Visual content has become more important over the past year in social media, and it’s doubtful that the trend will change. But as a small business owner or solo-preneur, the last thing you may have time for is learning how to use a complex graphic design tool like Photoshop. It’s probably challenging enough for you to try to keep up with all the best image sizes for each social platform – I know it is for me!
So my advice is to use tools and templates others have made available instead of spending way too much time trying to develop something unique. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel, especially in an area of your social media strategy that you don’t naturally excel at.
In my case, one of those areas is design. I do not have any natural talent in graphic design (and no desire to become a graphic designer). It gives me more headache than pleasure to spend hours on a photo or image. There are other people much more talented than me, and that’s why I will gladly pay others to create professional graphics for my clients or my own accounts.
But not every image you post on your social media accounts has to be a top professional-looking one. In fact, some of the more “casual” photos go a long way in displaying the human side of your business. So it’s smart to have a mix: professionally designed graphics and casual images.
Some of my favorite free and low-cost photo/image editing tools have created templates that make it very easy to create attractive graphics for your social media accounts. You simply select the template you want, and upload your own photos/graphics. No need to worry about the size or aspect ratio – it’s all done for you.
If we focus on Cover Photos for your social media accounts today, the following online tools help you create some cool graphics in just a few minutes:
PicMonkey
PicMonkey has a template for your Facebook Cover Photo – select it and then add your photo/photos and text. You can get a step-by-step tutorial on creating a Cover Photo in this blog post or this one.
Canva
Canva also has a template for a Facebook Cover Photo which is set up for you. I’ve found it takes a little more time to learn how to best use this tool; but it’s still very easy compared to something like Photoshop.
QuotesCover
QuotesCover has just made some changes. It already had templates for your Facebook Cover Photo, and your G+ Cover, but now they’ve added a template for the new Twitter Cover (a great addition!).
Other changes on QuotesCover now allow you to hide the author name, date, and quotation marks on any quotes you select from their database or upload yourself. With these new editing features you could type in a few words/phrases (instead of a quote), and position them on a photo to easily make an attractive Cover.
The example below is for the new Twitter Cover Photo, where I typed in sample text, put my website in the “author” box, and then uploaded one of my photos as the background. All in 5 minutes or less!
While I plan on having something more professional-looking created as well, this Twitter Cover will be one that I periodically use just to switch things up on my profile.
As a small business owner, your time is most likely already in short supply; so take advantage of some of these free templates to make some eye-catching Cover Photos.
If you have any questions, I’d be happy to help! Or if you are looking for a professionally designed Cover Photo for any of your accounts, we can get our graphics team to help with that as well! Just email me at terry@leaguecomputers.com
Top image courtesy of xandert/MorgueFile
About Terry League