The 8 Best Tools for Creating Social Media Content

Content creation is already hard enough. You don’t have to make it any harder by not using the tools that are out there. That’s a bit like deciding to run a race against everybody else where you agree not to use one leg. That doesn’t sound like a race even Usain Bolt could win.

Social media content creation

And chances are you’re not the Usain Bolt of social media content creation. So, if you’re looking to spice up your PR for a limited budget try your hand at some of the tools available.

Of course, you can only use the tools out there if you know what they are. That’s what we’re going to cover today. Here we’re going to explore some of the best options out there for content creation on social media.

PowToon

It’s alright to rely on text most of the time, but you can’t do it all of the time. Instead, you want to mix it up. In this way, you can access a far bigger audience than you otherwise might be able to. After all, different people like different things. Some people like to text, some people like video. And everybody likes toons!

Okay, maybe not everybody, but a lot of people. For that reason, if you want to try out toon creation for your website, you should turn to PowToon. It’s minimalistic design yet high functionality allows you to jump straight on in and start designing immediately. And that lack of a steep learning curve makes it a fantastic tool for the busy person who wants to diversify their content.

WeVideo

Then go for WeVideo. Here you can easily create videos, mix in other formats – such as animation and voice overs – then add in a bit of music and throw them up on the vast majority of social media platforms.

What platforms, you ask? Well, it is easily shared on Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, and YouTube.

Easel.ly

Not ready to go the video or animation route? Then perhaps try your hand at an infographic. These really work quite well. After all, most of us are naturally very visually oriented. Therefore, if you want to make an impression, what you need is something with pretty pictures every once in a while – particularly if those pictures explain what you’re trying to say.

That sounds good to you? Well, then you’ve got to try your hand at Easel.ly. This is a great and intuitive tool that will guide you through the process of putting together an infographic that communicates exactly what you want to say.

Evernote

Do you ever have it that you’re writing an article and then you remember a statistic that you saw somewhere a few months ago but can’t find it, however, hard you try? Well, I don’t. Not anymore. Not since I started tagging everything that seemed interesting in Evernote.

This is just a fantastic research tool that will make it far easier to find back all the fascinating tidbits that you run across as you move through the internet.

You know what makes it even better? It automatically synchs the different devices you’re using, so that if you find something on your mobile, then you can return to it on your desktop when you’re finding an article. I’ll often use this function to save interesting but text-heavy articles that I find on my mobile so that I can return to them later when I’m in front of a device that’s better suited to actually reading such texts.

Oh yes, and it has voice recognition, so if you don’t feel like typing something in, then you can just dictate it and it will faithfully put it on paper for you. Sweet, right?

Writing services

Alternatively, instead of writing the articles yourself, get somebody else to write it for you. Sound like cheating? Do you think all the big business execs write the content for their blogs and websites? So why shouldn’t you use other people sometimes?

And you know the best part? There are plenty of websites that don’t even cost that much. Check out this list of top websites to find the right one for you. You might have to look a little bit to get the one that suits you, but once you’ve found the right service for you, you won’t look back.

BuzzFeed

You know what? Everything we’ve covered so far is passive. And that will work most of the time, but again won’t work all of the time. People will watch TV if they want something passive. They’re on the internet to be able to share their own ideas and opinions.

For that reason, you’ll want to occasionally give them the opportunity to get involved. One great way to do that (beyond the comment section) is to create quizzes. BuzzFeed allows you to do exactly that. It is, in fact, quite famous for exactly that fact.

The best part? You can share your content across nearly any kind of platform that you might want to. And that means that one quiz can be shared across half a dozen different platforms and across all of your audiences.

4screens

Alternatively, you can use 4screens. This one doesn’t just allow you to create quizzes, but also allows you to make surveys, questionnaires and more. That’s really quite useful, as it means that you’re not just entertaining your visitors, but also collecting data as well.

And that can then allow you to create content in the future that’s even better suited for the audience that you’ve got on your website. That’s like killing two birds with one stone, that is. And though I’m never in favor of killing any animal be it with stones or otherwise, that’s a pretty good deal.

Audacity

Want to really change things up? Then what about a podcast? Podcasts are fantastic as they allow you to interview interesting people and then create a sound file that people can enjoy while they drive, work out or get eye surgery (and I can tell you, it’s hard to enjoy much of anything while you’re getting eye surgery!).

Sounds good, right? What sounds even better is that Audacity is a piece of open source software that allows you to record, convert tapes, mix and even add your own audio effects. In this way, you’re in the driver seat when you want to create a podcast to finally reveal the voice behind your content.

Last words

As you can see, there are a heck of a lot of possibilities out there. So don’t allow yourself to be restrained and constrained by a text-only approach. That’s just going to get boring really quickly. Instead, find the tools that suit you best and then go for it.

After all, most of these have free trial versions (or are entirely free), which means you can try them out and enrich your social media without actually spending a dime. Now who can say ‘no’ to that?