Post Headline Analyzer

Write Better Headlines  Free Headline Analyzer From CoSchedule

This is a powerful tool for creating blog post titles. You type in your title and it will analyze it for you and give you suggestions on how to improve your title.

Pro-tip: Don’t be discouraged if the first time you use this tool if you get a low score on your headline. Writing good headlines is more of a challenge than most people realize. The website will break down your headline and how to improve it.

Now that you have a list of free resources, we hope this will help your company make social media content easily and efficiently. Do you have a favorite resource that we didn’t include on this list? Let us know in the comments!

[chrysta-hooper]