3 Must-Have Apps to Make Life Easier
Read about Queen Media’s 3 favorite apps for creating strong, consistent video content and learn about the one thing that is sure to downrank your videos everytime.
If you were creating content for social media in 2022, it probably became clear pretty quickly that Instagram and Facebook were prioritizing Reels. Some creators found this fact to be so glaring that they even began circulating a petition to attempt to get Meta to balance out the algorithm and once again allow photos to have equal footing with Reels.
In early 2023, Instagram’s CEO, Adam Mosseri went so far as to admit that the platform was “overfocused on video in 2022,” and promised more balance over the coming year. While that may come to pass, a simple fact remains: reels, and video content in general, are here to stay, which is why it’s so important to develop a consistent, streamlined strategy for short video production.
The question is, what apps should you use?
At Queen Media, we love CapCut and Canva, and here’s why…
🎥 CapCut 🎥
First and foremost, there’s one very important thing to know about CapCut - it is owned and operated by ByteDance; the same parent company as TikTok. As a result, the templates and songs that are available in the app are regularly updated to reflect the newest and hottest trends on TikTok.
You might be saying to yourself, “we’ve worked hard to build our audience on Instagram and have spent little to no time on TikTok, so CapCut probably isn’t for us.” Don’t get it twisted - some trends may start on TikTok, but the world of social media is deeply interconnected, and it’s not long before they work their way to Instagram and then through the entire ecosystem.
Trends aside, there are a few other reasons we love CapCut:
Not looking for a trending template or trending audio? No problem. There is a wealth of templates built into the app as well as over 500k songs.
Their out-of-the-box transitions, filters, and speed changes are awesome. No professional editing experience? Not a problem. Their video editor can and will make you look like a pro. Just look at this post from one of our clients, Girl Boner Media.
It is extremely user-friendly. The app has been optimized for both mobile and desktop use, which makes it simple to create content on-the-go as well as in the office. This fact is especially important for dedicated content creators, as one never knows when inspiration will strike!
Finally, the Teamspace feature. If you’re creating content with a team, CapCut makes collaboration a lot easier. In practice, it’s very similar to the Google suite, as you’re able to update permissions, assign tasks, and start comment threads regarding changes that need to be made in a project.
🎨 Canva 🎨
Pardon us for momentarily deviating from the focus of this blog, but it must be done. We love Canva! Not only for creating video content, but for graphic design, in general.
Has Adobe Photoshop ever intimidated you? US TOO! Even after some courses, we found that there were too many technical aspects that we simply didn’t use on a regular basis. Then, we discovered Canva and shifted our focus completely!
This app is positively jam-packed with templates for everything. Reels, posts, carousel posts, slide decks, resumes, portfolios, business cards, flyers and more.
On top of that, Canva makes resizing your content very easy. If, for example, you need to create a set of banner ads, each at a different pixel size, Canva’s tools allow you to copy and resize your ads endlessly. Once finished, they can be exported as any number of files - PDF, jpg, png, etc.
Ok, we obviously like Canva, but here’s why we love to use it to make video content:
Templates. The app may be a bit behind CapCut when it comes to trends, but it still has thousands of templates available for you to choose from.
The background remover is fantastic. It’s powered by AI and does a very clean job on both photos and videos.
The animation feature is a quick and straightforward way to convert a simple graphic into a reel. For an example of how this looks, check out this post from one of our clients, Fans Utopia.
🔁 Recap 🔁
Ok folks, listen up. Even if you choose one of the preceding apps as your go-to choice for video content, you should seriously consider adding Recap to your arsenal. This one will come in handy during those critical moments of creator’s-block that plague us all.
Here’s why we love using Recap:
When you’re experiencing that dreaded creator’s-block, hop on Recap, load up some of your favorite high-resolution photos or some B-roll videos and let the app do the rest! That’s right, Recap will digest your content and spit out a to-the-beat video paired with trending audio. That, my friends, is why we will always keep this app in our proverbial back pocket. Curious how these videos turn out? Check out this one from one of our clients, Shameless Sex.
Even with the free version, you can pump out one of these (seemingly) magic videos using photos, videos, or a combination of the two, but the premium version features a more up-to-date selection of trending audio and a wider selection of customizations.