Content creation: Marisa
As Communications Manager, I’m all about creating content that stops you in your tracks. As we know, content creation has a heavy visual component – first you need to capture a viewer’s attention before they can decide whether or not to read your content.
This is where your phone comes into play; of course nothing can replace a DSLR and first-class lens but, honestly, if you’re as busy as I am, taking a pic you can quickly snap, edit and post is paramount.
I’m an iPhone user so all this will be most relevant to Apple fans, but many features appear on other devices. Here’s my arsenal:
First up: the tried and true Camera app. In-built on iPhone are handy features like Timelapse and Slo-mo. I’m also enjoying playing with iPhone XR’s Portrait feature which can add a depth to your photos, as if being taken with a superior lens.
I’m a massive fan of Live photos on the iPhone, mostly because you can capture a mini video - Live photos take three second snap shots which you can turn into a video (with sound) or a cheeky GIF.
We love the way this technique captured the moment - and personalities! - at a recent Sookio gathering in a way that a photo wouldn’t have and video set up would have missed the moment.
My favourite free app for editing photos on your phone. Snapseed is a brilliant photo editing app. It comes with 29 tools and filters to enhance your photos. For all its fantastic features - and there are many! - the thing I appreciate the most is they NEVER try to up sell you extra filters, packs or watermark removal. Just great results.
Creating beautiful designs and Pinterest-worthy imagery. Free design platform, Canva, can enhance your content with easy-to-use design templates, extensive fonts selection and graphics to help whip up infographics in a pinch. If need be, you can purchase (quite affordably) more intricate designs and, best yet, you can incorporate your branding easily.
How to keep content accessible and organised. Google Photos is a free, helpful and intuitive photo storage platform, allowing you to keep all your photos backed up and readily at your fingertips without clogging up your phone! Very helpful, especially when low on storage (you don’t want to start deleting apps and music just to take a photo, amiright?).
Playful design. Make the everyday slightly more interesting by experimenting with film making. We know that video converts - including video in email marketing increases click through rates by 200%-300%.
“But how can I make better videos?” you’re asking. Here are some apps designed to make experimental video content a little easier:
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Life lapse is an app to create stop motion video content. It’s free if you don’t mind the logo, or try before you buy and opt for the seven day trial to remove their logo.
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Hype Type allows you to spice up your photos by animating text and adding sound over an image; they also helpfully allow you to export multiple designs for different social media channels.
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For more design features and flexibility, my go-tos are InShot and Adobe’s Premiere Clip (you can’t go wrong with the Adobe suite).
Take a look at the Sookio blog to discover more of the team's favourite tools