My Top 8 Free Social Media Resources
If you’re an entrepreneur and want to ramp up your social media game, this article is for you. I share my top FREE social media resources that I use to create social media for my clients. I chose to compile these resources because it doesn’t take a design or journalism degree to create beautiful and compelling social posts. It also doesn’t need to break the bank. All you need is a bit of time, mostly to learn to use the resources, then you’re off to the races. Ready to get started? Let’s do this.
Copywriting
1. The Copywriting Bible by Josh Fechter
When creating a post, first you need to decide what topic you’re posting about. Once you’ve got that, you can use the first free resource, The Copywriting Bible by Josh Fechter.
In his book, Josh shares over 100 outlines that can help build your brand. Basically they are stories, written in a specific format, to entice your readers and enhance your engagement.
The way I like to use it is I decide on a topic I want to share, then I go through all his outlines and find one that I can wrap my topic around.
With each of his outlines he first provides an example story, then follows it up with a fill-in-the-blank sheet where you insert your own content.
2. The Hemingway Editor
Once you’ve got your post content ready, it’s always good to run it through this website called The Hemingway Editor. I use this for any and all copywriting I have to do. It’s an online text editor designed to highlight common errors and suggests ways to tighten up your writing and strengthen the copy. It even lets you know what reading level your content is at.
Now that you’ve got the content for the post, it’s time to move over to the visuals.
Graphic Creation
3. Social Media Image Sizes Cheat Sheet
Before starting any design, it’s important to know what size you need to create it for each of the different platforms. This brings me to the next free resource, Social Media Image Sizes Cheat Sheet.
I use this cheat sheet often because social media websites don’t typically announce when they’ve made changes to the size requirements of their posts so it’s handy to have a reference.
Once you’ve identified which platform you’re going to be posting on and what size will work best, you can move on to the design.
4. Canva
Canva is a free to join website that offers thousands of templates to choose from. From social media and infographics to brochures and flyers. So grab a headline from your content and start designing.
5. Adobe Spark
If you’ve got access to Adobe Creative Cloud then you should definitely be using Adobe Spark to quickly create shareable content. I’ve used it to create short videos, websites, and social media posts.
If you don’t have Creative Cloud then all is not lost. You can still use the free version but you will often have watermarks on your content with Adobe Spark branding.
6. Remove.BG
Ever find the right image but the background is just too distracting? Well here’s a tool that’ll save you from the headache of finding the “perfect” image or trying to remove a background yourself. With this completely free website you can remove backgrounds from images in a few seconds automatically!
Stock Photography
7. Unsplash
With Unsplash, you get access to over 1 million free high-resolution images brought to you by the most generous community of photographers. Best part about it? It’s royalty-free, so stop wondering if you’ll run into copyright violations and use photos from Unsplash. Guess where all the images from this article came from?
8. Pexels
Another great resource for high-resolution images. The selection isn’t as robust as Unsplash but you also get access to videos. Combine these videos with Adobe Spark and you’re sure to stand out among the competition.
To get the most impact and engagement with your social posts, be sure to implement a social media strategy so you’re not taking shots in the dark and wondering if your posts are hitting the mark. A great article to help you start is Neil Patel’s How to Create a Social Media Brand Strategy from Scratch. Another important thing to have before you start posting to your pages is a social media calendar. Scheduling your posts a month out will ensure you’re not scrambling to put content out there. You may want to also develop a theme for each day like Marketing Mondays. Having a calendar where you can keep your graphics and content ready for copy/pasting is essential to make approaching social media as efficient as possible.
Well there you have it! My Top 8 Free Social Media Resources. I don’t typically offer social media with my business packages because my focus is on brand strategy and design but I’m in business to help my clients achieve the success they envision for themselves. If that involves email strategy, social media, or digital print ads, they’ve got a partner in their corner who’s willing to step in and help. If you’re a start-up looking to launch with a strong and clear brand or an existing business ready for the next step in your brand’s evolution then visit The Brand Insight and schedule a FREE 15 minute consultation to find out if we can help.
Cheers to your health and success in all you endeavor!
