Every small business can score big with social media. Whether you want to reach the world through Twitter posts and Instagram videos or connect with your local community via WhatsApp and Facebook groups, social media is an inexpensive and powerful way to promote products and services and build customer relationships.  

To thrive on social media, you must post regularly and create exciting content. Fortunately, choosing what content to create can be relatively easy. If you sell clothes, post photos and videos of them. If you're an accountant, write short articles on budgeting and tax deductions. The content should be relevant to your business. 

But making that content strong and appealing can be hard. Some business owners think they must start buying expensive equipment and hiring designers and writers. But here’s the good news: Creating good social media content doesn't need to drain your wallet. These online tools can achieve professional results for you with very little cost involved. 

The best online tools for good content 

Thanks to the power of online digital platforms, you can do a lot with very little. Here are some examples of such services you can start using today in your browser or as an app: 

- Canva: Canva lets you create all kinds of visuals, from banners and logos for your online presence to brochures suitable for printing. The free version offers a reasonable number of basic tools, while the pro version (±R250 per month) includes more tools, thousands of templates for easy designs, and generative AI to create images from scratch. Canva is simple and easy to use, even with zero design skills. 

- Adobe Express: Adobe is the name for professional design, and Adobe Express brings that power to more people as a versatile web app. The free version has good tools and some templates, while the pro version (±R250 per month) offers much more. Both free and pro versions also give access to Adobe's AI tools to create pictures from word prompts. Adobe Express is particularly handy for editing social media videos.  

- FlexClip: Want to create stunning videos for social media? FlexClip offers tons of resources, from a handy online editor to lots of templates and stock footage, to impressive AI tools that can create scripts and videos for you. The free version has limited functions, and the pro version starts at ±R180 per month if you take an annual subscription. 

- PlaceIt: Creating a design from scratch is a hassle. Hiring a designer is expensive, and even getting a good visual template can cost you more than you’d like to spend. Or you can use PlaceIt, a vast repository of design templates for all kinds of design tasks, from leaflets to social media banners and videos. PlaceIt is particularly useful if you often need new templates. The monthly R180 subscription provides access to thousands of items and several useful mock-up tools. 

- Google Gemini: Google Gemini can generate answers and text based on written prompts. For example, you can prompt "Write five intros for Twitter about car maintenance" for your car workshop business, then tweak the results or choose one as is. Gemini is also helpful for creating ideas for future posts or doing quick research around a topic. Best of all, it's free! 

- Microsoft Copilot: Like Gemini, Microsoft Copilot can generate responses and content based on word prompts, and it's also a nifty search engine. Copilot includes a special Notebook feature that helps you create more elaborate research for future ideas, making it easier to research topics and compile a lot of info in one space. It also has good image-generation features. 

- Google Trends: Looking for new ideas and curious what people are interested in? Google Trends is a free tool that provides data on Google search patterns. Getting insightful results takes a bit of fiddling, but there isn't a better online tool to show you the current and emerging trends. 

- Grammarly: If you do any type of writing for your posts, use Grammarly to check your spelling and grammar. It can also suggest improvements to make your writing sound more professional or casual, depending on your needs. If you lack confidence in writing social media posts, Grammarly includes an AI generator that can write content for you. The basic version is free, and the pro version starts at around ±R200 per month. 

These tools will have you driving your company's social media campaign at a reasonable cost and in no time. For more tips on how you can make your small and large business thrive, have a look at some more of our business content.