Top Free & Premium Social Media Templates 2021

Whether you’re a designer, a marketer, a social media manager or an influencer, it’s safe to say that you know the benefits of social media marketing. But did you know that social media templates are a vital part of today’s social media toolkit and can even elevate your brand marketing?

Social media templates are pre-made graphics or video files that can be edited in programs such as Adobe Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere Pro and then used to create content like Instagram Story templates.

They’re often sold as packs, including numerous themes, editable logos, colors and fonts so that you can easily customize them to align with your brand. Social media templates help to automate the design of your content, saving you a vast amount of time. They will also help to ensure that your brand aesthetic is consistent, maintaining a professional and polished look.

Before you start to customize your own social media templates, you should try a few social media tutorials to discover how to do things like make better social media images and manage your social community effectively.

Using templates is probably easier than you think, but it helps to get to grips with what it is you’re creating, first. For example, learning why using vertical video might be the best approach on sites like Instagram can then help you select the right template for your needs.

Understanding what makes an effective social media cover for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or one of your other channels makes it easier to choose and customize templates that will show off your brand at its best.

Templates are created by expert creators–like those on Envato Elements– so you get something of very high quality that you can still make recognizably you! Here are just a few of the benefits of social media templates:

Mixkit is a great source of free Instagram Story templates for Premiere Pro which you can download and use for free. It's perfect for experimenting with your channel aesthetic; all of the templates are stylish and modern.

This animated free Instagram Story templates pack features an eye-catching galaxy-inspired design. The heading and subheading fall into the frame, followed by two smaller headings and a swipe prompt, which allows for easy readability and an engaging user experience.

Soft and fresh, this animated Instagram Story pack is extremely versatile. The floral placeholder demonstrates how it would be ideal for a beauty, fashion or lifestyle brand. The swipe prompt allows you to link to further reading, such as a blog or an ecommerce shop.

Best used for lifestyle and travel brands, this Instagram Story pack features 5 templates with a unique motion style. The large heading and left-aligned subheading allows you to instantly grab your audience’s attention, whilst the smaller text tagline and swipe icon helps you to provide more information and encourage further reading.

Fun, animated and vivid, this bright Instagram Story pack is great for an energetic and lively brand. Featuring animated shape waves, an angled banner and a round heading block, you could consider announcing a new product line, clothing item or even a software product with this template.

Big bold polka dots never go out of style. This Instagram template featuring a simple dotted background with two headings will deliver your message in a clear, modern and trendy way. It’s perfect to announce a new product or sale.

The following items are premium social media video templates available with an Envato Elements subscription.

12 Instagram story templates for After Effects, each of which has a different design. These bold styles would suit fashion and retail brands – just add media and text and you’re good to go.

A dynamically animated pack of typographic templates for Instagram Stories, with 18 unique designs. They’re easy to edit and work with both After Effects and newer versions of Premiere Pro.

Inspired by glamour, wealth, beauty and fashion, these templates for Instagram Stories exude luxury. There are 20 animated options to choose from and photos and design elements are all included.

Simply add your title and images to create a fast-paced, energetic Instagram Story. You’ll need Premiere Pro CC 2018+ to use these templates, but you get background color control and both vertical and square versions.

Editable in Premiere Pro 2019+, Modern Stories has 9 media and 9 text placeholders. There’s a video tutorial included too in case you need help getting started.

With Envato Elements, you also have access to social media design templates including square post and vertical graphic designs.

Perfect for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and more, this template set features a high-resolution design with edible shapes and vectors. It’s compatible with Photoshop and Illustrator.

20 social media templates for Photoshop, with 10 templates sized for banners and 10 for Stories. It’s easy to change the colors and shapes to match your brand and the link to the font used, is included.

Stunningly designed in a light, minimalistic style with soft pastel colors, this set of 20 Photoshop templates for Instagram is a soothing balm for the eyes! This would suit lifestyle bloggers and anyone creating aspirational content.

With free fonts and free images included, this pack of Instagram banner templates for Photoshop is easy to use and will help you to stand out from the crowd.

12 clean Instagram square-design templates for Photoshop – this pack is fully editable and well organized into layers. It comes with a link to the free font used in the project, too!

So, there you have it. Your complete guide to the best social media templates to boost your online presence. Remember, even though you’re using a template to automate your content and save time, that doesn’t mean it should limit your creativity. In fact, the best social media executions are often the ones that start with a template and are then easily edited to represent your brand and show off your unique style.

If you want access to all of these social media templates and more, subscribe to Envato Elements to get millions of creative assets at your fingertips. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Envato YouTube channel to learn how to get the most out of your new creative social media templates.