LinkedIn has risen to become the go-to social media website for professionals. The platform allows you to create a profile, browse jobs, connect with industry professionals, and, of course, share content. With almost 700 million people across the globe signed up, LinkedIn is the perfect space for a brand to showcase its product or services. But, with over 9 billion content impressions seen on a weekly basis by LinkedIn users, standing out in a crowded space can be tricky. This is where video marketing comes in handy.
The benefits of using video on LinkedIn
Video marketing is a must-do for any business that wants to grab audience attention, increase engagement, and convert customers. 80% of video marketers have said that video directly increases sales, and 87% of marketers say that video increases website traffic. And when it comes to Linkedin, the stats don’t lie.
- A huge 87% of video marketers described the platform as an effective marketing channel.
- LinkedIn posts that contain video typically generate 98% more engagement, compared to text-only posts.
- Video on LinkedIn is 5x more likely to kickstart a conversation.
What video content works best on LinkedIn?
The purpose of LinkedIn is to connect like-minded professionals, so it’s wise for brands to record business-centric video marketing campaigns. We’ve put together the four most important video types that work well for LinkedIn.
1. Share your story
The crux of LinkedIn is about connection, and what better way to form a connection with an audience than to share your story. Whether it’s the history of your brand, the journey you’ve been on, or a story about how you came up with the idea for your product or service, storytelling is a terrific way to incorporate video marketing into your LinkedIn strategy, with the benefit of allowing your audience to understand who you are as a brand and what makes you tick.
2. Create hype
Short, snappy videos are a great way to quickly share exciting updates and create hype for future product releases or service offerings. For example, you could put together a teaser video that preludes a new feature release or create a behind-the-scenes look into the work that’s being done to launch a new service. Creating hype around your business will help engage your audience with your content and generate interest in your brand.
3. Industry insight
At its core, LinkedIn is a professional networking site and this means that being able to demonstrate industry knowledge can yield huge benefits in positioning your brand as an expert in its field. Create video content that’s insightful and relevant to your industry to help position your business as knowledgeable and a master in its field.
4. Trends and news
It doesn’t take more than twenty minutes to put together a decent video using an online video maker. Utilizing this technology means that you can share reactionary video content that highlights the latest news and trends, which will help position your brand as in-the-know when it comes to events surrounding or impacting your industry.
What specs should a LinkedIn video have?
Not all video platforms are created equal. Some have different specifications and it always pays to know the details of how to maximize your videos on social media platforms. It’s especially important on LinkedIn to create a polished video — after all, the content will be seen by industry professionals so you need to make sure that your video is prepped with all the correct specs.
Length: Three seconds to 10 minutes long.
File size: Between 75KB and 200MB
Video format: MP4
Audio format: MPEG4 or AAC
Frame rate: Less than 30 frames per second (FPS)
Ratios and pixels:
- Landscape 16:9 aspect ratio
- Minimum: 640 x 360px
- Maximum: 1920 x 1080px
- Square 1:1 aspect ratio
- Minimum: 360 x 360px
- Maximum: 1920 x 1920px
- Vertical 9:16 aspect ratio
- Minimum: 360 x 640px
- Maximum: 1080 x 1920px
Native video vs embedding
In 2017, LinkedIn introduced the ability for users to upload native videos for posts. This means that rather than embedding links, LinkedIn users can upload their videos directly to the LinkedIn platform. We recommend uploading videos natively for posts because LinkedIn gives higher algorithm priority to native uploads.
However, when it comes to sending videos in LinkedIn messages, native videos are not supported. Here, it is best to share a video with a link using a LinkedIn video sharing platform like Sendspark.
5 best practices for using video on LinkedIn
Now that you understand the types of videos that work well on LinkedIn, and can grasp the tech specs, you need to create your LinkedIn video. Here are five best practice tips to get you started.
1. Create an objective
Consider what part of the buyer’s journey you’re targeting with your LinkedIn video content. Do you need to whip up some brand awareness with a top of funnel thought-leader video, or are you looking to convince and convert with a bottom of funnel product demo? Be strategic and don’t create a video just because you’ve been told to create a video. Strategy and execution always wins above shooting wildly into the dark.
2. Capture audience attention
According to research by LinkedIn, after the first few seconds of a video, audience attention tends to drop. This signals a huge reason to put your most important information right at the beginning of your video.
3. Be polished and professional
As the old saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Ensure that your LinkedIn video is well-edited, looks polished and conveys a sense of professionalism.
4. Brand your content
Create a video that’s instantly recognizable as your own by having solid branding in place. Add a watermark or brand logo to your video and your brand colours, fonts, and style, to help improve brand recognition. Adding a voiceover to your video is another way that you can personalize and brand your marketing content.
5. End on an action
Calls to action (CTAs) are direct actions that you want your audience to take next. Your video CTAs should be strategically nestled at certain points in your video. Remember that not everyone will watch your video to the end, so it pays to have various CTAs throughout.
Start making videos for LinkedIn
Today, it’s never been easier to share videos on LinkedIn. Get started for free with Lumen5 to create marketing videos from templates, and Sendspark to record videos of yourself or your product.
