How to Use Video on LinkedIn to Get More Connections and Job Offers

The digital world is always evolving, and what might have worked yesterday will definitely not work today.

Nowhere is this clearer than in how video is making its way into all our online interactions, including marketing.

When you think about it, it makes sense that video should grow to become the main way we engage with one another online.

You can express a lot more with a video than you ever could with a block of text. Videos are just easy to consume; they require the least amount of effort from the audience.

One of the best places to leverage the power of videos is social media, and whereas sites like Facebook and Instagram are already saturated with people posting videos of themselves, LinkedIn remains one of those frontiers that more people have yet to explore.

The Types of Videos You Can Upload on LinkedIn

Generally speaking, there are three types of videos you can post on LinkedIn: 1) embedded videos, 2) native videos, and 3) video ads.

1. Embedded Videos

If you have already uploaded your video on a video-hosting platform, say YouTube or Vimeo, you can share this link on LinkedIn.

Also, the videos you share don’t have to be yours, you can share any video you think will add value just by embedding the link in your status update or post (more on this later).

2. Native Videos

Rather than uploading something onto a video-hosting platform then sharing the link, you can directly create your videos on LinkedIn and upload them there.

Native videos can make a big difference in how effectively you grab people’s attention: A study recently found that native videos on Facebook generated ten times the share rate than embedded videos.

Odds are the same goes for LinkedIn.

3. Video Ads

LinkedIn lets you target a specific audience by sponsoring video ads tailored to them.

These ads can have many purposes, from increasing your brand awareness to helping you recruit better employees. It all depends on what your end goal is.

The type of video you end up going for depends on the intended purpose of the video.

The Purposes of Uploading Video Content to LinkedIn

Thanks to the advent of cloud computing , you can leverage different SaaS solutions to organize every aspect of your business, so why wouldn’t you do the same for potential job offers?

After all, LinkedIn is yet another cloud-based solution. Instead of relying on various conferences for networking, you can do it online.

LinkedIn helps you get access to jobs you never thought were even possible.

It’s a social platform that lets you expand your professional network online and saves you precious time.

Here are 3 ways that videos help you get those opportunities and connections?

1. Showcase Your Expertise

People want to buy from those who are the very best in their fields, people who can be trusted to do a stellar job regardless of how difficult the task at hand may seem.

So, create a positive first impression by adding videos to your profile that show you know what you are talking about.

The more engaging and stimulating you make these videos, the easier it will be for people to keep up and watch the entire thing, etching into the back of their mind that you are the go-to expert they should reach out to.

Explainer videos are a great pick for this category – you take a complicated concept and break it down and explain in simple terms.

Or you can go for introductory videos, where you introduce the main players in your team and show the world how amazing you all are.

2. Share Videos That Interest Your Followers and Target Customers

Another use of video on LinkedIn is to share your videos online, allowing you to express your point of view and show how you are always up-to-date on the latest happenings in your field.

You can create your own native videos, and don’t worry about them not being polished or expertly-produced. The important thing is that they are timely and relevant.
You can share video links with your connections and followers via your feed, something that will help you establish a sense of familiarity with your followers.
You can also share links with groups, giving you access to thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of members who are interested in what you are doing.
Video announcements that share company news and give people a heads up about any new product or service you are launching are a good choice for native videos.
You can also get to show people a snippet of how things work behind the scenes to show them a more human side of your business and to solidify the principles you stand for.
If you attend any large industry events, you can offer insider coverage and show how engaged you are.

3. Shore Up

Obviously, a big part of establishing yourself as a thought leader is to write articles that show your intricate understanding of the inner-workings of your industry.

The problem?

Everyone is doing that already, so it’s hard to stand out.

You will make your message far more effective if you reinforce it with the right video. You’ll be more memorable, you’ll solidify your brand, and you will definitely stand out.

Case studies that explain your point are a good choice of video for this category. If anything, a good case study that tells an engaging story can be a powerful tool in your arsenal.

Best Practices for Optimizing Your Videos

Making the video is just the first step. Getting people to share it is the tricky part.

While there are lots of methods to achieve this, all of them fall into one of two main categories: You will either optimize the video itself or optimize your video production strategy.

Optimizing the Video

Whenever you are trying to optimize the video itself, what you are trying to do is to make the video easy to watch while keeping it as engaging as you can:

Look at your setup: When shooting a video, the most important variables you want to consider are the lighting, the camera’s position, the camera itself, the background, and the body language of the presenter. These things have a major impact on the viewer and how they receive what you are presenting.
Try to hook your audience from the word go: You need to get your audience glued to their monitor the instant they open one of your videos. You can do this by putting all the important information at the beginning of your video in the form of a summary.
Design for the sound to be off: Unfortunately, people watch around 85 percent of social media videos with the sound turned off. Therefore, shoot your videos as if you’re shooting a silent film and use both images and infographics to propagate your ideas.
Include captions to make your videos more accessible, regardless of how much speech is in your video.
Be authentic: Whatever you do, always be authentic and true to your brand. People are very good at spotting a fake, and if they sense for a second that you aren’t being genuine with them, they will walk away and go to your nearest competitor.

Using a video compressor when uploading your video to LinkedIn can be helpful in reducing the file size of your video, which can improve the upload speed and playback quality. LinkedIn recommends that videos be no larger than 5 GB and no longer than 10 minutes, so if your video file is larger, using a compressor can help you meet these guidelines. There are many video compression tools available, both online and offline, that can compress your video while preserving its quality. By using a video compressor, you can ensure that your video looks and sounds great on LinkedIn, while also reducing its size for faster upload and playback. You just need to learn how to compress a video.

Optimizing Your Video Production Strategy

Optimizing your strategy revolves around under knowing how social media algorithms work and being able to give your video that extra edge it needs.

Focus on the minutiae: To help boost your video, look into your thumbnail image, your video description, and your video length, all of which help both your viewers and the LinkedIn algorithm to know what your video is about.
When promoting your video, use the word “video”: When people see the word “video,” they are much more likely to click on the post or email in front of them.
The inherent assumption is that they won’t have to exert a ton of effort slogging through a poorly written article.
Build an audience and convert them: When it’s all said and done, the objective of your marketing efforts should be to build a band of loyal followers and eventually convert them to paying customers.
However, traversing this funnel requires planning and pre-meditated action; it doesn’t happen on its own.

In today’s hyper-competitive world, you need to do everything in your power to stand out from the rest and establish yourself as a leader in your field.

Using videos can be a powerful asset in this struggle and one of many ways you can enhance your LinkedIn profile, which is something you can never take lightly.

Videos make you seem human rather than just a faceless entity out to make a profit, and people just want to do business with other people like them.

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Joe Peters is a Baltimore-based freelance writer and an ultimate techie. When he is not working his magic as a marketing consultant, this incurable tech junkie devours the news on the latest gadgets and binge-watches his favorite TV shows. Follow him on @bmorepeters

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