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Publish: Video Editing and Best Practices
Publish: Video Editing and Best Practices

Learn more about Video Editing in Publish in Engage and best practices.

Cheyenne V. avatar
Written by Cheyenne V.
Updated yesterday

Meltwater offers powerful tools to help you customize your social media presence. One key feature is the ability to edit videos within the Publish tool. After composing your social media post, you can enhance your visuals with several video editing options to create the perfect post.

This article will cover:

Before Editing Your Video

Before you can edit your image in Publish, you first need to compose your post. Follow these steps to do so:

  1. Click the Engage drop-down

  2. Select Publish

  3. Click Create in the top right-hand corner

  4. Select Post

  5. Add your social accounts

  6. Add your text in the General Compose box

  7. Click Add Asset to add a video

  8. Select a file to upload

  9. Click Upload

  10. Hover over the video and select Edit

Best Practices

Meltwater offers a variety of customization options in Image Editing, but it's important to remember that sometimes less is more!

We encourage you to explore and experiment with all the available customization features while keeping these best practices in mind:

  • Start with a Clear Goal: Before you start editing, define the purpose of your video. Whether you want to promote a product, share educational content, or increase brand awareness, having a clear objective ensures that your video remains focused and on point. Tailor the video length, style, and tone to align with your platform’s audience and goals.

  • Choose the Right Aspect Ratio for Each Platform: Different social media platforms have preferred video formats. Using the correct aspect ratio ensures your video displays properly without awkward cropping or black bars. This can be done in the Document tab while editing.

    • Instagram Feed & Facebook: 1:1 or 4:5

    • Instagram Stories & Reels, TikTok: 9:16 (vertical)

    • YouTube: 16:9 (landscape)

    • LinkedIn: 1:1 or 16:9

  • Keep it Short and Engaging: Most social media users have short attention spans. Keeping videos concise ensures you capture and retain viewer interest. Aim for videos between 15 to 60 seconds on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.

  • Hook Viewers in the First Few Seconds: Start with a visual hook (a powerful image or clip) and consider a question or bold statement in the first 3-5 seconds to pique interest.

  • Optimize for Sound Off (Use Captions): Most users watch videos with the sound off, especially on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Adding captions ensures that your message is conveyed even without audio. Use the Text tab for this.

Customizations

You can customize the media and thumbnail of your videos. Additionally, as you customize your video, you can click the Preview button to view how your video will look once published.

Media Customizations

Document

Choose the Format:

  • Custom

  • Social Feed

  • Story/Reel

  • HD

  • Full HD

  • QHD

  • 2k Video

  • 4K

Additionally, adjust the width, height, clip content, and background.

Templates

Choose between four preset templates for your video.

Elements

Upload more elements or select from additional videos, audios, images, texts, shapes, and stickers.

Uploads

Select from additional uploads including images, videos, and audio.

Videos

Add additional video files or select from existing videos. Splice these combined videos together to tell a compelling story.

Audio

Add additional audio files or select from existing audios. Add music to your videos before posting to tell a compelling story.

Images

Add additional image files or select from existing images. Place these images within your video file to tell a compelling story.

Text

Add text such as a title, headline, or paragraph.

Shapes

Add basic or abstract shapes to your video.

Stickers

Add stickers from the following categories:

  • Doodle

  • Emoji

  • Emoticons

  • Hands

Thumbnail Customizations

Two channels (Facebook and Instagram) support the addition of thumbnails via a secondary flow - read about that here.

For channels where this secondary flow is not supported, the video editor can be used to add thumbnails by uploading an image and then splicing that image to be the first frame of the video.

💡 Tip

Need more help? Feel free to reach out to us via Live Chat or check out our Customer Community.

Find answers and get help from Meltwater Support and Community Experts.

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