Social Media Marketing - Free Tools for Content Creation!

As digital marketers, there is no doubt that social media provides value to our strategies. Social media marketing lets us connect directly with our audience through our content.

Throughout the process of developing content for social media, many (free) tools exist for us to reach our goals. This blog will introduce to you some free tools that I recommend and have personally used in my social media marketing efforts.

But before we get to the list, let's get the fundamentals down first:

What is Content Creation in Social Media Marketing?

Well, to put it short - content creation in social media marketing is creating pieces of value and/or entertainment for your audience to achieve your goals. Your social media marketing goals typically fit into 1 (or more) of 3 categories:

Growth - ex: Increase followers on Instagram
Engagement - ex: Increase # of retweets on Twitter
Conversion - ex: content turns to sales

Your approach to your messaging and call to action will vary based on your goals.

Now for the best part: Here are some free tools for your content creation needs for social media marketing!

Content Ideas

1. Answer the Public

All content creations start with the question, "What should my content be about?"

With Answer the Public, you can search keywords and find what people are asking or talking about a particular subject.

It offers a visual and insightful knowledge of the questions, prepositions, comparisons, alphabetical, and related discussion topics people have with your selected keyword(s).

It's a fantastic avenue to get some ideas on what content you should make

Note: Answer the Public is not entirely free but lets you do 2 free daily searches. Nonetheless, the amount of content ideas you can get from this website makes it too valuable to exclude from the list!

2. Google Trends

Google Trends is my #1 recommended platform for getting content ideas. It is the platform to find out what people are talking about now. Creating good content relies on creating relevant content, and that's precisely what Google Trends can provide you. The downside is that if your content is a niche, you might have to do additional research about keywords or critical topics. But more research builds a stronger foundation for your content!

3. Feedly

Speaking about niche topics, Feedly is a website that consolidates your preferred websites/blogs and/or can help you track news for specific topics of interest. This website lets you gather the right information to feed content creation ideas!

Note: Feedly has paid/premium subscriptions, but their free account is more than enough to get a good amount of content ideas.

Graphic/Photo Development:

1. Canva

Ah, a content creator's best friend! Canva lets users explore their graphics design side in a user-friendly way. With their endless selection of templates, pictures, elements, and more, that are free to use for social media, Canva is the perfect platform to dive into the creative side of social media marketing content creation! While their video-editing services are not the best, virtually everything else related to social media content creation can be done through Canva.

Note: Canva also offers a premium version, but the free version is perfect to use as is. For more information regarding their Content License Agreement, click here.

2. Snapseed

Social media is not just about posting your graphic designs. We still need free options for photo editing. That's where app (available on IOS and android) Snapseed comes in. Owned by Google, Snapseed is your free ticket to an app that gives you Adobe Lightroom-like features. A great way to edit your photos with the convenience of doing it all through your phone.

Social Media Analytics

You might be wondering what social media analytics tools do with content creation? Simply put, assessing your current content is very important as it impacts the future content you create. So here are some tools to measure your social media post's performance:

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social platform management powerhouse. It helps you schedule, track, and measure your social media content for multiple platforms such as; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok. Its free plan is great for beginners to look into the basic analytics for your content's performance.

2. Facebook & Instagram Creator Studio

Although only limited to Facebook and Instagram (hence the name), the Creator Studio is a great free tool to measure and track your content engagement and monetization metrics. Like Hootsuite, it also offers scheduling features.

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That's pretty much a short & straightforward breakdown of free tools you can use for your social media content creation needs!

But this isn't the end of the list. As I explore more avenues of marketing (and dive deeper into the social media world), I will share more free tools you can use for your digital marketing / social media marketing needs!

If you want to learn more about social media marketing, check out my other blogs.

Need assistance and/or consultation with your social media marketing needs? Contact me, and let's work together so that you can achieve your content creation goals!