Looking for ways to reach more of your community with social media posts from your school? Then this week’s tip is for you!

Schools using social media to celebrate their students are awesome. Many of you are doing amazing work, but some schools need to step it up. Usually, the trick to improvement is consistency and content. You need to be posting at least 10-15 times per week. You also need to have great images and video.

One way to really up your game is to add text to your photos. Inspirational images don’t need to be grabbed off of Pinterest to be shared for #MotivationMonday or #ThoughtfulTuesday posts. You can create your own, with your own students!

If you need a specific quote about friendship or learning or technology or teaching, then, of course, I would go to Pinterest or Google to find one. But then you can retype them on your own photos of students, teachers, or artwork from your school.
Another way to use text on photos is to tell the story on the image itself. When the picture really explains the whole thing, people just tend to react and share it!

This image from Bloomer School District reached over 16,000 and had over 50 shares. Of course it was a neat story with the principal being such a great sport and the students raising so much money, but I think adding the collage of pictures along with the clever text helped it perform much better than it would have on its own.

So how can you do this for your school? You don’t need to be a graphic designer or even spend a ton of money! Here are my seven favorite apps to make images like this:

1. 1. Canva

1. 1. • Free desktop tool. Many photos, text and icons are free, but there are some elements that cost $1 each to use.
      • This is my go-to resource for creating graphics for our schools. Canva offers correctly sized templates for platforms such as Facebook posts and cover images that make it easy to design.
   2. PicMonkey

1. 1. • Free desktop tool. The mobile app is coming, but not yet available.
      • My go-to app for resizing pictures. It allows you to add text, adjust images, and is a well-established photo editor.
   2. Word Swag

1. 1. • $3.99 app available for both iOS and Android.
      • Very simple to add text right from your phone or tablet. The user interface is very intuitive and you can easily resize text size and orientation using your fingers on the screen.
   2. Legend

1. 1. • $1.99 available in iOS only.
      • Add even more attention to your images by moving words on photos and video!
   2. Retype

1. 1. • $2.99 available in iOS only.
      • If you have trouble thinking of quotes, this app has you covered! It has a quote bank. It also has a large stock photo library from which to choose (although I do recommend using your own photos).
   2. Adobe Spark Post

1. 1. • Free app or desktop version– iOS only, in-app purchases.
      • Trusted name of Adobe! This app has you covered and was made by the makers of Photoshop and Illustrator.
   2. Phonto

1. • Free app available in iOS only.
   • It’s free and it is very highly reviewed! You can save preset texts that you use often, making it easy to stay on brand for your school.