Do You Loom?
I don’t often write product reviews but the screen-recording software Loom has significantly changed the way I work, so I must share the love. Most of my friends know that I’m not an early adopter of anything (let some other fool beta-test new software) so you may already be aware of Loom and loving it but, if you’ve never heard of this easy-to-use productivity tool, keep reading.
Love at first sight
I made my first Loom video two years ago. It was an instructional video that showed a client how to edit the content on a Squarespace website I built for them. Creating a PDF of the instructions with accompanying screen shots would have taken an hour or more, but the Loom video only took 15 minutes.
Since then, I’ve created dozens of Looms for website walkthroughs, branding presentations, how-to videos, and troubleshooting with tech advisors.
Clients Love it, too
The amount of time I’ve saved over the past two years could probably be measured in days but that’s not the only benefit. Loom also allows me to provide easy-to-understand explanations, complete with tone and voice inflection (both of which are absent from emails or PDFs).
I’ve received glowing testimonials from clients saying they love the videos. Social media marketers have known for a long time that video is preferred over reading, and it’s not just due to short attention spans; our brains retain information better from videos because they access multiple senses.
Easy to Learn and Use
You don’t need any special equipment to use Loom because it makes use of your laptop’s built-in microphone and camera. Install the Chrome extension for a browser-based experience or download the desktop or mobile app. The free version of Loom will allow you to create and store 25 videos before you are encouraged to upgrade to a paid plan. After I made a few videos, I didn't waste any time ponying up the $96 annual fee for unlimited videos and other features like transcriptions and applying my brand to videos. Seriously, you spend more than that on coffee in a month.
You can sample a couple of the Looms I’ve made below: an explainer video of some branding assets and showing a client how to edit the content of their website.
What are you waiting for? Start Looming and stop wasting time writing lengthy explanations or instructions!
