3 Free Tools to Create Compelling Graphics for Social Media

Posted by Sarah Wai on Sep 30, 2019 12:16:39 PM

editing video for social media

Let’s be honest, there are a myriad of tools floating around that can help you create some pretty amazing videos and graphics for your social media accounts. The caveat is that most are not free, and for a company or individual who is looking to create compelling videos and graphics without having to spend a lot of money doing so, this journey can be frustrating.

A Few Free Tools We Recommend

It can take time to find a tool that works for what you need it for, so we’ve done the research for you to save you the hassle. Let’s take a look at some of the best free tools we’ve found that can help you create the videos and graphics of your dreams.

Canva

Canva is an intuitive design platform that enables you to create professional quality graphic designs. It has an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop design tool and provides you with over a million photos, graphics, and fonts to choose from. These graphics can easily be used online or for print purposes, depending on your needs.

One of the greatest selling points for Canva is that it’s an incredible design tool for those who are not graphically inclined. If you aren’t sold on making something from scratch, you can easily choose from thousands of templates. Here are some other features that users find useful:

  1. Image cropping
  2. Adding text to images
  3. Image transparency
  4. Photo enhancing
  5. Design grids
  6. Free icons
  7. Frames
  8. Wireframes
  9. Texturizing
  10. and more!

They do have subscription options as well, but with Canva Free you’ll get:

  • Up to 10 members
  • 1GB of storage
  • Two folders
  • Access to 8,000 of their templates
  • The ability to upload your own images
  • Access to stock photos for $1 per photo

Learn more about Canva

BeFunky

Basically, anything you could possibly want to do with a photo editor, you can do with BeFunky. There are also hundreds of photo effects available (most require a paid version, but for $6 a month it may be worth it!). You can also have fun with graphic overlays, texts layouts, and watermarking. Plus, you don’t have to be a professional editor to get great looking photos if you use their smart enhancement tools.

BeFunky parallels Photoshop, but it’s simplified! It’s a powerful tool with an easy, user-friendly interface, and it’s free or pennies to pay for. Here are a few popular features users prefer while using BeFunky:

  • Crop and resize
  • Turn photos to art (my personal favorite)
  • Batch edit photos
  • Create transparent backgrounds
  • Retouch portraits
  • One-click collage creation
  • Customizable design templates
  • Over a million free stock images
  • Thousands of vector graphics and icons

Learn more about BeFunky

Shotcut

This video editing software is great for basic video editing from desktop or mobile devices. It supports a wide range of formats, supports 4K resolutions, and has comprehensive video and audio editing.

Shotcut is a step above Movie Maker, but simpler and cheaper (it’s free) than most video editing software of its caliber. The interface is user-friendly and simple to understand, as well as customizable for your preferences.

Shotcut has an abundance of filters and special effects perfect for a variety of the needs you may have while editing your video for social media. It’s hands-down one of the best video editing software programs you can get for free! Plus, it can be used by Windows, Linux and Mac users, so there are no restrictions there.

Learn more about Shotcut

Are You Looking for More Free Social Media Resources?

We created a resource page that is chock full of free info for you to digest and put into action! You can access our social media resource page here.

Sarah Wai

Written by Sarah Wai

Former Content, Email, and Social Media Marketing Specialist of Tribute Media. Bachelor of Science in Digital Communication Arts and Master in Business Administration.