Better late than never. LinkedIn is finally rolling out native video to the mobile app. Being a B2B and career platform, video adds another layer to your professional storytelling ability without having to create and publish elsewhere. Thanks to Koka Sexton for the heads up.
From sharing video with updates, to attaching video as rich media, smart professionals and marketers have been using video for years, understanding the growing value proposition it offers. Now LinkedIn are giving us native video to finally catch up with other major social networks. The difference with LinkedIn is that the purpose of the platform is business and career, so the videos add another layer to your experience with each other and brands.
LinkedIn Video vs Facebook Live
Video is a great way to share your thoughts, broadcast from where you are and engage your audience. Facebook Live use does appear to have dropped off within my own network over the last 6 months, but the experience is expanding with desktop options and 3rd party plugins. LinkedIn does not offer a live broadcast (yet), but it allows for recording and uploading, so it isn’t quite the same as Facebook Live, but it can be used for similar purposes.
Video Engagement vs Views
The platform that is said to have the most video engagement in the first quarter of 2017 is Instagram, with a 16% engagement rate compared with Facebook’s 1.5% and YouTube’s 0.3%, according to L2 Inc’s report. But Facebook led the in total views during the same period, with 18.8 million, on average, for the surveyed brands. YouTube’s and Instagram’s 14.8 million and 5.2 million views, respectively, were second and third. It will be interesting to see what LinkedIn achieves in terms of views and more importantly, engagement.
Video Communication
Video allows us to connect on a deeper level. If we can see the person speaking, it increases our connection and our trust in them. Communication experts speak about the 7 – 55 – 38 concept, which came from a study conducted by Professor Mehrabian, which found that 7 percent of communication is deemed verbal and 93 percent non-verbal. (55% body language and 38% tone of voice). There is dispute about this being a ‘rule’, but we know that for many people, hearing and seeing, adds to the learning experience.
Communication Style
The beauty of video as a medium is not only tapping into the learning style of the viewer, but also the communication style of the individual creating content. Content is king the marketers say. I don’t agree with this term – not all content is king. Useful, accurate easy to consume content that is written well boosts credibility, but is it ‘king’? Could it be ‘queen’? Is there a different and does it actually matter?!
When we talk of content, we often think of blogs are articles, but content includes imagery, audio and video. What video does, is open up a content medium to suit your style. If you prefer to speak rather than writing, then video is a great way to create content. The trick is being clear and concise, to get your message across.
Marketers may see this as an opportunity to create promotional content, which any content within LinkedIn is, but the value is in creating content that connects.
What To Use LinkedIn Video For
Content can be used to increase your brand awareness, boost your credibility, reach more people, showcase your team, communicate the business culture and engage your network.
Share updates, achievements, shine the light on others, interview colleagues, share snippets from an event, talk about your upcoming event, ask questions, conduct a Q&A, go behind the scenes… the list is endless. Do make sure you have permission to share or broadcast if it involves others or events. You don’t want to get in trouble!
LinkedIn Video Tech
LinkedIn native video is said to be limited to a maximum of 10 minutes which is a smart move. Depending on what you are sharing and who the audience is, 10 minutes could be too long, given our attention spans in the noisy online space. Make your main points in the first 30 seconds, and expand on them to ensure you get the message across to those who are stopping by. It will be interesting to see how long viewers watch.
Video can be recorded landscape or portrait, but portrait does give black bars at each side.
It has its own link, like any post, but doesn’t have an embed code yet for blogs, which is a shame. It also appears to be showing up under All Activity rather than Posts, which means it has a short life span, unless you save the link to the video. I’m sure this will change as it doesn’t make sense. Adding a video tab to the Activity feed is the best option to make videos findable and visible.
Video will auto play with the sound off, so click to hear the audio. Tun off autoplay in your account settings.
LinkedIn video comes with useful insights such as where your viewer works, their job title, and top markets of viewers. You will have access rich data such as likes, comments, views, and shares.
Learn from the experts
Phil Gerbyshak, who has tested it out shares his findings;
- LinkedIn video isn’t live stream – it must be recorded then uploaded.
- The video must be saved on the iOS device.
- It can be edited in an app, then uploaded.
- Uploading takes time and the app must be open while processing.
- Video content isn’t yet prioritised by LinkedIn.
Koka Sexton has shared two videos.
Right click to copy the video address or access other functions.
Read Koka’s blog about the addition of video to the LinkedIn mobile app
Have you got access yet?
If you want to engage your network, create video that speaks with your audience and invites conversation rather than using it to speak at them. Don’t think interruption advertising, think coffee conversations. But do remember where you are, it’s not SnapChat.
It is being rolled out so if you don’t have it yet, you will very soon.
Will you use it and how?
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