Social media creating and planning can be daunting and really frustrating especially if you don’t know where to start. There are a TON of platforms and programs out there that can help you create your content, keep you organized and schedule your posts but trying to find which platforms are going to work best for your business can be exhausting. Trust me, I just did a little bit of research on switching e-mail marketing platforms and ugh…talk about overwhelming. I’m going to list five of my favorite platforms and tools below and the best part…all of these are FREE or at least have a free version. Hopefully these tools will help alleviate some of your social media stress!
Write Down All Your Post for the Month on a Calendar
We have all been there…you are swamped and overwhelmed with running your business and all of a sudden you realize you haven’t posted anything on your business social media in weeks (or months). Using a social media calendar, like this one, to plan out a months’ worth of content at a time can be a huge time saver and can give you the peace of mind knowing you are set for the whole month! Once you know you have your content drafted, it can remove some of the stress when you start designing your graphics knowing you already have content to put on them.
Canva…Where do I Even Begin
Canva is my absolute favorite tool that I use pretty much every day. I seriously could go on and on about Canva and the wide variety of beautiful content you can create but I’ll save that for another post. Canva is a graphic design platform used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, logos, business cards etc. You name it, they probably have a template for it. Canva is great for beginners because they have a free version and have fantastic training videos that are short and really easy to follow.
They also have 250,000+ free templates, for whatever graphic you are designing. You are able to change these to match your branding and tweak as much as you want. They have thousands of free stock photos and graphics (even more are available with the paid version), the ability to remove backgrounds and save files with transparent backgrounds (only available in the paid version but super helpful) and so much more. I currently use the paid version which is $119.99 per year but the free version definitely has everything you need to get started and will help you create stunning graphics for your social media.
Take Advantage of Free Stock Photo Sites Like Pexels
I just started using Pexels recently but fell in love right away. Pexels is a website where you can find hundreds of thousands of high quality and completely free stock photography. All photos on Pexels are free to use and you can modify and use the photos as you like without needing to give credit to the photographer. In the past I have just used the Canva stock photos that come with the paid version but found Pexels has a different assortment of images and helps keep my graphics fresh.
When you sign up for a free account you can also see all your downloads, collections and likes which is really helpful. I find myself constantly scrolling through looking for one specific image but then come across several others I know I can use later so I just give it a like and know I can find it later when I need it.
Use a Social Media Scheduling Platform Such as Hootsuite, Buffer and Later
There’s a tremendous number of social media scheduling platforms out there and in my opinion, this is an area that could really keep someone hung up for a while. Social media schedulers are amazingly helpful and save so much time, I can’t imagine consistently posting on social media without using one. I am going to give my insight on three platforms I have personally used but please keep in mind this is by no means all the platforms available. Only mentioning ones that I know have a free plan and that I can speak to. I did find this larger list of free social media schedulers helpful as well in case you are interested in learning about other platforms.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite does have a free plan but you are only able to link 2 social accounts and schedule 5 messages at a time. Their paid plans offer a lot more but are pretty pricy starting at $49 per month. I have used Hootsuite in the past and I will say it was fairly easy to use and navigate but their recent price spike prompted us to look into other platforms.
Buffer
Buffer is what I currently use and have found the free version sufficient to what I need. You can linkup to 3 social accounts and schedule 10 posts per social account. I have found that even if you have more than 10 posts, you can save them as scheduled drafts so all you have to do is go back in and click “schedule” and they are good to go. Seems like a pretty simple work around if you plan on scheduling more than 10 posts at a time. They also have several paid plans starting at $5 per month per social account which include things like viewing reports, Instagram story scheduling, Instagram first comment and other helpful tools.
Later
Out of the three schedulers I am mentioning, Later is the one I have the least experience with, but I have seen it recommended on pretty much every “top social media schedulers” lists I have read through. Later has a free plan that include 1 social set, 10 posts per month per social platform a visual Instagram planner and a few other things. A “social set” is a set of profiles that include 1 Instagram, 1 Facebook, 1 Twitter, 1 Pinterest, 1 TikTok and 1 LinkedIn Profile. The paid plans include tons more options including adding additional social sets, increased number of posts per month, add-ons and much more.
Bookmark a Thesaurus on Your Browser
This sounds a little odd but I can’t tell you how many times I have noticed myself using the same words or phrases over and over. A thesaurus like this one can be a great tool to help you write content that will engage your audience. Another tip to help ensure your content isn’t looking or sounding too repetitive is to look over both the graphics and wording of your posts side by side over a large chunk of time. I just did this and noticed several of my graphics were looking too similar.