Loom: Here's Why I Love This Video Creator
A big focus of the glow getter mantra is a commitment to achieving our goals. One way that helps us to achieve our goals is to have systems and tools in place that allow us to work smarter. A tool that has helped me to do just that is Loom, which I’ve been using faithfully for the last 4 years. Loom is a video tool and a new mode of communication for today’s digital and global workforce, and for personal use as well. You get the focus of asynchronous work (less meetings!) with all the humanity, emotion, and fun of video. Loom allows you to record your camera and screen, and instantly share the video with a link. Simply put it’s a game changer. Since I want the glow getter gang to be equipped to go after your goals, today I’m diving deep in how you can use Loom both personally and professionally.
Loom Highlights
Loom is async video messaging for work or personal use
Record your screen, camera, or both
Available to download as a desktop app, chrome extension, android, and iOS app
Used by over 14 million users across the world
Remove filler words instantly with a click
Top Ways To Use Loom
To accompany an email
Looms are great additions to your emails. You know those emails that sometimes get too wordy? Well, instead of adding all that text in an email, you can replace that with a Loom that will better convey your message.
In place of a meeting
I’m team don’t schedule meetings that could be emails. Our time is valuable and often times limited. The last thing we want is to be stuck in long meetings or stuck with an inbox full of long emails. Loom is a great way to replace a meeting. You can simply record a video with all your talking points and can even record your screen. Thus, it’s both an efficient and effective way to communicate with your team. Loom can not only be good in place of an in-person meeting, but also in place of a virtual meeting. Many professionals and people in general are over virtual meetings. They are ready to have another option aside from Zoom and Teams. Loom however is a great alternative because everything you wanted to share in a virtual meeting could instead be included in a Loom video. Your employees and team will love this alternative too because they can view the video on demand and respond in the comments, too.
Virtual Greetings
Whether to send a video message to an old friend or to send one to a new colleague, Loom is perfect for creating and sending virtual greetings. Emails or text messages alone oftentimes lack your personality, whereas virtual greetings can totally capture “you”.
Pitches
This is my favorite way to use Loom. With my brand, I’m often seeking out paid partnerships with some of my favorite brands. Given that most of these brands likely receive so many emails a day, it’s important for my pitches to: 1) stand out, 2) be clear and concise, 3) show me and why partnering with me is a win-win. To that end, an email alone often times isn’t enough to win over the brands. However, an email with a Loom hyperlinked is sure to at least give me a fighting chance. It shows the brand that I took the extra initiative by sending a personalized video pitch. I totally recommend trying this. The video pitch also allows you to more clearly articulate your thoughts for partnership, which is valuable to busy media contacts who just want the bottom line.
Education
This is my second favorite way to use Loom. There have been many instances professionally where I’ve needed to teach team members on various things from how to navigate a project management tool to how to conduct a consultation. Loom really helps to create tutorials and other educational videos. Again, since you record yourself talking to the camera while simultaneously recording your screen, you can essentially record masterclasses on Loom and a wealth of other teachable content. If you are looking to showcase and monetize your expertise, Loom would be a great platform to record course material.
Team/Community Engagement
My third favorite way to use Loom is to record group/team messages. With my previous virtual events such as Women Celebrating Women and Buy Black, Black Friday, Loom was the tool I used to record video updates for all of those who were apart of the line up for the events. This was such a streamlined way to get the same message out to everyone, in lieu of a long email. I can’t say enough how Loom is perfect for engaging with your community, collaborators and team.
To accompany blog posts
Loom is the perfect addition to your blog posts the same as they are to emails. While readers are used to reading text and seeing images in blog posts, take your post up a notch and add a Loom video. The options are endless of how the video can enhance the blog post. For example, if you’re sharing a blog post on gratitude practices, add a Loom video with some additional context or to highlight an electronic gratitude journal you use. Again, there are so many options for this, so be creative.
Now of course I had to give you all an example, so check out my Loom to accompany today’s blog post
Anytime you want to send a video
While Loom is great to use professionally, you can also use it personally, too. If you’re apart of a group or even to use with family, you can easily send video messages with Loom to any and everyone.
Other Benefits of Loom
In short, Loom is such a beneficial form of communicating with others. It streamlines and enhances the way messages are conveyed. Here are some other benefits.
Modern, personable and clear form of communication – it’s 2022, so we have to communicate like it. We all know video is the wave, and for good reason. Video messages allows your personality and emotion to really shine through. This is so valuable in being able to have your audience really connect with you and your message in a way they can’t necessarily with just an email. Looms also promote much clearer communication. It eliminates things being assumed or misconstrued as it can tend to happen in email or text.
Time Saver – with the time that you’re saving on writing long emails, Loom totally increases your productivity. Also, by having Loom replace some of your meetings this is a huge time saver. Many of my looms are only 1 – 3 minutes long, in contrast to the 6 or more minutes it takes me to write most of my emails. With so many tasks to do throughout a day, any time savers are more than welcomed.
Increased productivity – Loom really helps you to get the job done! I can say from personal experience with things like reaching out to prospective guests for the podcast, Loom has been a go to for me and has helped me to stay on target with my tasks. Again, since Loom helps to promote effective and efficient communication, it in turn helps increase productivity.
A face and voice to go with your message – Another benefit of Loom is it’s ability to personalize your messages and aide in building relationships with your intended recipient(s). For example, imagine you’re a new supervisor. What better way to greet your staff with an initial email that includes a Loom video message. This would be an amazing way for your team to see your face, hear your voice, learn your personality, and more. With many teams still in a virtual work environment, Loom helps to make the communication still have the same effect as in-person.
Makes a great impression – When you send a Loom, it has a way of wowing your audience. It makes a great impression especially in professional settings. Again, since so many of your colleagues are used to only communicating via email, phone, Zoom or in-person, Loom provides a new and fresh way to connect and share information that isn’t only cool, but also valuable.
Why You Should Choose Loom
Technology has made business a lot easier – and a lot harder, too. With so many ways to connect and work with others, you're always on and being pulled in too many directions. Your time is slowly eaten up by endless meetings, chats, and email strings. Real work has to happen in the small windows left free between it all.
Meetings are filled with too many people who need to be "in the loop," and it's getting harder to be heard or recognized for your contribution. Your calendar is jam-packed and you're burned out on meetings – and so is everyone else. You want to have time to think, create and do great work. You want to share your ideas and feel a personal connection with your team. And you want control of your calendar. Loom lets you say more in less time so you can get back to the work you love.
You can easily capture your thoughts through async video when it fits your schedule and let others take a look when it works for them. With Loom, you can share your ideas with personality – and take your time back.
I hope this post helps you as we prepare to achieve our goals in quarter 3 and beyond! So who’s giving Loom a try?! Let me know in the comments.
Have a glowing day!