Using Commenting in Animoto: A Complete Guide
Introducing Commenting, the one-stop-shop to gather, review, and implement feedback. It's a catch-all for asynchronous feedback and one-off communications. Invite colleagues to review your videos, add comments, and collaborate with teammates all in the same place so you can get to finished videos faster.
Wave those messy email threads and repetitive comments goodbye!
Keep reading to learn how you can streamline the review process and collect time-stamped feedback on all your videos.
How to use Commenting
Calling all collaborators – share your feedback with Commenting!
Once invited to your video project, colleagues and clients alike can leave feedback, reply to other users, and more, all in one place. It streamlines the feedback process and makes it easier for you to send videos on their way! Here’s how it works.
Invite reviewers
Ready to start collecting feedback on your video project? It all starts with an email. By sending a private email invitation, your colleagues and clients can review your Animoto video project. Only those who are invited to comment via email and sign up for a free account will be able to view and comment on the video. Here are two ways to invite reviewers and get the feedback flowing.
First, click the “Share” icon in the top right corner and select the “Send a link for feedback” option. From here, you can type in email addresses (separated by a comma) and press the blue SEND INVITE button. The recipient will receive an email that prompts them to create an account and start reviewing your video.
Recipients will receive a link to a private review page where they can view and comment on your video. Commenters will not have access to editing features and only you can make changes to the video.
Start commenting
Once invited to your video, commenters can start sharing feedback frame by frame. Commenters can watch the video, pause it at any moment, and make a comment. Their feedback will then appear in the comment bar in the right-hand comment window.
Each comment contains three components: the commenter's email address, the time in which it was submitted, and a timestamp. The timestamp corresponds to the exact moment in the video that calls for an update. Say, for example, there is a typo at 0:08 in the video. Commenters can pause the video and submit a time-stamped comment that links to that exact second.
Commenters can only see comments they and others have made via the comment window. As the project owner, you can see comments in the review page and in edit mode. When viewing in edit mode, a small blue comment icon will display underneath each video block in which there is a comment. Numbers denote how many comments are still open in each block.
Reply to comments
Commenting invites conversation. Not only can commenters leave their own feedback, but they can also reply to other reviewers. This gives teammates the ability to collaborate with full transparency. No more email threads or group messages to dig through.
To reply to someone’s comment, simply click the “Reply” button below their comment, type, and submit. Your reply will appear indented below the original comment.
Edit and remove comments
Made a typo or mistake? You can easily edit and delete your comments. To edit your own comment, hover over it with your mouse and click the “Edit” icon that looks like a pencil. Make your edits and click “Save” to update your comment.
Anyone can edit their own comments, but only you can delete others’ comments. If you want to remove a comment, hover over the comment with your mouse and click the “Delete” icon that looks like a trash can. But be careful, deleted comments cannot be recovered.
Resolve comments (project owners only)
As you apply changes and suggestions from your team, you can resolve comments by clicking on the small circle in the top right corner of the comment. This will remove the comment and all subsequent replies from the list of “Open” comments in the comment window. The person who made the comment will receive an email upon resolving.
To see resolved comments, select “Resolved” from the “Filter by” drop down menu (more on filtering and sorting below).
Filter and sort comments
There are many ways to organize and filter comments. First, you can open the “Filter by” drop down menu and select “Open” or “Resolved” to quickly see which comments still need work. You can treat the open comment list as a to-do list, moving each comment to “Resolved” once completed.
You can also open the “Sort by” drop down menu and choose to sort comments by “Newest First”, “Oldest First”, or “By Block”. Sorting “By Block” displays comments based on the order of the video i.e., comments at 0:02 show first, comments at 0:04 show second, etc.
And that’s it! You’re now ready to make video editing a group effort, all within Animoto.
Who should use Commenting?
Whether part of an in-house team, a marketing agency, or a freelancer, you can use this tool to make the video editing process a lot smoother.
Say you want to create an explainer video that can be used by the sales team. Rather than sending it to each salesperson via email, bring the entire team to you! No more misunderstandings or unopened emails. Your team can watch the video, see their peers’ feedback, and share their input all in one place.
Similarly, collecting clients' feedback becomes a much cleaner, smoother process. With time-stamped comments, you can see exactly what the client is referring to, down to the second. Better communication plus quicker and more accurate edits means happier clients!
Comments can also be used to highlight new opportunities. If you think a wordy slide could be replaced with a screen recording instead, say it in a comment!
But it’s not just your traditional video producers who can create videos with Animoto. HR professionals can also use Commenting as a sounding board for internal communication videos. Whether creating a training video or sharing an event invitation, you can collect the feedback you need to publish videos with confidence.
Why should your business use Commenting?
Video creators from all backgrounds can use Animoto to create professional videos in minutes. Just as our templates simplify and speed up the video creation process, Commenting accelerates feedback. Here are a few reasons to upgrade and start commenting.
Simplify communication
Oftentimes asynchronous feedback falls through the cracks. One-off communications and lack of transparency can also lead to redundancy and repetition. This can all make the video editor’s job more difficult and time-consuming.
The review link is easier to use and monitor than other platforms. Rather than downloading and sending hefty video files or compiling feedback from multiple email threads, you have one collaborative space to reference and share.
Teams (remote and otherwise) are invited to come together and share feedback in a collaborative, transparent environment. They can rally around certain improvements and challenge others in a public forum. By offering a “one and done” collaboration space, you’re creating a much faster, synergistic, and positive outcome, and better videos too!
Save time
By sending a private review link, your team can review your video any time, from anywhere. By providing a centralized place for feedback, you eliminate the need for lengthy meetings. Time-stamped comments make it easy to track down exactly where the requested changes are and speed up the editing process. When all comments are in the same place, you can treat them as a to-do list and send the finished video on its way.
Improve remote team synergy
In today’s remote workplace, collaboration is the key to connection. Animoto’s video collaboration tool brings teams together, no matter the distance. It’s a shared space to generate feedback, start conversations, and create a video that everyone is proud of. Together, you can point out what works and brainstorm even more video ideas and improvements together.
Reviewers can edit as they please, tune in with the team, and collaborate together all while remote.
Start collecting comments
Good feedback is the key to improvement, and we’ve got just the right tool to help you get started. If you’re looking to give or gather feedback on your videos, you can do so in one space down to the second. Get teams on the same page and start creating amazing videos together!