Whether you’re an Instagram influencer who’s just starting out, or you’ve already built a name for yourself and want to stand out, you need your own arsenal of tools to create social media content that’s engaging and eye-catching.
Creating content is all about being creative and thinking outside the box. Unfortunately, creating good content for social media can take up a lot of time and effort. There are numerous tasks, ranging from data-based activities like tracking analytics, to creative jobs such as creating videos that you need to focus on.
That’s why you need to have the right social media tools to make sure you put out content that catches everybody’s attention. Here are our top picks for content creation tools you can use to make your Instagram influencer journey easier and more efficient.
1. Canva
Canva is one of the best online resources for all your graphic designing needs. On their website, you can find hundreds of easy-to-use templates, designs, and fonts for Instagram Stories, posts, thumbnails, posters, and more! The best part is that Canva offers a wide variety of photographs, videos, graphics, fonts, and more for free. You can upgrade to their premium plan to access more graphics, fonts, templates, and tools.
2. InShot
Almost everyone has created a Reel or two, but if you want your videos to grab everyone’s attention, you’ll need good software for editing and creating videos with basic knowledge of video creation. InShot is an easy-to-use video editing software that you can use on your laptop or your phone. You can trim videos, merge clips together, and even add music to your content for free.
3. Snapseed
Instagram is all about putting up quality images. If you want to stand out, you need to have images that look and feel professional using a good software to edit your pictures. While Photoshop and Lightroom are what everyone talks about, it turns out you don’t have to dish out money for a good photo editing software. Snapseed is a free photo editing app you can use to enhance your photographs and make your products (and content) look brilliant.
4. Grammarly
Is there anything more embarrassing than having your audience point out a typo in your content? Editing your content is as important as the creation itself. We miss out on these minor spelling and grammatical mistakes all the time. Grammarly is a free app you can use to make sure your content is grammatically sound. It also helps you with vocabulary, sentence structure, and synonyms. Don’t limit yourself to just the free app and the plug-in; if your content is writing-heavy, you can upgrade to the paid version.
5. Later
Timing is a big factor when it comes to being a social media influencer. Posting Stories, creating posts, and making Reels and IGTV videos can be time-consuming. You can’t always do it at a moment’s notice. This is where Later comes into play. This tool has free and paid versions that allow you to schedule your posts, add several links to your bio, check your analytics, and more.
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6. AutoHash
Hashtags are a very important way of making your content visible in the Instagram world. Hashtags let your followers know what your content is about. They also help spread your content to people who might not know of you or your brand yet. AutoHash is a very useful tool that suggests related and popular hashtags for your posts. This increases your reach and helps you reach new audiences everyday.
7. BuzzSumo
Want to track how well you’re doing? BuzzSumo gives you data on top-performing content and influencers based on your search queries. You can search a topic, domain, or specific keyword, and even filter your search by time. You can share content created by fellow influencers as well by researching your niche on BuzzSumo. Now you can start developing smarter content strategies based on the engagement on your content.
8. Buffer
Buffer is another tool for sharing content across platforms and analysing how well it performs. With Buffer, you can schedule posts ahead of time in bulk. It also offers an image editor so you can scale your content to the right size and format for each platform. By automatically posting content that you’ve set up on your content calendar and tracking your engagement, you no longer need to spend half your day logged in.
9. IFTTT
If you’re an Instagram influencer, sharing your content on other social media platforms and directing traffic towards your accounts is always a good idea. But you might not always find time to post everywhere else all the time. That’s where IFTTT (If This Then That) comes into play. Through this tool, you can automatically share new posts to social media, tweet Instagram posts as native Twitter photos, share Instagram posts to a Facebook page, and more. Now you can streamline your posting process instead of running back-and-forth to post content, and just focus on yourself and your new content.
10. Pixlr
Whoever said you need to pay to get services like Photoshop or Lightroom? Pixlr is a free service but with all the functionalities of Photoshop. Pixlr X offers essential tools for quick editing and even templates, while Pixlr E offers more extensive tools like background removal. With their subscription-based plans, you can access stickers, overlays, and visual effects as well.
11. Pexels
Who doesn’t love a massive library of free professional photos you can use? We know we do! With a professional and polished look, you can get the right aesthetic and imagery for your posts and videos on Pexels. There are also numerous collections to explore to find the right image for your brand. Whatever your specific image needs are, Pexels has the right one for you.
You cannot become an expert social media influencer overnight. You need to give it time and effort, and a little work goes a long way. Make sure you can execute your social media strategy without a hitch using the various social media tools online to help you out in your influencer journey!
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