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Social media images play an important role in the success of your online business. Simply put, you can often convey a lot more with an image than you can with plain text. But creating social media images isn't always the easiest task. If you're running an agency, then you might be making dozens of graphics a week for clients in a variety of industries. Finding a way to do so efficiently is a must. Images & videos are so important for branding today!
If you're a small- or medium-sized business, then you might be trying to manage your graphics with limited manpower (and knowledge of graphic design) and a smaller budget.
However, even with these potential constraints, you (of course) don't want to skimp on quality. So, what do you do?
When businesses are trying to save time on their digital marketing, "extras" like graphics are often the first thing on the chopping block. But they're not extra – they're a vital part of your marketing strategy.
Check out these social media tools that you can use for making social media images. They're simple, user-friendly, powerful, and will save you so much time while still leaving plenty of room for creativity.
Canva
Canva is a go-to for so many of us. In fact, we love it so much that we integrated it right into the eclincher platform. Infact, it is one of the most popular social media apps today!
One of the many cool things about Canva is that the learning curve is so incredibly manageable. You spend minimal time learning how to use the tool, which leaves you more time to create. Using social reporting tools can also help keep everything organized!
Plus, they make it easy to create images that are perfectly optimized for each social media platform by having the correct dimensions already set up for you. Canva is one of the best tools to promote business on social media!
Experiment with different fonts, colors, shapes, stickers, borders, templates, themes, and so much much.
Canva is a real life-saver for people who may have first attempted to tackle the beast known as Photoshop and just couldn't deal. (Totally understandable, BTW. Photoshop is tricky to grasp) Canva makes image creation not only easy... but actually fun.
Piktochart
Infographics pack in a ton of value and are highly "shareable" — meaning you can post these on social (and your blog) to get lots of that sweet, sweet traffic we all want. An infographic maker can be very valuable!
Designing them, though? Not the easiest thing in the world, especially if you're trying to start from scratch. That's where Piktochart comes in. Piktochart makes it feasible to take the infographic you've imagined in your mind and turn it into a reality.
It offers all sorts of eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing templates to help you begin to build high-quality infographics. Like Canva, it allows you to personalize and customize your design and add/take away elements as you please. You can eliminate the frustration of trying to design an infographic from scratch and instead focus on building something that will provide immense value for your followers (while keeping it perfectly on-brand).
Wordswag
Wordswag is a paid smartphone app available on Apple for $4.99 and Google Play for $3.99. If you'd like to create gorgeous text layouts from the convenience of your smartphone, then you're going to love this app. In just a few taps, you can create incredible texts that could take you several minutes, if not hours, otherwise. You can also use social listening tools to improve your engagement!
Additionally, the app includes hundreds of thoughts, quotes, and jokes. So, if the creative well is ever running dry and you need ideas to inspire something special to say to your audience, Wordswag can help.
What's more, they've got an endless supply of images that you can choose from as a backdrop for your text — although you can certainly upload your own photo, if you'd prefer.
Being able to make people stop and look is so important for your social media marketing strategy. Wordswag can really help here with unique, creative, elegant designs.
Over
Over, similar to other tools to create social media images, offers a number of easily-customizable templates for your channels. What sticks out about this one, though, is how simple it makes it to create stunning Instagram Stories.
There's a good chance that you take photos or videos for your Stories on the spot, and this is totally okay! After all, that's sort of the purpose of Stories — to be more authentic and "in the moment."
However, if you're an agency or an SMB, you probably also want gorgeous branded/themed Stories too. That's what makes Over so powerful. And while your finished product will make it look like you spent hours developing templates, in reality, you can do it in minutes. It doesn't get much simpler than this.
Don't forget that you can also use Over to create Facebook posts, Pinterest pins, logos, quotes, and even business cards (and so much more). It truly is the Swiss Army knife of social media images.
Mojo
Speaking of Stories, how about a tool that does this, and only this?
Enter: Mojo.
Mojo is for creating compelling IG Stories, Facebook Stories, and Snapchat posts. Yes, you can accomplish this with other tools, but Mojo is kind of the expert in the field. Even if creating social media images isn't your jam, you can manage Mojo. Furthermore, your followers are going to think that you hired a pro to create your Stories.
As you'll see in the video above, you need to find ways to get your brand (or your clients' brands) to stand out. Creating Stories that look like all the others isn't going to cut it. Your content needs to be a unique experience for the people who interact with you online.
Mojo helps to get the job done.
It's available for both Androids and iPhones.
Giphy
GIFs are eye-catching and do a great job of interrupting your followers' social media experience, effectively grabbing their attention and drawing it toward you. Did you know that you can make your own GIFs, too?
With Giphy, you can upload several images to turn them into a GIF, upload a video to create one, or even insert the URL of the media. If you're building a GIF from a video, you select the portion of the video you want to use (by selecting the timestamps), and Giphy will generate the GIF for you. Simple.
Simply looking to borrow a GIF from someone else? Giphy is the place to do that. You can use any GIF from the site and embed it into your blog or share on your own social media channels. Just search the topic or term you're interested in, and presto.
GIFs can help to bring to life a page or post that might otherwise feel flat and static. You can post them straight to social or even embed them in your blogs. Breathe some energy and excitement into your content with a well-placed and meaningful GIF.
Hyperise
If you do a ton of outreach over social media platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn, you are going to love what Hyperise has to offer.
Put simply, Hyperise is a hyper-personalization tool that lets users add layers of personalization to the images they share with their outreach messages.
Studies show that the human brain is hardwired to process images faster than text. Adding personalized information that could include the recipient's name, company name, or other details could elicit a far higher conversion rate with your outreach than you might expect with traditional outreach campaigns.
Collageable
Everyone loves a good collage.
Collages are an excellent way to showcase products, the members of your team, behind-the-scenes moments, or even your customers. (User-generated content, anyone?) With Collageable, you simply select how many photos you want to include in your collage and then plug them in. Here's one example:
The powerful thing about collages is that they pack a lot of value — and tell a bigger story — in just one image. Use this to your advantage! What kind of story do you want to tell your followers? Build a collection of images that make sense together and craft an irresistible collage for your fans.
Placeit
You've undoubtedly seen these types of social media images in the past and wondered, "How'd they do that?" Placeit is a pretty robust tool, but we love it because it allows you to insert a business or brand into images of technology like iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Check out this example from their website.
This is an excellent opportunity to promote your brand. Not only does it look sleek and professional, but it helps your followers imagine already using your product or service. It invites them in to share the experience with you, as opposed to merely being a witness. And isn't that what social media is about, after all? Interacting with people? You don't want to talk to them. You want to talk with them. These types of graphics are perfect for that. We call that a win.
Trying to freehand this and do it from scratch is possible, yes. But it's going to take much longer, you'll likely find it incredibly frustrating, and the results probably won't look as clean or natural. Save serious time (and headaches) with a tool like Placeit.
Social Media Images Are a Mandatory Part of Your Strategy
Do not underestimate how much you can benefit from using compelling graphics in your digital marketing strategy. 32% of marketers say images are the most important type of content for their business. Furthermore, people are likely to remember only 10% of what they hear after just three days. But if an image is paired with that same information, that percentage skyrockets to 65%.
In other words, images succeed not only in getting people's attention but also helping them to better retain the message that you're trying to convey. The numbers don't lie.
Take the time to create attractive images for your channels, and don't forget to optimize them for each platform. For instance, on Instagram, square images work best. A Pinterest pin, however, fares better with a vertical design.
We'd like to leave you with one last piece of advice.
Be sure to pay attention to what your analytics tell you, too. Does your LinkedIn following love images that feature your product or service, while Facebook prefers content that's more entertaining or inspirational? Do collages do really well on Instagram but maybe not so well on Twitter?
Follow the data. Stick with one strategy long enough to determine a pattern, and then tweak your approach as needed. Each platform is so unique. You'll likely find that you can't successfully apply one uniform approach to every single channel. One size does not fit all.
Using a tool like Canva within eclincher will help you quickly and easily make branded, optimized, appropriately-sized images ready for social. Plus, the in-depth insights and analytics will help you determine what's working and what's not. Sign up for a free trial of eclincher today and see what all the fuss is about.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Final Thoughts
By now you should understand the power of social media images! With these tools, you can create powerful visuals that truly capture the vibe and message of your post.
And don’t forget to use the tools we’ve discussed today; they’ll save plenty of time and make your content more engaging. So here's hoping for a successful visual campaign. Get started creating your images & graphics today!
