Welcome Guest Blogger Naomi Craig!

Winnie here. Today it's my pleasure to host  Naomi Craig here at Seekerville. She's going to be discussing how to use Canva to give your graphics a consistent feel regardless of platform. So Naomi, take it away! 

You know when you are scrolling through social media and you know who posted that image? You scroll up and sure enough, the name on the profile is exactly who you thought. How do we know that? Because the poster has consistent images. A similar feel to their account.

 

I’m going to share some ways you can apply that consistency to your account using Canva. To get started you will need a (free) account with Canva.com

I really like Canva’s ease-of-use.  It has a very intuitive Drag-and-drop system that makes it easy to use, even if you have no graphic creating experience. I promise.

 

Consistent Colors

Alright, now that you have Canva opened up, open up another tab and take a screen shot of your website. (Windows: hold down Windows button and “prt sc” at the same time/ Mac Command +Shift +3)

Now open up a new tab for Canva

Select a template of your most commonly used social (IG FB Twitter etc.)

Upload the screen shot (look for it in pictures->screenshots)

Drag it into the template

Click the background-- You will know it is selected with a blue highlight. Select the Rainbow pallet up in the upper left. Now you can see that it is already interpreting you color scheme in Photo Colors! When you hover over a color that you like, a 6-character symbol shows up. Write it down on a sticky! Write down the text you use too! Then you don’t have to eyeball it next time.  Keep pulling different parts of the colors that you already have going for your brand. I have 6 different base colors that rotate between. This keeps it easy for you to just swap out your current graphic on the base

 

Video

Video is the hot thing in marketing. And you know you need to transition to doing more. I know you know.

I know, I know. How are you supposed to get comfortable in front of camera? The majority of us writers are an introverted lot.

Until you get comfortable with getting your face on camera (yes you really should) I have some tips to help you out on Canva.

Target watch time is 15 seconds.

 Make it easy on yourself to start. Duplicate the image and remove or shift a layer

To duplicate the page, click the Double box with the + sign.

You can see I did that for 5 slides.

Another non face video is a fast speed aesthetic of what the book is about. You can download free pictures from Unsplash dot com (Canva has some in their library, but not as extensive) This I used about 21 slides, and set them at a much faster timing.

 

Adjusting the timing

Once you have several slides in one project you should see a clock in the top left corner. You will need to change the timing of each slide individually. The standard time Canva gives you is 5 seconds. Again, your goal for watch time is 15 seconds.

Name it!

Super important. Naming it here will be the difference between using it or losing it (which is ok, you can always find it again on Canva and download again)

Download

When you click on the download button, it will give you several options. For video you want mp4 video.

If you are saving a static graphic, either jpg (compressed, small file) or png (higher quality).

Select the page number. If you are saving as a mp4 video, you will want all the images selected.

If you are saving as a static (yet you have several slides up) make sure to check only the one you are planning to use. Otherwise, it downloads the whole file as a zip. File and gets a little bit harder to navigate.

**Important note. This will save on your computer in the “Download” file. This is where naming it something memorable will come into play😊

The project will also save to your Canva home page. This is a super awesome feature (again, all I use is the free version). This way you can go back to previous projects and update them. Do you have a template for book reviews? Just replace the book cover and maybe switch out for one of your other colors from your custom color palette. Easy peasy. And reusable! Win win!

Other Cool Features

I really like the drag and drop features canva offers. You can even be on amazon, right click your book cover click “copy image”, open up your canva tab and paste it “ctrl V”. Then it actually saves in your upload library.

You can also do all kinds of fun graphics by animating your text and/or your graphic.

 Author of Biblical fiction, avid reader, pastor's wife, Naomi loves reading the Bible and imagining how things were at the time. When she’s not serving in various areas at church or trying to stay on top of mountains of dishes, you'll most likely find her enjoying a good book and a cup of coffee. Naomi co-hosts #BehindTheStory, a Christian author interview show on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcasts. When not writing and trying to wrangle social media, Naomi is trying to get her rescue dog to be cute on command for Instagram reels. You can check out Naomi's website at https://naomicraig.com

 

 I know this is a whirlwind of information. How do you feel your graphics could use a boost?  

 

Naomi will be giving away a digital copy of Rahab’s Courage to one of our commenters

                               RAHAB'S  COURAGE

A scarlet cord tethers one ruined woman to the salvation of mankind.

Harboring two fugitives in a city slated for destruction, Rahab has one small chance of escape. In exchange for their safety, she bargains for her own. Their agreement rewards her courage, and she flees Jericho and a life of prostitution for a new life among the people of Israel. Never again will she have to depend on anyone—especially men.

Except Salmah won’t take the hint.

High ranking soldier and leader of the tribe of Judah, Salmah is determined not to repeat his parents’ mistakes. He will keep the Lord’s commandments. Rahab’s growing faith fits right in with phase one of his plans: find a wife who loves the Lord and settle down in the new land.

Rahab finds shelter and meaning in the Lord’s ways until her past comes back to haunt her. As her new faith is put to test, she finds herself alone. Isn’t that what she’d always wanted?

With her courage waning, only the Lord can turn Rahab’s life around again, but will He do it before she loses everyone and everything that really matters to her—to her heart?

To learn more or purchase a copy, click HERE