LinkedIn has been late to mobilise the power of social video. Compared to other heavy-hitting social channels – Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram – the B2B network has resisted entering a love affair with video. But earlier this month, LinkedIn make a play for video by enabling its influencers to natively post video content.
Linkedin’s 500 invitation-only influencers can now share 30s long videos via a specially designed app with autoplay only on desktop. It’s been received as a Quora type q and a style video with these influencers being asked to share business tips such as what to avoid at a pitch meeting. At the moment, unlike Facebook, native video is not being prioritised by the algorithm.
When the channel launched its publishing channel, Pulse, it started with influencers and then rolled out to all users. So, perhaps we can expect something similar with native video. Jasper Sherman-Presser, a product manager at LinkedIn who is overseeing the launch of video, said that such content is already popular on the channel – shared via links to YouTube – and he foresees that creating and sharing native video will be enabled for all users at some point.
The power of video for B2B and B2C
Will users want to share and engage with video on this B2B channel? We think so, especially with the rise of video across all channels and its usage becoming increasingly prevalent for bloggers and brands to get their messages across.
Video marketing may have seemed more at home with B2C, but this is changing and B2B brands are discovering the power of video too. Video can be an effective way to share brand updates and your expertise, for instance Whiteboard Fridays has become an SEO must-watch. And B2C brands can use Linkedin too, for instance a startup may be looking for investors, and brand videos, regular testimonials and behind the scenes content about the team could help to develop trust.
How to use Linkedin in video marketing
Although native video has not hit LinkedIn yet for most of us, brands (both business brands and your personal brand) can still share video content. Here are a few pointers:
- Publish articles on LinkedIn Pulse as an effective way to increase your reach and connect with influencers. Add video content to these blog posts, which can help demonstrate what you’re writing about in action or provide additional detail.
- Actively encourage your team to use LinkedIn and share your brand video content. As LinkedIn is a business networking channel, your team will be more likely want to show off what they’re doing at work here than they might be on other more personal channels, such as Facebook.
- In order to develop thought leadership, as well as publishing content, join relevant groups and industry conversations where you can share tips and answer questions. Remember that in order to build trust with the community, it is a good idea to curate content rather than just sharing your own brand materials.
- Set up a LinkedIn page for your business and share regular updates, including links to your video content, and pin your brand video to the page so that new visitors can see what your business is all about straight away.
- Although you don’t have access to LinkedIn’s new video feature yet, you can still get involved. Can you vlog about a topic to show off your expertise? Or interview one of your clients or your MD? A video could be a great way to start a conversation with your audience. If you have a business end of year review, you could create a video-graphic or short interview with your CEO to bring it to life.
- Use your conversations and interactions on LinkedIn as inspiration to create your own content. Is there a particular issue that a wide number of people are posing questions about? Can you create a video which offers a solution?
- A video can also be a good way to share when you’re making a connection with influencers to show what you’re about succinctly.
- LinkedIn is definitely not Facebook, and it’s not the place to over-share. However, B2B brands should draw on the power of emotion in their video marketing. Think about what the emotional motivators are for B2B audiences – peer recognition, fear of missing out on a promotion – and then develop them into a narrative with video.
With the power of video to engage audiences and increase dwell time, we think that native video content for all of us will be rolled soon. But for now, try out sharing relevant video content on this channel to help you develop your personal and business brands.
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