How to Create Social Media Graphics
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use the more you have. – Maya Angelou
When using social media for pleasure or business, it can seem a little daunting trying to keep up with the details of each social media’s platform when it comes to graphics. What size? Text/no text? Word count limitations? Images? To further complicate matters, each platform – Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, etc.. – has its own distinct landscape and language.
To make matters worse, the Digital Divas can leave some, like myself, feeling overwhelmed and defeated. Their beautifully designed pins and posts ooze creative and are way out of my league. Even though I’ve never been good at creating visually, I can learn from what the Divas are doing and what seems to be working so well for them.
I’ve discovered a few of the secrets/tools they use. These tools have been a lifesaver for me and have added huge value to my business! They can help you look like a creative genius as well as save massive chunks of time. The following are my top go-to’s.
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Canva
Canva is an amazing idea generator as well as creator. You can upload your own image, or choose from hundreds of templates provided. I especially like the unique shaped templates – not only square – that already have text blocks. All you have to do is add your own text, save and download 🙂
Canva already has the correct dimensions and sizes for each social platform’s posts, blogs, and even ebooks. You simply choose the platform you’re working on and Voila! No worries about size issues!
A favorite little trick is the layered transparency option…I used this in the title image of this post. Love.
You can use Canva’s free service or purchase upgrades for larger selection of images/photos for a very moderate price.
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Picmonkey
I love Picmonkey for making something fast. I use it mostly for quotes and placing text over images. It’s very user-friendly and fun to play with. Lots of cool themes, overlays and textures are available to add to your images.
I like the simplicity of this site. It can create fast quotes or even the most embellished graphics if you want to spend a little more time.
Use the free service or upgrade to Royale and more options will unlock for you.
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Piktochart
This is a wonderful tool for creating graphics. I must confess I don’t use this one as much as the other 2, but for Pinterest this is the go-to tool! You can make an informative post very visually interesting by using the many different graphs, charts, etc. available. Obviously, you can use charts and graphs for any platform but they work especially well for creating pins for Pinterest. Pin size is very important to keep in mind…you want longer graphics so that they are more noticeable as people scroll through their news feeds.
Like Canva and Picmonkey, Piktochart has templates to choose from that allow you to simply drag and drop. It is a little more involved than the other 2 tools above, but well worth the time.
Piktochart is a very user-friendly and free to use.
I’ve found these 3 sources to be invaluable when creating graphics for social media and for my blog as well. I enjoy finding and sharing tools that save me time creatively so that I can devote my time to blogging.
If you’d like to know how blogging can help your current business or help you create a new one, leave a comment for me.
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