Ever wondered what tools do your fellow Social Media Managers use for creating stunning visual content? We know that creating that perfect photo for Facebook or Twitter takes a lot of time, so we decided to tell you how most Social Media Managers deliver that quality content in no time.
Here is a list of the most Popular Photo Editing Software Products for Social Media Managers:
Adobe Photoshop is probably the most well known tool for editing photos. It has tons of great features and you can create truly amazing visual content with it. You can find creative brushes designed by users and there is a large amount of tutorials for operations like placing a logo over a stock picture, or adjusting the light in the photo.
Yes, Photoshop is the most used photo editing software out there, but not quite by Social Media Managers. Want to know why? Here are some pro’s and con’s:
Pro’s – lots of cool effects; it can help you create really stunning visual content;
Con’s – it is not cheap (about 20$ a month); outrageously complex; you need a lot of practice to figure things out; you need a good computer for it to work.
Verdict – Adobe Photoshop can be the perfect social media photo editing but not for us or for the most part of the social media managers we contacted.
In case you didn’t know, Apple loads into its computers the iLife bundle which contains this cool little app called Apple iPhoto. Basically, it is nothing else than an user-friendly image editor with some functions that are helpful for social media managers.
Apple iPhoto let’s you crop, straighten and do basic adjustments to your photos before sharing them on Social Media. Also, there are some cool filters you can apply to your images – filters that mimic the Instagram effects.
Here are some Pro’s and Con’s that could help you decide if Apple iPhoto is a viable choice as your social media photo editing software:
Pro’s – simple and fast; cool filters and effects.
Con’s – way too simple, you can’t even paste a logo over; not everybody uses a Mac.
Verdict – if you have a Mac and you only need to crop the visual content you share on social media or apply a filter over it, Apple iPhoto could be your go to app. However, you will very soon start to notice the lack of functions and the limitations.
We all heard about GIMP a few years ago. It wasn’t that great, maybe not even close to good. Yes, the name is weird – it stand for GNU Image Manipulation Program. But GIMP became the Most Popular and probably The Best social media photo editing software thanks to recent updates.
Yes, GIMP it is absolutely FREE and many voices say that it is used only by photographers and graphic artists that can’t afford Adobe Photoshop. Why pay for something when you can get the same thing done using a FREE images editing software?
GIMP allows you to achieve stunning effects without needing to pay a monthly fee. Moreover, GIMP is a cross platform photo editing software that can be installed on Windows, OS X, Linux and so forth.
But the real beauty in GIMP lies in its suite of plug-ins designed by the community. Here is where you can get specific and tell GIMP to offer you the complexity that you need and nothing more.
Here are some Pro’s and Con’s to help you decide if you will use GIMP or not:
Pro’s – FREE, easy to use, tons of 3rd party plug-ins, works on all OS’s;
Con’s – maybe not as good looking as other tools.
Verdict – GIMP gets the job done. FREE of charge. It is the perfect tool for social media photo editing and a huge number of social media managers use it all over the globe… even IF they can afford an intern or a Photoshop subscription.
See 10 reasons why GIMP is Better than Photoshop for Social Media
What do you think? Let us know if you tried GIMP for social media photo editing in the comments section bellow. What other cool image editing software products do you guys use?
