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14 Comments

Any tips/tools to automate content creation?

hi guys,

I plan to start producing some content in the following weeks.
I would like to automate this as much as possible (using free tools or methods).

As an example, right now, to create an Instagram post I do manually on Canva:

  • Load the image background
  • Crop it to a square sized
  • Add a transparent layer so that the text will be visible
  • Add some text on the image
  • Add a logo
  • Save the Instagram-ready photo
  • Load the photo on Instagram
  • Add some hashtags in the caption
  • Post it.

Probably the posting of the image itself can be done independently, I heard about tools like Sendible or Buffer to schedule posts accross platforms.
But I am really interested in the "production" of Instagram images.

I use R & Python as programming language and I didn't see any packages allowing to automate these actions unfortunately.

Thanks a lot !

on April 12, 2020
  1. 2

    Hey Max, something like this could help https://www.bannerbear.com/

    1. 2

      Beat me to it @yoshyosh :) I was going to recommend BannerBear as well!

      1. 2

        :), just checked out your profile btw would love to connect. Sending an email

    2. 1

      Thanks a lot ! This really looks like this is what I was looking for. I am struggling to find a demo video to understand how it works though. Have you used it yet?

      1. 1

        I haven't but the founder is also an indiehacker so I'm sure he will be very easy to connect with depending on your questions/needs. It looks fairly polished / capable to do most besides the posting to IG. That part will likely require one of the approved apps (Later, Buffer, etc) having an api or responding to webhooks

  2. 2

    If you don't find things that would suit you, sounds like an idea for a new venture.
    Just sayin' ;-)

  3. 1

    Oh interesting, I actually posted a video showing how I automated content creation for my Instagram page using Python https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFfABdNOArQ&t=22s. Then I use selenium to upload it to later.com for scheduling.

    How did you automate your content creation in the end?

  4. 1

    Pretty cool tool for content creation: frase.io

  5. 1

    Search for "open graph images". One option is https://og-image.now.sh/.

  6. 1

    Kent Dodd, the prolific ReactJS online teacher & course creator, had a gist (github snippet) automating some of his blog work. Believe it grabbed and formatted unsplash images then posted his text. I can't seem to find in my archives right now but maybe a start? https://github.com/kentcdodds

    1. 1

      thx, it looks like the website is down though

  7. 1

    Facing the same issue here at Rejuvia (www.rejuviamedical.com). Content creation takes up a lot of time, but it is essential, and hard to find a way around it. I don't have an answer of how to automate it; i just suck up the pain of going through the creation process each time realizing it will eventually pay off.

    I personally struggle with trying to find a way to automate it or get someone else to curate it because i always want to be in control of everything my brand puts out there.