When it comes to creating social media posts there are plenty of platforms and apps that allow you to create designs but not many people would think of Keynote as a place to create designs.
Although you can create still images in Keynote, what I love about it is the ability to create animated social media posts.
Yes, certainly one of the most popular places to go to for designing social media posts is Canva. I love Canva and use it often to create certain types of templates for my graphics BUT it does have its limitations when it comes to animations.
Yes, you can animate your posts in Canva BUT you can’t isolate objects and give them a different type of animation. When you choose an animation style then it will be applied to the entire artboard or page that you’re working on.
With Keynote, you can animate objects differently and change each object’s animation timing, and that’s why I prefer to make animated social media posts there.
How to Create Animated Social Media Posts in Keynote
For social media, it’s likely that you’re probably going to create one of 3 types of animated posts:
- Instagram Stories
- Instagram Feed Post
- Pinterest Animated Video Pin
Honestly, the process for creating each post is similar with the exception of the first step, which is setting up the Keynote document.
STEP 1: Set up your Keynote file for Social Media Posts
Similar to what I covered in the Keynote Animations Basics blog post, when choosing a theme, pick one from the Basic category. My default is to choose a theme with a white background because then I can change the colour to whatever I want after.
The presentation size doesn’t matter as much because we will be changing it once the document opens.
Once your new document has opened, go to the Document tab and change the Presentation Type to Self-playing and the delay to “0.0 s” for both Transitions and Builds.
Then, right below that there is a drop-down box below Slide Size. Choose the option that says “Custom Slide Size”. A pop-up box will appear that will let you enter the custom dimensions that you want.
Depending on the animated social media post that you are wanting to make you will enter the following:
- For Instagram Stories, the width will be 1080 and the height will be 1920
- For Instagram Feed Posts, the width will be 1080 and the height will be 1080
- For Pinterest Animated Video Pin, the width will be 1000 and the height will be 1500
STEP 2: Add objects and/or text
This is where the design fun begins.
- You can add premade shapes from the collection that Keynote includes in the program.
- You can add text and use a font that is installed on your computer.
- You can import an image or graphic that you have saved on your computer.
When bringing in images or graphics saved on your computer, I like to drag and drop the file into the program when I have the Finder open.
If you use one of the button links on the top of the Keynote screen then you’ll want to choose the Media button then select the option that says “Choose…” in the dropdown menu.
One thing to keep in mind when creating your design is to place objects or text where you want them to be AFTER they enter the screen.
For example, if you know that you want a shape to enter the screen from the left side and stop in the middle, then initially position your shape in the middle of the slide.
STEP 3: Animate your objects and/or text
Animations in Keynote are divided into 3 categories:
- Build In
- Action
- Build Out
What animation type do you choose?
If you want an item to enter the screen or slide for the first time then you will select an animation from the Build In category.
If you want an item to leave the screen or slide then you will select an animation from the Build Out category.
If you want to add some action to an item while it is already on the screen or slide, so after applying a Build In animation effect, then you will choose an animation from the Action category.
In my blog post on making professional-looking Keynote animations, I go through what I use the most in Keynote so that it makes it hard to tell whether the animation was created in Keynote or a fancier motion graphics program like After Effects.
STEP 4: Refine your time delays
Once you have selected your animations, then the next part is just adjusting and re-adjusting the duration of each animation and the delay between animations until you get something that you’re satisfied with.
STEP 5: Export your file as a video
Once you have finished creating your animation, then it’s time to export it to a video file that you can import into your social media platform of choice.
Go to the “File” menu and select “Export to” and then “Movie”.
In the next pop-up window, from top to bottom, settings should be:
Self-Playing
All (for all slides)
0 seconds (for go to next slide)
0 seconds (for go to next build)
1080p
Then, name and save your file to your preferred location on your computer or hard drive and the file will be ready to upload to Pinterest and/or share to your mobile device for use in Instagram.