This blog is dedicated to helping businesses create content for social media. We’ll give you tools, tips, and tricks for making your content stand out.
From Facebook posts to Instagram captions, if it’s content for a business and it’s on social media, we’re here to help you create it.
Table of Contents
Content Creation Tools For Social Media
To the outside world, creating posts for social media may seem easy. But, marketers and brands know there’s a lot more to social media content creation and editing than meets the eye, particularly in today’s social media landscape.
From choosing the perfect image to representing your point of view, to creating the perfect Twitter hashtag to making a video for TikTok, here are some great content creation tools to help you along the way.
- Canva
11 Social Media Tools Every Content Creator Needs
A social media tools list wouldn’t be complete without Canva. One of the most popular tools for creating social media graphics, Canva allows users to create high-quality images quickly using layouts, templates and design elements.
The free version of the tool is extremely comprehensive, but those who want more can invest €11.99 per month (up to 5 people) or go with pro or enterprise pricing if it’s the best fit for the business. It is free for education and non-profits.
How to Create Beautiful Graphics with Canva:
Search Canva’s amazing library of templates and choose to use them as-is or to customize for your needs. There is a section dedicated to social media graphics for an array of content formats across platforms.
Choose your unique elements to make the graphic your own.
Share your new visual on any social media platform!
- Crello
11 Social Media Tools Every Content Creator Needs
Similar to Canva, Crello is a graphic design tool that makes it easy for certified social media marketers to create stunning graphics without a lot of design knowledge.
Crello’s advantage over Canva is that it offers more than 30,000 free design templates, 180 million photos, 32,000 videos and 15,000 illustrations. You can also design as a team by inviting members (up to 10), animate your designs and choose from a music library. Like Canva, a variety of different image types are offered, including templates specifically for social media. Crello is free for users, with limited usage, and pro plan starts at $9.99 a month.
How to Build Graphics Quickly with Crello:
Use Crello’s ‘Create’ tab to find a free design template or templates that work for your brand.
Simply click on a design template you love, and customize it using the Crello editor.
Save your finished product, and/or share it across your social media sites.
3 Hashtagify.me
11 Social Media Tools Every Content Creator Needs
Hashtagify.me is a free tool (with paid add-on features) that allows you to search for hashtags. Once you’ve searched for a hashtag, you can determine its popularity and how it’s used. The tool is simple to use: in the search box, type in a hashtag you are curious about, and search to find out its performance and related hashtags on Twitter and Instagram. You’ll also see the top influencers for that hashtag, as well as recent tweets using that hashtag and other demographics. Paid users can sign up for alerts on particular hashtags, track influencers and usage patterns, and more.
- Prezi and Flipsnack
11 Social Media Tools Every Content Creator Needs
Prezi allows you to create stand-alone presentations, appear alongside a presentation, and design awesome interactive graphics and charts. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, presenting and collaborating from home has become hugely important and the platform has capitalized on its technology to make it seamless while looking good!
Check out this Coronavirus handbook for social media managers to get more insight.
Prezi can be integrated with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Webdex and has an ‘Inspiration’ section where you can see what other brands have done to engage their audiences. You can also get reusable designs and templates so you don’t need to start from scratch. An individual subscription starts at $3 a month.
11 Social Media Tools Every Content Creator Needs
If you’re looking to take your PDFs or ebooks to the next level, look no further than Flipsnack (previously known as SlideSnack. This tool has a flip book maker that allows you to create, share and embed online flip page formats.
For your mobile visitors, you can convert PDFs to HTML5 to make a book that’s fully mobile responsive and create mobile friendly content that engages.
- Grammarly
11 Social Media Tools Every Content Creator Needs
Grammarly is an all-in-one spellcheck and grammar tool. It helps users write error-free copy on Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and almost anywhere else on the web.
Grammarly works by using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to scan your text for common and complex grammatical mistakes, including everything from subject-verb agreement to article use and modifier placement. It also goes beyond regular checking to provide users with explanations and helps them improve their writing skills. The plugin is free for individual users, with premium and business plans also available.
- Typeform
11 Social Media Tools Every Content Creator Needs
Asking questions is a great way to prompt engagement on social media. But sometimes asking one question isn’t enough to get the response you want from your audience. That’s where Typeform comes in.
Typeform is a user-friendly quiz, form and survey builder that allows you to ask your audience questions in different formats, including image-based, multiple choice, short answer, yes or no, and more.
Once you have your quiz in place, you can share it across multiple social media networks in the formats that work best for your audience. 10 questions and 10 responses per month are free, and Basic, Plus, and Business versions with additional features are also available.
- Anchor
11 Social Media Tools Every Content Creator Needs
Anchor is one of the most popular platforms for creating, distributing and monetizing your podcast. All for free! It integrates with all key podcasting outlets and free social media platforms for audio. Its easy distribution with Spotify – the great audio disruptor allows you to analyze podcast performance through analytics through engagement insights. We use it at the DMI for distributing our own digital marketing podcast, Ahead of the Game.
With the Anchor app, users can easily create videos and audio recordings that are perfect for sharing on social media.
- CapCut
11 Social Media Tools Every Content Creator Needs
There are many free graphics tools that allow users to easily create beautiful images for social media, but most of them aren’t available (or aren’t very intuitive) on your smartphone.
CapCut (previously known as ViaMaker) is a free all-in-one editing app for iOs and Android developed by the creators of TikTok, ByteDance. What makes it popular is the ease of use and a big music library. Like TikTok, the app has advanced filters along with stickers and fonts along with a range of magical effects.
CapCut recently topped the U.S app store so it must be doing something right. Best of all, CapCut is free to use so get editing and sharing!
- PowToon
11 Social Media Tools Every Content Creator Needs
Video is the most popular medium on social media networks. The problem is, many companies rely on expensive external agencies to create these videos. The finished product can look too contrived, miss the message mark, and really drain the budget.
A tool like PowToon means you don’t have to be a video master to create engaging videos, especially for presentation purposes. The platform allows you to choose from several templates and customize them according to your business. You can simply plug and play your content and share across your social media networks. Free and paid versions are available from $19 to $99 per month.
Interested in learning more about video? Check out this guide to video marketing on social media.
- Animoto
11 Social Media Tools Every Content Creator Needs
Animoto is another great video platform that allows non-experts to create captivating multimedia. Animoto allows you to turn existing video clips and images into video slideshows with little effort. You can either use one of their existing storyboard templates or build a video from scratch depending on how much time you have and your ambition!
Animoto does offer a free version, if you don’t mind having their branding on your videos. Other plans are at €28 or €69 per month based on your business’s needs. Annual subscriptions offer significant discounts.
How to Create Quick Videos with Animoto:
Use one of the many storyboards provided by Animoto to speed up your video creation process. Each comes with a song, a style, and a particular structure.
Replace the existing template content with your own text, video clips, and photos.
After you create your video, you can download it in various formats and levels of quality and upload it directly to your social media platforms. There are many ways to use video in your social media marketing, so make sure you do some research to find out the best route for you.
Knowing how to create a great video is one thing but understanding how to create good marketing videos is another. Consider a social media and marketing course to use video to its full potential!
- Placeit
11 Social Media Tools Every Content Creator Needs
One more video tool in this list is PlaceIt. This image and video tool allows brands to showcase their products and digital designs in realistic web/video environments. It can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars on externally sourced product videos and images.
A one-time purchase on the platform costs a few dollars, or you can choose to pay $14.95 per month, or $89.69 yearly, depending on your brand’s needs.
How to Create Video mock-ups with Placeit:
Search for your desired environment. Tip: include your preferred device (e.g. iPhone or Mac) and background (e.g. office or cafe).
Upload your image or enter a URL to grab a screenshot. Placeit will automatically place your image in your selected environment.
Once you have your product images, you have the tools you need to promote your products on social media via organic or paid posts.
free content creation tools for social media
You are here: Home / How-to Graphics / 30 Free Content Creation Tools To Crush Your Marketing
30 Free Content Creation Tools To Crush Your Marketing
Updated on: April 2, 2022 by Louise Myers 10 Comments
free marketing tools banner
Looking for free content creation tools?
And free tools for social media marketing?
Right now, your budget may be tight – or nonexistent.
Perhaps you’re seeing your income drop in the current economy.
Maybe you’re trying to launch a home-based business to help with family expenses.
But you know you need great content for your blog and social media marketing!
These free tools are ready to help.
You’ll find them grouped them by the type of content you wish to create:
Free graphic design tools, including photos, fonts, and infographics.
Free Pinterest tools, including templates, scheduling, and mini course.
Free Facebook and Instagram tools for scheduling, Stories, and bio.
Free video tools for creation and editing.
Free tools to make ebooks, PDFs, and slide presentations.
Plus more free marketing tools!
Ready? Let’s roll!
Disclosure: Many of these tools have a paid upgrade. I may receive a referral fee if you choose to purchase at a future date.
ALL tools here have a free-forever version! If you find one that does not, please let me know and I’ll remove it from this article.
30 Free Marketing Tools for Frugal Entrepreneurs
You don’t need professional designers, writers, and videographers, or expensive software, to create your content!
Nor do you need paid tools to schedule social media posts.
You certainly can invest in those if you want, but you may be surprised just how much you can do for free.
And with a little creativity, you’ll get great results, too!
Everyone is creative graphic made with free content creation tools
Let these free content tools inspire your creativity!
Free graphic design tools
So you don’t have Photoshop, or the skills to use it?
This is my area of expertise, but it doesn’t have to be yours.
Don’t worry, there are plenty of ways of making stunning graphics without the need for professional software or graphic design skills.
Which is great, because you’re going to need images for content marketing – and lots of them!
Some platforms – such as Instagram and Pinterest – are all about the images. But you’ll also need images for blog posts, Facebook and Twitter posts, e-book and report covers and even video thumbnail images.
Canva is a perennial favorite, but I find it a bit complicated, especially for beginners. However, it does have a large variety of templates!
Note that Canva is free to use, and there is a selection of free templates and images, but others will cost you $1 per use. Check carefully if you’re pinching every penny.
canva photo selector
Some photos in the free version of Canva will cost you money.
Two of my favorite free graphic design tools are Snappa and Stencil. Both are amazing because all the images you’ll find inside are free for commercial use.
And they both have a free-forever version – though you will be limited on how many images you can download per month.
You can try them both, or use my simple tip to decide which is better suited to your needs. They both offer many more features, though!
Using Pinterest for business? Snappa has a super selection of Pin templates.
Try Snappa here.
snappa pin templates
A few of the attractive Pin templates from Snappa.
Love to share quote graphics? Stencil includes a searchable database of quotes right inside.
Try Stencil here.
making quote graphics with Stencil
Free design tool Stencil includes a searchable database of quotes.
Want more choices? Here are over a dozen more easy ways to make graphics online.
And if you’re strictly mobile-based, you’ll want to try these iPhone apps to add text to photos. Android versions in there too!
Free infographic maker
Infographics are images that display data in a visual form. Although they take a little time to create, they’re worth the effort if you have complex information to get across.
People love to share and link to them, giving your content lots more exposure.
There are several free tools you can use to make infographics, including Canva’s Infographic Creator, Infogram and Easel.ly.
The one I’ve used and recommend is Venngage Infographic Maker. You can see an example of one I made at the end of this article!
There’s a huge selection of templates on the Free plan, plus you can sort to just show the free ones, reducing frustration.
Try Venngage here.
Free infographic maker Venngage
You can sort Venngage’s templates so you only see the free ones.
Free Stock Photos for Commercial Use
When you’re trying to save money, the last thing you need to do is risk a lawsuit by using images you don’t have rights to use.
If you use free images, ensure they are CC0 or public domain.
Do not use Google or Pinterest to find images for your business.
The design tools Snappa and Stencil mentioned above include free CC0 images you can use in your creations.
There are dozens of sites to download free photos – or simply use my one-stop shop for free images, Pixabay.
They offer over a million images sourced from hundreds of photographers and graphic artists.
There is one disclaimer you must be aware of with virtually all free images:
Please be aware that while all Images and Videos on Pixabay are free to use for commercial and non-commercial purposes, depicted items in the Images or Videos, such as identifiable people, logos, brands, etc. may be subject to additional copyrights, property rights, privacy rights, trademarks etc. and may require the consent of a third party or the license of these rights – particularly for commercial applications. Pixabay does not represent or warrant that such consents or licenses have been obtained, and expressly disclaims any liability in this respect. source
Check out Pixabay here.
Pixabay Free Stock Photos search
You can search free stock photos for commercial use on Pixabay.
Free Fonts for Commercial Use
Bored with the same old fonts?
Google has a collection of almost 1,000 free fonts ready for you to add to your webpage, or download to use in graphics.
Search by categories and more.
If you love typography, I predict you’ll have a ton of fun!
Click here to check out Google Fonts.
Google fonts search for free fonts
Search free fonts for commercial use on Google Fonts.
Free Pinterest Tools
Free Pin templates
There are Pin templates in the design tools mentioned above, but here’s a source for unique, free, Pinterest-optimized templates monthly!
If you use Canva, you’ll love these fresh takes on Pin images instead of the same-old same-old Canva templates (yeah, those get a bit overused).
The Perfect Pins Toolkit contains the following:
Customizable Pin templates for use in Canva.
New templates released monthly!
Pin Awesomeness checklist, so your new Pins perform!
How to Write Great Pin Descriptions guide.
Click to get your FREE Pinterest Perfect Pins Toolkit from Tailwind.
Pinterest Perfect Pins Toolkit
Sample of what’s included in your FREE Pinterest Perfect Pins Toolkit from Tailwind.
Free Pin scheduler
Did you know that you can schedule Pins for free on Pinterest?
It’s not a robust scheduler but it will save you some time if you don’t Pin a lot.
To use Pinterest’s Pin scheduler, you must upload your Pin image to Pinterest. Click the plus sign and select Create Pin.
Be sure to fill in the title, description, and URL.
Then click Schedule at a later date and select your date and time. You can only go out 2 weeks.
Click to go to Pinterest’s Pin Builder.
Pinterest’s Pin Builder free scheduling
Pinterest’s Pin Builder lets you schedule Pins two weeks out.
Get more Pinterest traffic with free Pin shares
Please don’t use any non-approved methods to get repins or saves of your Pins.
3 methods to avoid:
Any tools or apps that aren’t approved Pinterest Partners.
Facebook groups for repins that require members to Pin all.
Pinterest group boards, because they’re mostly ineffective.
Methods 1 and 2 have gotten accounts closed.
4 great ways to get Pinterest repins and Saves:
Add a free Pinterest Save button to your site.
Use a call-to-action on your blog post to “Save for later.”
Include a “Pin it for later” link in your blog newsletter.
Use Tailwind Tribes.
Tailwind Tribes are groups of like-minded Tailwind users who band together to share each others’ content.
By collaborating in a Tailwind Tribe, everyone enjoys a continuous stream of content from people they trust, saving them time while improving the quality of the content they share.
And, when Tribemates share each other’s content from the Tribe, they all get exposure to highly relevant new audiences. It’s a win-win.
While your Tailwind trial will only publish 100 scheduled Pins automatically, you can continue to use Tailwind Tribes free forever by Saving the Pins you choose from Tribes manually.
Sign up and try Tailwind Tribes now.
Free Pinterest for Beginners course by email
Let me take you from setting up your account correctly to making simple, pinnable images, in the FREE e-course.
Get ONE simple action step each day. Join now!
• • • CLICK to get your FREE Pinterest Basics e-course! • • •
Free Facebook Tools
I don’t have much specific to Facebook, but of course check out the free graphics and video tools to make a great visual impression on FB.
My big tip for you here is how to schedule Facebook posts for free.
I hope to find more tools to add soon.
Free Instagram Tools
Free guide to Instagram success
You know you’re on the road to Instagram success when you reach 10,000 followers.
Seem like an impossible dream?
Not so if you use The Complete Roadmap to 10K Instagram Followers!
This comprehensive guide from Tailwind walks you through all you need to know, like:
Defining your target audience.
Crafting a compelling profile.
Creating a game-changing content strategy.
Taking your visuals to the next level.
It’s really everything you need, and it’s completely free!
Click to get your complete guide to 10,000 Instagram followers.
Guide to 10K Instagram Followers
The Complete Roadmap to 10K Instagram Followers has everything you need to be an InstaSuccess!
Free Instagram scheduler
If you want to post once per day or less, you have a couple Instagram-approved schedulers.
Later‘s free-forever plan allows 30 Instagram posts per month to 1 IG account only.
Similarly, Planoly allows 30 uploads per month for 1 IG profile.
Both offer many more features in paid plans, but you can use the free plan as long as you like.
Free link in bio tool (Smart.bio)
Turn Instagram followers into traffic and customers with Tailwind Smart.bio.
You’ll need to sign up for a Tailwind for Instagram free trial to set it up, but Smart.bio is free forever.
One exceptional feature is that, when you use Tailwind to schedule your Instagram posts, you can have Smart.bio add a related link at the exact same time.
Sign up for Tailwind for Instagram and set up your Smart.bio now.
Free Instagram Stories creator
The clever folks at Word Swag sent me this app to try out.
To turn your photos into a video story:
- Select up to 8 images. Use your own or access over a million free photos!
- Enter your text.
- Choose your favorite photo and text style. From attention-grabbing to cool and understated, our designs have you covered.
- Tweak colors and add our TV-quality music or your own. Hand-picked options for each style ensure you always look and sound great.
That’s all it takes! You’re ready to impress your followers.
You can also make square animations for the IG feed. It’s quite fun and attractive!
The free version doesn’t include all the templates, and will show a watermark, but it is free – forever!
Download Story Swag on the App Store here.
Story Swag app for Instagram
Story Swag app lets you make animated Instagram Stories or posts for free.
Free Video Tools
Free Video Editing Tools
If you own a smartphone, you know you have the power of video in your hands. But if you’re using video for your business, you’ll probably want to polish it up a bit.
Video editing doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.
YouTube has its own free editing tool complete with video and audio clips – take a look at www.youtube.com/editor.
If you’re a Mac, iPad or iPhone user, take a look at iMovie in your (free included) apps.
For Android devices, there are a range of free video editors including:
→ VidTrim
→ FilmoraGo
Windows Movie Maker was the best-known free video editor for the PC, although it hasn’t been updated in some time, so may no longer work for you.
Free Video Creation Tools
You’ve got your phone to film, but what about videos from stills?
My favorite tool for this is Adobe Spark Video. It’s so easy!
Click to create a new video.
Add a title.
Choose a template, or pick Start from scratch.
Choose a theme for font and color.
Add each photo or video clip (many free ones to choose from).
Add text and/or voiceover for each slide.
Add music from their library to your video, if desired.
The free-forever version doesn’t allow branding, and will have a watermark – like virtually all free apps!
Use Adobe Spark Free version here.
If you choose to “go pro” there’s a 20% off deal through May 31, 2020, only at this link.
Get Adobe Spark for 20% off here.
Either way, Adobe Spark allows you to create professional Posts (like social media images), Pages (web pages), and Videos too – in a snap!
Adobe Spark creates Posts Pages Videos
Adobe Spark allows you to create professional Posts, Pages, and Videos – for free!
If you already have a slide presentation created, record a narration and convert your presentation file into a video using screencasting software.
Jing is easy to use and free for videos of up to five minutes.
More Free Marketing Tools
Free marketing ideas monthly
Could you use inspiration for your blog posts, promotions, social media marketing, and more?
I provide a free content inspiration calendar monthly!
I recommend you start by reading the pertinent month’s blog post to get the broad picture.
Links to every month’s post can be found on the social media holidays page.
In my free member area, you’ll find content inspiration calendars for two months you may be planning at any given time.
Enjoy!
How to create PDF files for free
PDFs (Portable Document Format) have been around a while now. This format is widely used for text-based documents such as reports and e-books that can be read on virtually any device.
Many businesses use this format for printables, checklists, worksheets, and planners.
A short, one-to-six page PDF makes an awesome “content upgrade” – a freebie you give away to build your email subscriber list.
A longer one, with valuable info from your niche expertise, is perfect to sell to your readers and followers!
Check my Resources page to see my PDF free and paid products.
Gone are the days when you needed Microsoft Word plus PDF converter software! You can now create your document and convert it to PDF format in one application for free.
All you need is a Google account (a Gmail account is fine) and to go to Google Drive.
Now you’re in Google Drive, click ‘My Drive’ and choose ‘Google Docs.’ Click the arrow to see a choice of starting from a blank page or a template.
Type your content, add any images you would like and then go to ‘File,’ then ‘Download as’ then ‘PDF document.’ Easy.
Another option I’ve used is Open Office, which is free software you can download to your computer. It works way better than Word for Mac – and it’s free!
How to create a slide presentation for free
free slide presentation templates in Google Slides
Some of the free slide presentation templates in Google Slides.
Let’s stay with Google Drive, because alongside Google Docs you’ll find Google Slides, which is Google’s equivalent of PowerPoint.
Erase your memories of boring speakers reading a bullet-pointed list off a PowerPoint slide, because presentation files can now be valuable pieces of online content. Just save your presentation file, upload to Slideshare.com, and then share or embed it in a blog post or web page.
But back to Google Slides. Simply go to Google Drive, click ‘My Drive’ and this time choose ‘Google Slides.’ Again you have a choice of starting from a blank page or a template.
Create your presentation and download in your choice of format, including PowerPoint or PDF. You can even download in JPG format, which makes it easy to turn your first slide into an image for your blog post or a video.
And yes, you can also create a slide presentation with Open Office!
Free email marketing tools
Building your email list is important, so you can stay in touch with your peeps in times like these!
Mailchimp‘s free plan is good for beginners who want to grow their audience and create campaigns while testing out some of their tools and features. It includes all the basics you need to start marketing.
The Free plan includes up to 2,000 contacts and 10,000 sends per month, with a daily send limit of 2,000.
Mailchimp is good to get started, but many bloggers I know want to switch from it when they can afford to (as opposed to upgrading). Trust me, switching providers is a pain, so build your list with one you like and will stay with.
ConvertKit is my provider, and they recently expanded their free plan to help you out in these difficult financial times.
They changed the Free plan to include the ability to send email broadcasts to 500 subscribers, and provide access to Creator Pass, two courses filled with the teaching and tools needed to build a business doing work you love.
This offer will be available for new and existing free plan customers until at least April 30th.
Free tools for bloggers
Want to write more compelling headlines?
You should! Only 60% of people who click into an article end up reading past the headline.
CoSchedule to the rescue!
I love their free headline analyzer.
It’ll help you craft a headline that includes an effective balance of common, uncommon, emotional, and power words. And so much more!
CoSchedule’s free headline analyzer results
CoSchedule’s free headline analyzer offers so many helpful tips as you scroll the results page!
Need help with keywords?
Marketing whiz Neil Patel offers a free keyword research tool.
There’s always a free-forever version, but at the time of writing this, he’s opened the full plan to everyone for the time being.
You’ll find tons of info on his blog about how to use it.
Try Ubersuggest free keyword research tool.
Ubersuggest free keyword research tool
Ubersuggest free keyword research tool offers keyword suggestions and tips to improve your search ranking.
Which Free Marketing Tools Will You Try?
You don’t need a large budget to create, schedule, and promote stunning content. Just a clear idea of what your audience wants to know, a little creativity, and some free tools.
We covered:
Free graphic design tools, including photos, fonts, and infographics.
Free Pinterest tools, including templates, scheduling, and mini course.
Free Facebook and Instagram tools for scheduling, Stories, and bio.
Free video tools for creation and editing.
Free tools to make ebooks, PDFs, and slide presentations.
Plus email and blogging tools.
Conclusion
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Check out other publications to gain access to more digital resources if you are just starting out with Flux Resource.
Also contact us today to optimize your business(s)/Brand(s) for Search Engines