Making content that's personalized and stands out from the rest can sometimes be tricky. Not everyone has the most creative eye, but creative content is what will lead to higher engagement. Content creators should know how to use graphic design platforms like Canva to their advantage. In this post, I'll describe my experience using Canva and why knowing how to use it is important. I'll also explain how to use Canva to improve your social media content and provide 3 suggestions to elevate your Canva experience.
What is Canva, and Why Does it Matter?
Canva is a platform used for the graphic design of social media posts, presentations, brochures, and other templates. It’s available on your desktop or laptop, and they also offer an app for your mobile device. The platform is free to use but does have extra functions that are available with a subscription to Canva Pro. The templates allow users to follow a specific style or layout, and there are thousands to choose from; however, if you have an original idea you can also create your own template to use.
In today’s world, it’s important to learn how to stand out from others. Individuality is sought after, so making your content visually appealing to others is just as crucial. Canva puts all of the tools you’ll need into one easy-to-use platform. Knowing how to use a multitude of platforms will not only leverage you over other people competing for the same job positions, but it’ll also make it easier when transitioning between jobs that use different platforms.
How to Use Canva Effectively
Like previously mentioned, Canva is an easy-to-use graphic design platform that is free to use but also offers paid subscriptions that allow you access to more options. First is an explanation of how to use Canva to improve your visual content.
Getting Started
On Canva, you need to create an account so you can store all of your designs in one place. They make it so simple to find your previously saved designs, and you can go back and edit them at any time. Each template comes with a name, but you can change it to whatever you are designing. You can also put your designs into folders if you are creating content for multiple companies or just feel the need for better organization.
The Basics
To put it simply, Canva is simple. On the home screen, there are a few different actions you can take. After creating an account there is a “Recommended for you” tab where suggested templates will be generated based on previous designs you have done. There is also an easy access tab to navigate to “All your designs.” Your designs will show up under this tab in the order they have been created from most recent to least. The next option from the home page is “Shared with you” and this is where you are given the ability to share designs with other Canva users if you are collaborating on a project. This tab will show the designs that have been shared specifically with you so they are separate from designs you’ve created. Similar to sharing designs, you can create a “team” and add members you would like to be on this team. By creating or joining a team, you are able to easily share designs, folders, and even create smaller groups within a team. This is a great feature for those who collaborate on a lot of projects. If you are willing to pay for a subscription to Canva Pro, the Brand Kit option is a great feature. With this, users can put their company colors, logos, and fonts all in one place and they’ll be saved to use. This can help with consistency between designs.
Templates Are Your Friend
Canva comes with preloaded templates that make it easier to come up with creative styles and designs. If you are in a creative slump, Canva is perfect to get those brainstorming juices flowing. If you are creating a Facebook post, there are templates for that. You can search “Facebook post-sale” under the templates, and it will generate templates related to that topic. There are templates for any type of visual media from presentations, posters, brochures, infographics, logos, invitations, business cards, etc. If you need it, Canva most likely has it.
3 Tips to Elevate Your Canva Content
Personalize Templates
The templates are a great starting point, but these templates are available for everyone to use. Because of this, it can be helpful to personalize the template to fit your brand. If a brochure template has the colors green and blue but your brand’s colors are red and yellow, change the colors to fit your brand. If the template has an overarching theme of geometric shapes, change some of the shapes to customize your experience. It is best to think of the templates as a guide and inspiration but making changes to them will elevate your content.
Use Specific Colors
Canva allows you to pick any color of the rainbow for font, and you can also change the color in some preloaded elements. For context, elements are like small images that don’t have a background. Anyways, when you hover your mouse over a color, a specific hashtag will appear. If you don’t want to subscribe to Canva Pro, this is a free way to make sure you use the same colors for brand consistency. Keep a note of the exact color hashtags your brand wants to use, and you can search these hashtags later on for other designs.
Play Around
The best way to get comfortable with Canva is to play around and discover on your own. Create content for your own Instagram and Facebook profiles before creating content for other brands. There are so many functions on Canva that take some discovery. What fonts and colors look best on a phone, what size content fits best for each platform, and so on. Being comfortable with the program will make you more confident in your designs.
Summary
If you want to step up your content-creating game, start utilizing Canva. Individualized and unique content will make not only the content but also the CREATOR stand out from the rest of the mundane content people scroll by every day. Make your content pause worthy.
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- If you want to get started on Canva, visit www.canva.com.
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