If you're like me, then the word FREE is what mostly caught your attention. But lets be honest, with so much information at our fingertips (thank you Google & Pinterest) free really is king around here. When I'm making materials, spicing things up, or just playing around online, these are my favourite tools to use.
1. Piktochart (piktochart.com)
Piktochart is amazing. They're my go-to for making infographics and posters. It boasts clever tools similar to Adobe products so graphic designers, fear not! You can snap to grid, set guides, and change dimensions. It's my favourite. No matter what I create, it always seems to look good!
Downside: You get what you pay for. Free is amazing (duh), but if you're not willing to put in a little moolah, then you can expect to have limited offerings for templates.
Downside: You get what you pay for. Free is amazing (duh), but if you're not willing to put in a little moolah, then you can expect to have limited offerings for templates.
2. Hootsuite (hootsuite.com)
I'll admit it: I used to be a huge hater of Hootsuite. I'm pretty sure I declared in an interview once, that while I was proficient in Hootsuite, no one ever needed to be because it was a giant waste of time.
Turns out I was wrong.
Hootsuite saves me infinitely more time than I can be bothered to count. It will let me play around with a post, and then edit it slightly to optimize for Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. It keeps my life together for scheduling social media posts for Level Ground, and it works stealthy in the background.
Downside: Instagram integration. Hootsuite doesn't directly push information to Instagram. It basically preps the photo and caption, and then opens Instagram at the determined time. I've found a lot of issues with this. If you're logged into the wrong account (Iike your personal one, instead of the business one) and try to switch, the information can get lost in transit. Still, it's better than nothing!
Turns out I was wrong.
Hootsuite saves me infinitely more time than I can be bothered to count. It will let me play around with a post, and then edit it slightly to optimize for Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. It keeps my life together for scheduling social media posts for Level Ground, and it works stealthy in the background.
Downside: Instagram integration. Hootsuite doesn't directly push information to Instagram. It basically preps the photo and caption, and then opens Instagram at the determined time. I've found a lot of issues with this. If you're logged into the wrong account (Iike your personal one, instead of the business one) and try to switch, the information can get lost in transit. Still, it's better than nothing!
3. Pexels (pexels.com)
Pexels is a stock photo database, with none of the cheesy, all-white background photos. They're just seriously good photos that look like you didn't get them for free. They all are free to use, without royalties or credits, and have a searchable database. That's a big old win-win!
Downside: It's a stretch to find one, seriously. They don't have the largest database of stock photos available, but I prefer the content that they have curated well.
Downside: It's a stretch to find one, seriously. They don't have the largest database of stock photos available, but I prefer the content that they have curated well.