if you run a small business you may have
heard how important it is to be active
on social media but creating quality
social media content can take a lot of
time and what is quality content anyway
creating images for your social media
posts is a great place to start
research shows that posts with images
create more engagement but how can you
combine your social media messaging with
great images that's where canva comes in
canva is a free online graphic design
tool that enables you to create
professional images with no graphic
design experience required if you're new
to canva you can create a free account
here
this video will focus on creating posts
for Twitter where you want to create
interesting content that will inspire
your followers to become your customers
there are several different types of
Twitter post templates in canva for this
one I'd like to create a quote post so
I'm going to click quote Twitter post
now let's look at some of the template
options this one looks like a good
option
side-by-side template will give the
photo and message equal emphasis and
this light background makes the text
easy to read the photo has a canva
watermark which means it's a paid photo
but we won't worry about the photo says
we'll be changing it to a free one let's
start by changing the message let's use
a quote about dogs for the first example
just select it and begin typing your
quote
then we'll go ahead and add the author's
name
depending on how much text you have you
may want to change the font size since
this is a short quote we can increase
the font size a bit we'll just click the
text box and go up to the menu bar to
change it
let's try 36 you may also need to adjust
the alignment in this case we can move
the text down to Center it vertically
now you can use the mouse to click and
drag the text box but that may change
the horizontal centering so we suggest
using the arrow keys to move the box
instead we'll just keep pressing the
down arrow until it looks centered
vertically you can also use Shift + an
arrow key to move it more quickly
sharing quotes can be powerful it gives
you a chance to share knowledge from
experts to entertain to tug heartstrings
and inspire your followers however we
suggest being selective with quotes for
two reasons
some quotes can annoy your followers if
the quotes are overused or sound
insincere and believe it or not some
quotes are protected by copyright we
advise researching the quote before
sharing it with your followers now that
we have our message let's pair it with a
photo that really tells the quote story
we'll select the current photo and click
the trash icon in the menu bar in this
case there are two options and that's
because the template includes something
called a grid a grid is a canva feature
that sets the size of the image and
makes it easier to position a new photo
in the same spot so we'll keep the grid
and click delete image now you have a
few choices you could upload a photo it
could be a photo of your business or a
stock photo from a website like unsplash
you can also click photos to use one of
canvas stock images let's use the search
bar to look for dog photos let's see if
we can find one that matches the quote
this little dog seems perfect you can
drag the photo over the grid until it
snaps into place it looks like we're
done here we'll just take a moment to
check it to make sure everything looks
good now if you only need to create one
image you could stop here and post it to
Twitter but you may want to create more
images and since we have the design
exact
be where we want it we're in a good
place to create more images without much
effort to get started on your new image
click the copy page icon above the image
this will create a copy and then you can
just replace the image and text to
create another Twitter post for example
a fun fact about dogs if you're ready to
create more images
feel free to repeat the process by
reusing a template with a simple design
you'll be able to quickly create batches
of images this will allow you to devote
more time to gathering interesting
content to share when you're happy with
your designs you can publish directly to
Twitter or download your images we
suggest downloading the images because
it gives you more flexibility to choose
when to post each image before
downloading we'll choose a file type
we'll go with a ping or PNG file because
it's the recommended format then we can
click download if a pop-up appears
asking you to sign up for a paid account
you can click continue editing to go
back to your designs once you've created
your images you probably don't want to
post them all at once
instead you can start mixing these types
of marketing posts with posts about your
products and business you may be able to
get a few weeks or months out of these
images even though it took you a short
time to make them regularly posting a
variety of content will pay off as it
helps you build your customer base over
time now that you know how to create
quality images we encourage you to start
creating your own marketing posts in
canva
GCF global creating opportunities for a
better life