Canva… a digital platform I call my ‘best friend’!
Four years ago, Canva was not a word I knew of, in fact, I had no need to know it. But after diving into the world of content creation, it VERY quickly became a support I could not live without.
Why?
Well, seriously I could go on all day about it, but I know you don’t have that much time! Instead, I’ll keep it to my top five reasons I can’t live without Canva. Keep in mind, this is now a website I open every time I turn on my computer and one that I use multiple times a day to create content for my small business clients. So, let’s just say, I’m a fan! In case you hadn’t picked that up already.
1. Brand Recognition
If you haven’t delved too far into the Canva world, it’s likely you have found one of their free templates, maybe added your own quote to it, and then shared it in an email, as part of a presentation or on social media.
But did you know that Canva makes it incredibly easy for you to create graphics that are aligned to your brand style?
Canva allows you to set up your brand, including your brand fonts, colours and logos, and save those so that you can easily access them. Within this section, it also allows you to create and save your brand templates so that if you use something regularly like a quote or testimonial, your graphic is there ready to simply update the text when you need to.
If, like me, you work across a couple of different brands, never fear! I have 12 different brands set up in Canva and they are all saved and ready to access whenever I need them.
No more trying to remember which font to use or what your colour code is. It’s all there and easy to find. You can even pick a template you love and then simply apply your brand style to that template.
Life-changing!
2. Resize
Often when creating graphics for a business, you’ll start with a particular size and create the design based on that size. It can sometimes feel a little overwhelming to try and recreate it when someone asks if you can give it to them in a different size to be used elsewhere.
With Canva’s resize option, you can now easily and quickly transition your graphic from the size of a presentation slide to an Instagram tile. You may need to make some minor adjustments, but you won’t be starting from a blank screen.
3. Instagram Reels
Instagram has been very clear about video being their primary content direction, with Reels now being the preferred format for video on the platform. This means a couple of things for creators.
Firstly, gone are the days of landscape video. It is now important that we’re filming video in portrait, as this is how it will display on Instagram, whether you want it to or not.
Secondly, if you’re like me and keen to take part in the trend without having your face in front of the camera constantly, we need to find another way to create content in this format.
Introducing… you guessed it! Canva.
Canva has a template size for Instagram Reels and allows you to add your own video/images to the graphic, adjust the timing, add audio, or even add stock video if you don’t have what you’re looking for.
You can then add text and other elements to the graphic, which will all be in keeping with your brand style. Download it as an mp4 and share it on Instagram – easy!
4. Canva App
Today I left the office before 10am knowing I had a day of meetings and events that would mean I didn’t return to my desk until after 4pm. I also knew I had some Canva templates that a colleague needed me to review and approve. There was no way I was going to have a chance to get out my laptop, but what I did have easy access to, was my phone.
Introducing the Canva App!
Through the Canva App, you can create designs from scratch, edit your existing designs, access templates, share designs with friends or your team, or download a design you forgot to share earlier.
What can I say, Canva gets me! And it also understands the lives of busy business owners who are often having to work on tasks with short amounts of time and sometimes from locations where a computer simply isn’t available.
If you don’t already have the Canva App, get it!
5. Content Planner
If you’re using Canva to plan your content for social media, why not use Canva’s handy content planner to prepare your social media content and schedule it on your favourite platforms.
It even gives you handy tips on important and interesting days of the month that you might like to share. For example, did you know 30 September is International Podcast Day? I did! Because I saw it on the content planner and knew it would be a great opportunity to share some highlights from Women’s Network Australia’s new Trailblazers podcast!
If you’re a small business owner, or work in a role where you are required to prepare content to be shared widely, please do yourself a favour and check out Canva. On top of the five things I’ve listed above, you might be interested to know that you can use Canva just like you would Microsoft Powerpoint to do a presentation, you can also record yourself while presenting slides in Canva which is a great way to pre-record a webinar.
Feel free to get in touch if you need a hand getting started, or if you think this would be a great topic for a WNA webinar! WNA has been invited to attend a Canva update this month where they’ll be sharing all the new and upcoming features. We’re excited to share those with you as soon as we can.
