You don't need to be a graphic designer to create great images for social media sites. Even if you don't have a creative bone in your body you can make great images, and you can do it all in a fraction of the time that an expert might take. The secret lies in the tools you use. Graphic designers start from scratch using expensive tools that take years to master.

Smart small business marketing mavens use free and inexpensive tools to create results that only look like they took expertise to create. I've picked five of the best tools for your social media toolkit so that you can spend less time making better images.

Top of my list is Canva.com, a slick online design site and that's currently in beta. Founded by a bunch of Aussies, Canva's designs encompass the entire range of social media needs including blogs, Facebook covers and everything in between. Canva provides the design space, all the images and great-looking text elements for you to combine. You can also upload your own images.

Canva is ridiculously easy to use and the results look excitingly fresh and clean. The site offers most of its generic content for free, and additional premium items cost one dollar each. Most people will get good value by combining free content with an occasional premium element when needed. Canva outputs designs as PNG images or PDFs, and you can also collaborate with others by sharing the project link.

Figure 1: Still in beta, Canva is a one-stop site for creating awesome social media imagery.

One of the confusing things about the range of social media sites out there is how big your images should be and what imagery you need or can use on each of them. If you already have your images and just need a little help to size and tweak them, then head to Social Media Image Maker.

Click to choose the site you're interested in, such as Facebook or Google+, and then choose the type of image to createsuch as cover or profile image. Click the Create button, and then drag-and-drop your image into the pre-sized box. Move and crop the image, and then apply different effects to it. When you're done, download the completed imageready for you to upload to your chosen social media site.

Figure 2: If you're not sure what size to make your social media images, Social Media Image Maker can help.

Read the rest here:

5 Tools for Creating Kickass Social Media Images