Are you a new, small business with little to no money for social media spend?

Here are three (free) tools to get you started on your own.

Recently I have shared information about how most large corporations are digitizing their businesses and, more specifically utilizing social media in their marketing. Since then I have received many questions from small business owners about how they too can best utilize social media, but on a small business scale and budget. Initially I thought another article on social media resources is unnecessary because look, there’s really no secret sauce. I am not using anything that you can’t use. But then I realized that while it feels obvious to me, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea and can be a pain point. So with that in mind I thought I would share with you three easy resources, to help you get started on your social media presence journey. And bonus, all of these resources have a free version (I have used both free and paid versions of all of these). *I am in no way affiliated or paid to mention these tools. I just love ’em.

1. Create 

Creating in Canva is fun and is easy to use. If you don’t fancy yourself a creative-type they have thousands of templates already designed for you, you just plug in your information and viola! There are libraries of stock photos, videos, music, fonts all at your disposal. Additionally the templates come pre-sized for each specific social media platform. I don’t think it can get any easier than Canva for creating content.

2. Big Picture 

This one is Instagram-specific but I like the Preview app for planning because it allows you to visualize your posts, stories, REELS, and IGTV before you ever post a thing. You can easily move the images around to be sure your profile looks perfect before publishing. To be honest I have only used this app as a visual board but the app does have features such as scheduling and editing tools, analytics, and even allows you to create hashtag groups.

3. Post

Hootesuite can be so much more than what I am about to discuss here but we are keeping it simple (because social media isn’t your cup of tea!). It is user-friendly, they have great customer support, and they have tons of educational information on all things social media. You can upload visual content to your connected social media accounts (they support +20 social networks), write captions and hashtags, then schedule the day and time for it to post. Set it and forget it.

Running your small business social media doesn’t have to be painful. And while these suggestions only brush the surface of what this giant resource that is social media can be for your business, I hope it can at least help those of you who feel a bit lost with where to begin.

Please feel free to share any tools or resources that have helped you successfully stay connected with your audience/customers on your social media channels.