When it comes to creating social media content, there are so many tools out there. From content management systems to editing tools, if you need it, it’s available to you. The downside to this? Figuring out what content creation tools you actually need to create social media content.
Over the last 10 years of creating content for my YouTube channel, Instagram, and blog, I have tried so many different tools. Some good, some bad, and a handful of great ones that I still use to create social media content. Today, I’m excited to share with you all of the tools that I use to create content that are absolutely free. Yup, you read that right! These tools allow me to create all of my content for social media without having to worry about monthly fees or yearly subscriptions.
What Tools Do I Need to Be a Content Creator?
The great thing about becoming a content creator is that there is minimal overhead. Social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube are all free to use and you most likely already have a smartphone that has a great camera. You can truly just start!
With that being said, you’ll eventually start to need tools like editing software and tools for scheduling out content. These tools will help you improve the content you’re creating, help manage the content you’re pushing out across your platforms, and help you grow your content creation business.
Free Content Creation Tools For Social Media
With so many content creation tools for social media to pick from, it can be overwhelming. Here are the free content creation tools for social media that I use and love!
Canva – The days of creating graphics and collages in Photoshop and PicMonkey is a thing of the past! With Canva, you can create professional graphics in just a few clicks and it’s absolutely free. I use Canvas to create graphics for Pinterest, Instagram Stories, and collages for LTK.
Grammarly – If you do any sort of writing, you absolutely need the Grammarly Chrome extension. With Grammarly, I’m able to fix any spelling and grammar mistakes before hitting publish on a blog post, sending out a newsletter, or posting to social media. It truly saves the day, every day!
InShot – We all know how important video content is for growing your Instagram account but editing in-app isn’t the easiest. The InShot app allows you to not only edit your video content but also allows you to add filters, effects, and text to your videos.
Later – There are so many social media scheduling tools on the market but Later is by far my favorite. The platform gives you the best times to post, has a bunch of free resources to access, and you can even schedule out video content! One of my favorite features is the ability to see what your Instagram feed will look like with the posts you have scheduled out.
Trello – Between creating content, planning it out, and working with my team, there are a lot of tasks that I need to tackle each day. To keep me organized, I use Trello as a project management tool. You can create tasks, set up workflows, assign tasks to people in your team, and so much more!
Google Sheets/Docs – I would be nowhere without Google Sheets and Docs. From managing content ideas to sending brands content drafts for sponsored campaigns, I am always utilizing Google’s tools. I love that you can also see edit history and add comments directly in the document, too!
Lightroom – The Lightroom app for my iPhone is one of my most-utilized tools. It makes editing photos and content for Instagram Stories so easy and it’s absolutely free! Depending on your skill level with editing, you can create your own presets or upload ones you’ve purchased into the app to use.
Best Tools For Content Creation
While all of the tools I mentioned above are great, these three are my absolute favorites that I wouldn’t be able to create content without.
Best Free Video Editing App For iPhone
If you’re looking for an editing app for all of your video content, InShot is the best of the best. In the app, you can trim, split, and adjust the speed of your video as well as remove the middle parts of a clip and merge clips together. It also has a bunch of filters and effects that you can add to your video to ensure the look and feel is similar to the other content you’re posting on social media.
One of my personal favorite features of InShot is the ability to add music/sound to your videos and it will even sync your video up to the audio! This is especially helpful when creating content that is currently trending on Instagram and TikTok.
Best Free Graphic Design Software
If you’re a content creator or follow content creators on social media, you’ve most likely heard of Canva or maybe have even used it in the past. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the program, it is an online graphic design tool that can be used to create graphics, collages, social media posts, and so much more. Because of how easy it is to use, it has quickly become an industry-wide favorite. No matter how much design experience you have, I promise you’ll love Canva as much as I do!
In addition to the free version (which is very robust!), Canva also has a paid version that has a few extra features. With the paid version, you’ll also get access to:
- Unlimited templates and stock photos
- Background remover
- Ability to have up to 100 brand kits (where you can upload your brand’s logos, colors, and fonts)
- Content planner and scheduler
- Unlimited folders and 1TB of cloud storage
- Ability to share Canva templates with others
- One-click magic resize of designs
Canva also has a desktop and phone app, making it easy to create designs on the go!
Best Free Social Media Scheduler
When creating content for social media, you can absolutely post as you go, but scheduling out your content in advance will make your life so much easier. Trust me! With Later, you’ll be able to plan and schedule out your social media content in advance. This will not only help you save time, but it’ll also help you be consistent so you can grow your business.
With Later, you’ll be able to not only schedule out all of your content for auto-posting, but you’ll also be able to post at the best times for your account. Later also provides really great analytics for the content you share on your social media platforms and provides you with additional resources to help improve your content.
One of my favorite features of Later is the Instagram grid preview. Once I have all of my content scheduled, I can preview my feed to make sure it looks cohesive. If it doesn’t, I can easily make adjustments by dragging and dropping posts to the spots I’d prefer them in and Later will make sure they’re rescheduled!
Keep in mind that when it comes to creating content for social media, what works for someone might not work for you. All of these tools are ones I use and love, but they took a while for me to find and integrate into my content creation process. Play around with each and see how they fit into your business! It’s all about trial and error.
Love this post? Here is all of my must-have tech for content creation!
Thanks for sharing Nitra!
When you want to use a certain trending song for let’s say IG or tiktok, how do you do that on later when you are scheduling to multiple different platforms?
Thank you for sharing these helpful tips ! I truly love the timeliness of this post ! I will be tuning in and reading so many more!
I’ve been playing around with Canva this week! Just creating things for my household. It really is so useful, glad to read about all the additional things that can be done with it!