Madeline Feehan Blog Post #3: Crazy for Canva

Blog Post #3- Crazy for Canva: Finding Your Brand

By Madeline Feehan

If you run a social media account, especially a professional one for an organization, you need to check out Canva! When running social media for any organization, looks are everything! Your content is equally important, but if your account is inconsistent and ugly to look at, it doesn't matter if your content is solid gold. You need to draw an audience in and keep them hooked. Canva will help you do this. You can start creating a cohesive brand that will make your marketing the best it can be!

Social media platforms and Canva go better together than peanut butter and jelly. In all my experience running an Instagram for clubs throughout school and for my job, Canva is the best resource. It is easy to use, has tons of great options, has size templates that automatically align with popular social media platforms' dimensions (Instagram, Facebook, etc.), and allows you to create graphics that seamlessly go together. It's the best way you can establish your brand and make sure your posts are eye-catching and inviting. Most of all, using Canva will ensure your social media looks professional! If your posts are inconsistent, sized incorrectly, and have no aesthetic rhyme or reason, people are less likely to want to engage with your posts and, therefore, engage with your organization. 

Trust me, this works! The best proof I have is my own overwhelmingly positive experiences, but I can do you one better. I can show you how the podcast my sister works for, Embracing Layers: the FEEL podcast, changed and became more successful once she stepped on board as the social media manager, all thanks to Canva.

This might sound like I'm just hyping up my sister, but this is so much more than that. Before she came on board, the podcast creator was running the social media, but she had little to no experience, and it showed.  

As you can see from Embracing Layers' early posts, there is no distinct brand or aesthetic eye behind these decisions. The posts are all over the place in terms of size and scale, are simply text with no eye-catching images or graphics, and are jumbled in terms of color. It looks amateurish. Another distracting detail for viewers is that the posts are not scaled properly, so they are cut off and distorted as you scroll. They don’t appear whole in the feed and don’t invite viewers in. The plain text and solid color without any logo or branding do nothing to promote the organization or invite users in. A key thing to think about regarding branding is appealing to your consumers. Embracing Layers is a podcast centered around female empowerment and learning to appreciate the complexities of your life. Therefore, the audience is primarily women and appeals to multiple age groups. The women who come on the show to get interviewed are typically professionals who have started their own businesses or have something of their own to promote, ranging from being authors, educators, entrepreneurs, influencers, and more. The 'branding' of its Instagram should reflect that. My sister thought so, so she devised a pastel color scheme and eye-catching, trendy graphics that would make consumers want to engage with the podcast.

Don't believe me? Let's look at the social media feed once a social media manager/avid Canva user was hired:

As you can see, there's a distinct difference when my sister started running the social media. She made sure to reinvent the podcast's Instagram from the ground up. She's not classically trained, has no professional social media degree, yet she's very familiar and comfortable navigating social media, and it shows. Since she's taken over, every post has become coordinated and well-thought-out. There is a clear throughline, a ‘stamp’ that makes the posts instantly recognizable and cohesive. Every post has a logo or signage that promotes the podcast. Between the consistent color scheme, similar graphic style, and post dimensions, you can see the difference, the increased engagement, and the time and effort she puts into running the podcast’s social media. You can also see she is meticulous about the size of her posts; you can still read the whole thing as you’re scrolling through the feed, and nothing important is cut off. You can also see that instead of blocks of text with a plain background, my sister uses graphics so the posts are engaging and enticing. Every single post she made was created with Canva, and I hope that inspires you to start trying it out.

These posts were all created without a premium account, and she is self-trained. This shows that you don't need to pay for premium features or break the bank account trying to hire a social media expert. You have the power to train yourself to create a distinct brand and high-quality posts.

However, if you are interested in the premium Canva account, I would recommend it. My job pays for one Pro account we all use, and it has saved me so much time and effort. The main reason the premium version is superior (and maybe worth the price) is its resizing feature. If you make a great post and want to copy the same design in different sizes, this feature automatically does it for you. For example, when I make promotional slides for my library's Instagram, we also have to make alternate versions that can be used as a regular post, a story post, a Facebook post, and a flyer. Our library has regimented and organized social media guidelines, so we have a posting schedule and dimensions we must follow when making our slides on Canva. Hitting the resize button and making a few adjustments for the new size saves me so much trouble. With a regular account, I'd have to start from scratch or have to do a lot more manual effort to recreate the same graphic in various sizes.

No matter what version you're using, you're not using social media to its fullest potential if you're not using Canva! If you want to sell your brand and have an aesthetically pleasing feed, Canva is your best friend. It doesn't matter if you're a novice with no experience or an expert. It's easy to use, has endless options, and is weirdly fun. Once you get started making graphics, you won't be able to stop!