If you’re into social media and graphic design- listen up. After a couple of years spent in the content creation business, I’d like to think I have some pretty good leads into how to make your digital marketing job easier and get the timing-consuming tasks done so you can focus on bigger (and better) things.

We’ve all been there. A typo in your social media caption, a image sizing issue that just doesn’t seem to make sense, or figuring out *just* how someone got ahead of the latest trends before you did.

Let’s talk solutions.

1. Unsplash

Unsplash is a website dedicated to sharing stock photography. It’s incredibly useful for finding simple stock images, photos that you can use as texture overlays, and more. I have used it in the past for website design (think banners and generic business photos). The best part? It’s FREE!

When searching for content these are some common searches I have made when using Unsplash: man working on computer, paper textured background, blank wall, hand writing on paper, ocean.

Long story short it’s my go to for generic images when in a pinch.

2. Grammarly

HELLO grammar queens and kings. This one is for you!

Grammarly is a consistent program I have used over the last 5 years to help ensure I am typo-free. There are several different versions of this software you can get (when I say software I don’t want to scare you off, it is extremely easy to download and install on your preferred Internet browser and Microsoft apps). I have a free version that checks for overall tone, spelling, grammar mistakes, and punctuation. There are premium versions that checks for readability, word choice, plagiarism, inclusive language, and formality level.

Check out this convenient program here!

3. Planoly

Social media gurus are creative and savvy, but often times it’s hard to keep up with the latest trends and content calendar planning (national and international holidays, events, and more). Planoly is a content management system (CMS) that works great! It’s easy to use, but the best part is that they have some awesome blogs and free content calendars that are incredibly handy to channel your inner social media expert to optimize your planning process.

Check out their blog here for examples of exactly what I’m talking about, and then you’ll see why they are my go-to.

4. Adobe Creative Cloud Express

If you’ve been thinking about making the jump to buy Adobe Creative Cloud software- now is your chance. Adobe has recently released a new take on its products. “Adobe Creative Cloud Express” (which I once personally knew as Adobe Spark), is now your one-stop shop for content creating. It’s only 9.99 a month and is worth every single penny. Whether you or your company pays for it, it is a software that has bang for it’s bucks and makes your content creating life easier.

I specifically love using it for creating icons with transparent backgrounds, creating quick social media graphics, making beginner level animated graphics, and quickly editing and cropping shapes of photos.

Try it out here for free for 7 days and then start at 9.99/month.

5. EZGif

This is the most informal recommendation I am making, yet one of the ones I use most. When I am creating wanting to create videos or animated graphics, ezgif.com is the way to go. It’s an incredibly convenient and fast. You can resize GIF’s, optimize them, and convert videos into GIF’s! If you don’t have tools like Photoshop this is a good route to take to get the job done fast.

Visit the website here to get to work on your quick and simple GIF editing.

There are countless more that I could recommend, but I’ll keep it short for now. 

I want to learn more from you, too! Comment your favorite program that makes your content creating life easier. Hand-in-hand lets support each other in optimizing our time in creation so that we can use our brainpower for strategizing and analyzing some rockin’ content.