Canva is a graphic design tool that can be used to create visually appealing content for social media marketing.

CANVA ALLOWS YOU TO CREATE THE FOLLOWING:

TWO VERSIONS OF CANVA

Free Version

Paid Version

WHY USE THE PAID?

The paid version offers a wide range of tested templates for posts, videos, infographics, designs, and more. The Free version has limited templates available.

The paid version saves you a great deal of time and effort in creating templates from scratch.

I would highly recommend the paid version, there is a 30 Day Free trial period you can use to test the program.

Look to the top right corner of your Canva screen.

Click on the purple button that says “Create Design”

Select which type of design you would to create- whiteboard Instragram post etc.

You will now be taking to the editing page.

TEMPLATES

This is the range of templates available to you. If you are using the paid version, you will have a larger library to choose from. Each template can be edited to fit your business information and goals.

SEARCH FOR TEMPLATES

There is a search bar located above the listed templates. Simply type in a keyword to find an appropriate template for your post.

HERE ARE YOUR OPTIONS WHEN ADDING AN ELEMENT:

Change the text information on a template

Change the images on a template

Resize Individual elements on a template

Can add and delete existing element on a template

Can animate each element by clicking the 3 dotted option when selecting an element.

Can animate entire pages or a single elements on a template.

ELEMENTS

This includes graphical elements you can group to create a design, or you can add, edit and remove elements on an existing template.

WHAT TYPE OF ELEMENTS CAN YOU ADD TO YOUR DESIGN

YOU CAN MANIPULATE EACH ELEMENT IN THE FOLLOWING WAY

You can animate elements to either rise, pan, fade and more.

You can also control the speed at which these animations occur on your page.

You can resize elements.

You can edit elements.

You can add and delete elements.

UPLOADS

The upload tab allows you to upload personal media to add to your designs.

This can be anything from:

Photo

Video

Audios

You also have the option to record yourself or provide a screenshare from the Canva program.

TEXTS

The text tab allows you to use a large variety of text fonts and text designs. You can easily change the size and color of your text to fit in with your specific design.

SEARCH FOR TEXTS

Use the search bar, located above the Text Fonts, to find specific texts you want to create (Eg Happy birthday, Happy Valentine's Day, Discount Specials, etc)

MORE

This provides alternative elements you can add to your design. Each element you select here will be automatically added to your vertical menu on the right. Canva provides a large library of templates you can incorporate into your design such as:

Photos

Styles

Audio

Background

Charts

Folders

For newbies, its important to focus more on templates, than creating a design by yourself from scratch.

If you want to maintain consistency in your brand, you can use Canva's Brand Kit feature to save and access your brand colors, fonts, and logos.

Canva allows you to resize your design for different platforms, so you don't have to create separate designs for each platform.