Favorite Web Tools for Social Media and Video

Creating social media images and video, along with posting/scheduling can feel like a huge hassle. The programs below are some of my favorite web tools for managing social media + a couple bonus web tools I like for instructional videos and Zoom calls.

Canva

If you need to make social media graphics, simple videos, or documents to print, Canva is a great tool to use. For simple projects, the free version is fine, but if you’ll be using it often, I highly recommend Canva Pro ($12.99/month, unless you're a nonprofit or in education and can get Canva Pro for free). Canva Pro allows you to add your brand elements—logo, colors, fonts—so they’re easy to use in your images. You can use their templates, which is great to keep it simple for those who aren’t graphic designers, but can also make it easy for a designer to make an image in a short amount of time. It’s also easy to create an image for multiple uses—you can copy the file and change the dimensions, then make any necessary edits to make it work in the new size (Made a square image for Instagram, but now need a matching image in 16:9? This makes it easy.)

Facebook Creator Studio

There are many options for social media scheduling software, but if you’re primarily using Facebook & Instagram, you can use the one built into Facebook!

Planoly & Later

If you’re primarily posting on Instagram and want to see a preview of your feed while scheduling, these are both great options. They each have a free version and paid version.

Instagram Link Page

(Linktree, Campsite, Milkshake app, Tap Bio, and similar)

Instagram link pages are great to have, especially when all the links you want to have easily accessible aren’t pages on your website. You can use one of several link page builders, but if you have a website, consider making your link page there instead so that anyone clicking from Instagram is clicking directly to your domain. This allows you to customize the page to exactly how you want it to look and you know the brand elements will look consistent with your website.

Loom

Do you ever need to make a quick instructional video—either a screenshot video or a simple video of you talking? Loom is easy to use and there’s a free version. If you need it to include video of you, it can use your computer’s webcam and it also works with Camo Studio, which you’ll read about in a minute.

Camo Studio

Have you noticed that your video on Zoom calls seems to be a bit darker than you’d like and you’d like for the image to look better as well? Camo studio is an app with free and low-cost options to give you much better video quality for video chats by using your phone camera instead of your computer’s camera. Your primary phone camera is much higher quality than your computer and it’s as easy as plugging your phone into your computer. If you want an even more professional look for video chats, you can pair this with using an LED light & diffuser or a ring light.