Canva to many is the best invention since… social media itself. But I also speak to people who find it totally overwhelming, and I see a lot of social media feeds that are totally confused because of Canva templates which haven’t been customised to match the company’s branding.
The first, and easiest way in which I use Canva, is to create Instagram content. Each client has their own Canva file where I keep all of their fonts, colours and templates. I upload all of their content for the month into there so that I can see it side-by-side and make sure that it’s all uniform and meets their brand guidelines. I’ve popped a picture of mine below.
Next I use it to create static stories, unfortunately we can’t schedule stories with stickers on them yet – and I personally think that stickers are vital on stories. So I may create a handful of stories on Canva to schedule, but the majority of them I use as a base image and input the text and stickers on Instagram in real time. I’ve actually been thinking about creating a Canva Story planning guide – so let me know if you think that would be useful!
I can also use it to create reels, obviously for clients unless they send me the videos I have to use static images – and I personally am not one for dancing or lip-syncing – so the majority of my reels are created using Canva with different transitions and effects.
Because I have the pro version, I also have access to all of their stock images – this is vital for my business. I set the dimensions I want the photo to be, and then scroll through the hundreds available until I find the perfect one. For some clients I still run the image through Lightroom so that it fits their brand guidelines but often for myself they fit straight away. I use stock images on website, social media feeds (I think every fourth image on mine is a stock one, off the top of my head), blog posts and newsletters. Unless you have a photographer following you around 24/7, stock images are super useful if you use them sparingly and carefully.
There is so much more that Canva can do, but these are the things that I find it most useful for… if you want any more details on how I do any of the above – just drop me a message and I’ll be happy to talk you through it or show you!
You’ll notice that I’ve used the words ‘brand guidelines’ a lot, and that’s because the biggest thing I want you to remember is that you have brand guidelines, whether you’ve consciously put them together or not, and just because the possibilities on Canva are endless – it doesn’t mean that you should be using all of them.
