Five tips for creating LinkedIn video

Video continues to be the best performing digital content format and I’ve personally seen great results posting videos on LinkedIn.

Whilst written content still has a place, I think in today’s mobile-driven landscape, native video is more engaging. In fact, research shows native videos earn an average of three times the engagement of text posts (Hootsuite).

This is because video mimics human-to-human interaction and seeing a person’s face and hearing them talk lends authenticity to their message, building trust. That’s why video works so well for social selling.

But, it can be challenging to get started and produce regular video content. That’s why I’m sharing my top tips for creating LinkedIn video that demand your target audience’s attention.

Short and sweet

People become bored easily when scrolling through social media and videos with longer duration can be off-putting.

According to a LinkedIn infographic on The Science of Breakthrough B2B Video, the optimal length for LinkedIn videos is 30 to 90 seconds, with 80% percent of viewers saying they’re happy to watch videos this length.

Skip the introductions 

Following on from the last tip, make your point quickly at the beginning of the video to capture attention. This will enable your network to decide if your video is relevant to them and worth the watch.

As a rough guide, Jane Fleming, Digital Marcoms Manager at LinkedIn, recommends you hook attention in the first 0-3 seconds, identify a problem or opportunity in seconds 3-15, and propose a solution in the last 15-50 seconds.

Portrait vs. landscape

Bear in mind that most of your audience will likely scroll through their timeline and view your video on smartphones.

Native video autoplays when portrait and doesn’t require the viewer to manually rotate their phone, so filming vertical video is best practice.

Subtitles 

Plan for sound off and use subtitles to get your message across quickly. Research shows the vast majority (80%) of video views on LinkedIn take place with the sound off and video content designed for silent viewing is 70% more likely to be watched all the way through to the end (LinkedIn Business). 

And, it’s a good accessibility consideration for viewers with hearing impairment.

Demonstrate personality

 You may think of LinkedIn as the professional social platform, but video provides the opportunity to be personable and inject some humour or anecdotes your audience can relate to.

One of the most interesting findings to emerge from a study by The Financial Times and Alpha Grid was the value that C-suite audiences place on humour and creativity in video content.

If you’d like to find out more about implementing video into your social selling strategy, email me at [email protected] or call 01926422002 to speak with a member of our team.