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Social Media Hacks: 10 Ways to Make Posting Quicker and Easier for Small Businesses Using Canva PART 1

Are you a small business owner who doesn’t have the time or energy to create and design for social media posts? 

Do you need ways to make posting quicker and easier?

You’re not alone! With ever-increasing expectations in both reach and quality of content, it can be hard to keep up.

That’s why we’ve gathered some of our favorite social media hacks that will help make creating attractive, professional social media posts quicker and simpler for small businesses like yours.

If you’re a small business looking for easy ways to create social media posts without spending a ton of time or money, then Canva is your go-to tool.

As the leader in DIY design and visual content creation, Canva makes it easier than ever for brands to whip up stunning visuals that engage their customers—all with just one click.

 In this article, we’ll go over quick and simple hacks #1–4, the basics of getting started and staying organized in Canva, so you can get busy creating beautiful, eye-catching posts! Read on so you can start benefiting from these shortcuts right away!



Canva basics: the basics of using Canva to create posts for your small business

Canva is a user-friendly graphic design tool that can be used to create professional-looking visuals for your small business. With Canva, you can create custom visuals for your website, social media posts, and marketing materials.

A great thing about Canva is that it’s free to use. You can create basic designs without having to pay a cent. If you are running a small business, however, the “pro” plan that Canva offers is worth it in my humble opinion if you need to create lots of social media posts quickly.

Getting Started With Canva

To get started with Canva, head to the website and create an account. Once you’re logged in, you’ll be taken to the main dashboard. This is where you’ll find all of the tools and features that Canva has to offer.

Have a Social Media Plan for Your Posts

Hack #1: Plan Your Posts

Have a plan for your social media posts before you get started. As we outlined in one of our previous blog posts, creating themes for each day of the week is a great way to get your creative juices flowing.

Take a peek at your competitors’ social media accounts or an account in an industry similar to yours.

Is there a certain type of post that seems to get a lot of engagement from their audience?

Try to come up with your own version.

For example, if you own a painting company, you can do a series of DIY fail posts for a fun look at why your industry is sometimes so desperately needed. Just be sure to credit any photo sources or quotes that aren’t yours.

Once you have your themes in place, create a content calendar. Start by jotting down at least two weeks’ worth of content ideas and post dates. You can even begin drafting in Canva’s Pro Plan scheduling feature (which we will be covering in this article) before you even start designing the actual post!

This will help you keep track of what posts you have coming up and plan ahead to make sure all of your posts are on time and delivered when they need to be. Not only that, but it’s also helpful for making sure your posts are well-thought out and not rushed.

Have Your Brand’s Style, Fonts, Colors, and Logo at Your Fingertips

Hack #2: Create a Brand Kit Using Canva’s Pro Feature

Creating a brand kit using Canva Pro is one quicker and easier way to ensure that all of your branding elements are consistent and look professional in your social media posts. By creating a brand kit, you can control the size, font, and color of your branding elements, which will help create a unified look for your business.

You will need access to all of your text fonts, high resolution, transparent background logo files (preferably SVG, aka Scalable Vector Graphics, which do not lose quality or resolution when resized), and the CYMK #s that represent your company’s brand colors to upload to Canva.

When you are ready to start designing, your brand’s kit is easily accessed from the side menu bar under “styles.”

Canva offers a variety of pre-made templates that you can use as a starting point for your social media post designs.

You can also create your own brand templates from scratch by starting with a blank canvas and using your brand kit as your guide, or simply change the background colors and logos on any of the pre-made templates by clicking the small color box in the top left corner of the design screen. Your company’s colors will automatically show up in the color selection menu on the left side of the screen.

When designing the graphics for your brand, it’s important to keep in mind the overall tone and message of your business. For example, if you want to project an image of professionalism and sophistication, you’ll want to use sleek fonts and rich, neutral colors. If you want to create a more playful or whimsical brand identity, then you might want to use fun fonts and brighter, bolder colors.

You can also easily use your own fonts instead of the ones that come with Canva’s templates by clicking the text button in the sidebar menu.

Make sure that all of your branding elements are the same size and shape. For example, if you have a series of posts with a border, make sure it’s the same size in each post. Your logo icon and company name should also be consistently placed throughout your designs.

After you’ve chosen a template or designed your own, it’s time to start filling in the details of your social media posts. Canva offers a range of tools and features for adding 2D and 3D images and illustrations, animations, graphs, borders, photos, shapes, and lines, as well as textures and filters, to give your social media a totally custom look.

Canva’s Filter Feature

Hack #3: Use the Filter Tab to Find Your Ideal Graphic Quickly

Canva’s filter feature is great for finding the perfect graphic or image quickly without having to scroll through endless clip art options.

The filter tab icon shows up in the top right corner of the search bar when you are in the elements section of the design screen. The filter allows you to search by keyword, color scheme, size, and whether you need a free or pro element.

So if you need a vector illustration of an office chair that’s green with white stripes, no problem! Just type in those keywords and let Canva do the rest. 

Canva also offers a library of royalty-free stock images and photos that you can use in your designs. You can search the library using keywords, or you can scroll through the available images to find what works best for your post. Plus, if there’s something specific that you need, you can upload your own pre-made graphics and photos. 

Once you’ve created a few templates for your brand, it’s important to save them so that you can use them again and again throughout the year. Canva allows you to save both individual designs as well as entire folders of templates, which brings us to hack #4.

Save Your Designs for Faster Creation

Hack #4: Save Your Designs to a Folder

When you save your newly designed social media posts, you can easily and quickly copy the layout, elements, and style you worked so hard on into your future social media designs.

The easiest way to do this in Canva is by creating folders. You can create folders to save different types of images, such as logos, product shots, or blog graphics. You can also create a folder for each client or project you’re working on.

This will help you stay organized and save you valuable time by making it easy to find the images you need when you’re working on your designs.

When creating folders in Canva, be sure to name them clearly so you can easily find them later. You may also want to create sub-folders within your main folders if you have a lot of images. This can help keep you even more organized. 

When you are ready to create a new social media post, select a folder and then click the “add new” design button on the top right portion of the screen. Once you are directed to the editing screen, you can scroll down the toolbar on your left to the tab labeled “Projects” and select one of your saved folders or designs.

Your previously saved project can then be added as a new page. Then, you can easily change the background color, images, and text to your liking while keeping some elements, like the border and logo placement, the same.

There you have it. Follow our first 4 simple hacks so you are organized and ready to start designing social media posts in Canva.

Next time, we’ll go over 6 more hacks that will explain the most efficient ways to use Canva’s design tools so you can get busy creating!

And if you need any more help, contact our social media experts at IFTS, and we will get the job done for you! Give us a call today at 412-715-6266, and we’ll get you started on creating visuals that will take your business to the next level.

How to Use Infographics for Marketing Your Painting Business

If you’re looking for ways to stand out online and build your painting company’s brand, infographics are a great way to do it. 

A powerful tool for communicating, Infographics provide complex information in a visually pleasing way that’s also easy to understand. When used the right way, they can be very effective at bringing people to your website and getting them to interact with you on social media, and they don’t have to be expensive or take a lot of time. And because they are so easily shared on social media, they’re a great way to boost your SEO.

So, what is an infographic anyway?

As a small business owner, you wear a lot of hats. You’re the CEO, the estimator, the team lead, and the marketing team all rolled into one. And while you might be good at a lot of things, there’s only so much time in the day to get your message out. 

Enter – infographics!

An infographic is a picture that shows information or data. They usually have both images and words and are used to show complicated facts in a short, easy-to-understand way. 

Plan to use infographics instead of spending hours poring over spreadsheets, making newsletters, or writing long blog posts. And the best part is, they’re fun to make! 

In this post, we’ll show you the best ways to use and make infographics for your painting business, but feel free to apply these tips to other markets, as well!

Make infographics about your painting services or products.

When creating an infographic about your product or service, be sure to focus on one key point that you want to communicate. 

This should be something that will interest your customers and help them understand what you do. Most of the time, less is more because too much information can turn people off.

Explain how your product or service helps solve a specific problem or shows off an interesting process you use at work. Use clear, concise language and make sure the visuals support the text.

For example, an infographic that points out the areas of a house that should be painted for the best return on investment is a great way to help potential clients decide which walls to paint when they are getting ready to sell their home. 

Or, do you have a favorite way to prepare a surface or a favorite type of paint that you use for different projects? Creating an infographic to share your tips and tricks about this topic, provides a new way for your audience to rely on your years of experience for their painting needs.

Create infographics about your company's history and personality.

An infographic is a great way to share the history of your business. 

Use it to talk about important people, important events, and even interesting facts about how your business got started. This is a great way to get potential customers interested in your business and show them what it’s all about. 

People LOVE stories! If people know and like your story, it builds trust, making them more likely to want to work with you in the future. 

Another example is an infographic timeline that shows the different kinds of work your business has done over the years. Again, this shows that you have experience and makes your business stand out as unique and likable to potential customers and employees. 

How to make an infographic.

Now you can start making your infographics! 

First, think about your values and your brand’s style. 

What is your mission statement? 

Check out this article on creating a brand style guide for more ideas, and take some time to brainstorm and write down everything that you can think of.

When you really understand your company’s values and style, you’ll be able to communicate with your audience consistently. Which makes sense and builds that trust again!

Also, be sure to think about your customers’ age, gender, location, and income level. 

What are they passionate about? 

What do they like to do in their free time? 

What are their buying habits? 

Answering these questions will help you create content that really speaks to your target market.

Once you have all of this information, you can start designing your infographics. Be sure to use visuals, such as charts and graphs, to make your infographic more engaging and fun to look at. 

Canva is a great, easy-to-use app that you can always turn to. It has infographic templates that you can use to get started quickly, and you can format them for many different social media sites.

Share your infographics.

Now, if you’re happy with your infographic, it’s time to share it with the world! Post it on your website, social media, and anywhere else your target audience is likely to see it.

If you need more ideas on where you should be posting your infographic, learn more about the social media platforms we recommend for your painting business here

By using these tips, you can create informative and visually appealing infographics about your company. This will help you attract new customers and employees and build a strong online presence for your business—and there’s no need to hire a professional designer to create them (although you certainly can if you want to)!

So what are you waiting for? 

Get started making infographics for your small business today!

If you need more help in this area, give IFTS, Inc. a call at 412.715.6266 for a FREE consultation!

Top 5 Tips for Turning Your YouTube Podcast Video into Two Weeks of Social Media Posts

It can be a struggle to come up with fresh ideas for your social media campaigns, but if you have a great podcast that you’re passionate about, why not use your discussions and turn them into social media content?

With a little bit of work, you can easily turn your podcast into two weeks of social media posts that will help you grow your audience and build your brand.

In this blog, we’ll give you tips on how to turn your audio into text and graphic posts, and even short video clips for sites like Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We’ll also tell you how to promote your videos so that more people watch them.

So if you’re ready to learn how to turn your podcast into social media gold, read on!

#1-Make a daily plan for the next two weeks for your social media.

Having an outline of the types of posts you want to share each day and the format you want to use, such as text, image, video, or a combination of the three, is helpful.

For example,

Monday: Upload your podcast video to YouTube (we talked about how to do this in our last blog) and share the link on your other social media sites.

Tuesday: Take a fun fact or quote and turn it into text with a picture that goes with it.

Wednesday: Post a short clip from the whole video.

Thursday: Find an inspirational quote and make a graphic related to your topic.

Friday: Create a blog link post.

Saturday: Post a fun fact or a funny clip.

Sunday: Reminder to check out the Youtube video.

Week 2

Monday: Combine text and a visual image using another useful fact or statistic from your podcast.

Tuesday: Make another inspirational quote post.

Wednesday: Create a list post or promote free consultations, subscriptions, newsletters, or other lead magnets.

Thursday: Provide another guest quote or topic quote, either in the form of a short video clip or an image and text post.

Friday: Post a reminder to check out your podcast with a link included.

Saturday: Share interesting facts or comparisons as an infographic.

Sunday: Show a screenshot of the podcast video or image with a teaser that says “keep tuned for our upcoming episode.” 

#2-Pull out the most interesting parts of your podcast to create your social media posts.

You can do this the old fashioned way by listening to your audio and writing down at least 8 to 10 points you’d like to highlight, or you can easily transcribe your entire podcast with apps like otter.ai, which saves the entire text from your audio, making it easy to read over and copy all of the quotes and information you’ll use when making your daily posts.

#3-Create your text and graphic posts.

Let’s dive in!

Feel free to be as creative as you’d like, but we like to follow these simple rules.

  • Get the reader’s attention with a topic line that stands out.
  • Explain why this content is important to them.
  • Tell them what they will learn.
  • Tell them how to listen to the episode.

Remember to add colors, your logo, and a font style consistent with your brand’s personality and the topic you’re covering.

Using photos, art, and other graphics can give your social posts a unique touch and help you get the attention of your audience.

It may take a little longer in the beginning to create posts from scratch, but once you have a theme, it will take less time in the future.

There are many design apps out there with free-to-use features, and one of the easiest and most intuitive to work with is Canva. With pre-made graphic templates you can change for your specific needs and a way to save all of your creations, you don’t have to worry about starting with a completely blank slate the next time.

#4-Create your video posts.

Creating video clips and posts of your podcast episodes is a great way to repurpose your content and get more bang for your buck.

You can share two types of video: an actual video clip, if your podcast story or interview is videotaped, or an audio clip transformed into video format (mp3 to mp4), which is a lot easier than it sounds.

Read on to learn how to convert audio files to YouTube-friendly videos:

  • Go to Headliner.app or Canva.com and register for free.
  • Click “create audiograms” or choose one of the many video templates on Canva.
  • Upload your podcast audio, or you can upload a video file of your episode if using Canva.
  • Choose the length of video you will create, or for more advanced options, Canva allows you to cut your video and save it as a new project where you can add custom graphics and elements, including page animations, transitions, and background music!
  • Headliner allows you to Include transcription, but only up to 10 minutes in length. In Canva, you can add text to each frame of your video, which is time consuming for an hour long podcast, so save that for shorter clips. As we covered in our last blog, Youtube allows you to add subtitles automatically and is by far the easiest way to add captions to an entire podcast video.
  • Follow these steps to design, and your video clips will be ready to share on social media.

If you’re posting just audio, try to keep it under one minute, and remember, sites like Instagram only allow video posts that are one minute or less.

And make sure you include a great opening line, so that listeners will want to hear more!

#5-Plan and schedule your posts.

The last step is to publish your content. You can do this manually, but if you use lots of different social media platforms, use an automatic scheduling program like socialpilot.co, which will allow you to plan multiple posts in advance.

These sites often provide analytics which tell you how your posts are performing on each platform. Be sure to try it out and don’t worry about being perfect!

Finally, be sure to include links to subscribe to your podcast on iTunes or other sites and add relevant hashtags so that people can easily find and follow you. And remember to promote your videos by sharing with your friends and followers and encouraging everyone to share them, too.

You can also use paid advertising on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to boost your videos. When creating your ads, be sure to target people who are likely to be interested in your content. For example, if your podcast is about business, target people who work in businesses or are interested in entrepreneurship.

By following these steps, you can easily turn your podcast into two weeks of social media content. 

So what are you waiting for? 

Start creating and promoting your videos today!

Need some help in this area? Call our social media experts at IFTS and learn more about our services at 412-715-6266.