When it comes to marketing, customers want to feel like they’re hearing from and talking to people. Not a brand. Not a title. People. Even in the predominantly B2B space that LinkedIn is, consumer science suggests that incorporating a level of humanness into your online presence will help to evoke feelings of trust, loyalty, and confidence from your audience. So what does this mean for a LinkedIn Video Strategy?
Video is one of the most effective and straightforward ways to do this because the human voice conveys emotion, the brain is hard-wired to trust the human face, and movement captures and keeps people’s attention. In this post, we’ll provide an overview of LinkedIn’s video capabilities (plus our predictions for what’s sure to come), why and how you should be leveraging it, and finally some helpful tips and insight on creating, uploading, and promoting your videos on the platform.
LinkedIn Video Capabilities: Current & Predicted
The traditional way to share video on LinkedIn is to link from an outside source. If you want the video to play in the newsfeed timeline, the link must be to a video hosting platform like Youtube or Vimeo otherwise only a preview image (not video) will show and people will have to click your link to view the video in a different window (off of LinkedIn). Currently, for Company pages on the LinkedIn platform, this is still the only way to share video although we predict this will change in the not too distant future.
For personal profile pages, LinkedIn has offered native video since the summer of 2017. LinkedIn native video gives you two uploading options: Either select video to upload directly from your camera or computer or record directly from within the LinkedIn app or desktop. It’s quite simple, really, although you still shouldn’t neglect to make every video with a purpose and to have measurable goals in mind when you do. While LinkedIn native video is not live streaming, recording directly from within the app or desktop is very close to it so our second prediction is that the professional networking platform will eventually offer it; be sure to review our post about live streaming best practices.
LinkedIn Native Video: Why & How to Leverage It
On its face, it may not seem like it’s a very big deal to upload a video directly to LinkedIn but it’s worth noting the following benefits: It creates a seamless user experience, LinkedIn favors it over externally-linked video content (because they want users to remain on the platform, of course), and you get access to analytics like your viewers’ top companies and top titles that only LinkedIn can provide you. Imagine how helpful this information is when you’re selling, recruiting and when it comes time to put investment pounds or dollars into paid video ad campaigns which are expected to be available to all brands by June 2018.
Although not live streaming (yet!), LinkedIn native video is great in the following ways: It allows you to share your unique perspective on industry news in real time, to easily support your overall marketing efforts with campaign updates and developments, and to test which content and formats perform best so you know where your resources (money, time, and energy) should be directed when native video advertising is available to Company pages.
LinkedIn Native Video: Performance Tips
When creating LinkedIn native video, remember that just like any other video, you don’t want to prattle on or else you might lose your audience. Based on studies of average video watch time, a good rule of thumb is to discuss your topic within the first 6-10 seconds of your video. Succinct sentences will best accomplish this. And lastly, presenting a professional appearance in a neatly organized, not distracting space with good lighting is especially crucial for sharing to the professional networking platform.
However you decide to upload your native videos to LinkedIn, always assume that your viewer is watching from a mobile device (because most are) and be sure to use the correct format: high-quality video that will display properly on a small screen with an aspect of 1:2.4 to 2.4:1 and no bigger than 5GB (the smaller the better for mobile) is ideal and something we can assist you with. And, because many people will be watching while on-the-go, add subtitles to ensure you don’t lose those who may mute your videos while viewing in public.
Don’t think the work is over once you’ve hit the publish button for your video. Your LinkedIn Video Strategy must ensure you keep promoting it by referencing (and linking back to it) in other posts and even (when applicable) when responding to comments on the posts of others and in LinkedIn Groups.
Just because LinkedIn is the professional social site doesn’t mean it has to be an uptight and stuffy place to network. So long as you present yourself and your company (or your clients’) as competent professionals, video affords you the ability to successfully connect with your contemporaries in a warmer, more authentic way.
Have questions, concerns, or ideas about creating video with purpose? Let us know by getting in touch, leaving a comment below or tagging us on Twitter @StickyPause!
