Top 10 best practices for LinkedIn Video

Author: Hurst Digital | | Categories: scientific animation

Top 10 best practices for LinkedIn Video (Part 2)

 

Anthony J James

CEO, Innovation and Growth at Trinity Consulting - Founder, InfluencerActive, the World's First B2B Influencer Marketplace

162 articles 

In case you missed Part 1 you can read it here.

In this post, I explore Tips 6 -1 - of the Top 10 best practices for LinkedIn video, and we provide some tips on what to use to get the best-looking video for your audiences.

#6 Start with a 10 second summary, choose right length

Research on video consumption shows that attention begins to wane after just 10 seconds. And the most-watched videos on LinkedIn are only 30 seconds in length.  So you might want to keep your videos super short if they are just showing how a product works or raising interest in your audience to find out more about your brand and activities.  

But if you want to do some thought leadership or you have quite complex information to impart, then you might want to create a longer video. That means you’re going to have to work harder to keep the interest of your audience. 

If you want to keep your audience engaged, have the most important information in the first ten seconds of the video. If it’s a video longer than a minute or two, you may even want to add bookmarks through the video to the sections described in the summary. 

#7 Visual appeal

Perhaps ironically, visual appeal is perhaps the least considered element when people start making videos. It’s extraordinary how many businesses think a Microsoft Teams meeting video is good enough to share (it isn’t, #justsaying). 

A visual medium needs visual interest and there are lots of ways you can achieve that. Even with a panel session or fireside chat, make sure you vary the shot. Zoom in on individual speakers, and swap between a talking head and other footage that helps illustrate a point. 

This is harder with a live-streamed video, but it’s not impossible with the right tools. Software like OBS Studio can give you the control of a television studio when doing live broadcasts, so think about how you want to vary views if you’re going down the livestreaming path.

There’s also the issue of lighting and branding. Make sure your subjects - people and products - are well lit when you record your videos, and think about using a watermark or logo or in your video to maintain a connection with your brand.

Then if you are talking directly to your audience in your videos, make sure you look at the camera, rather than the image of yourself on a computer screen. It just makes you more approachable. 

Finally, when it comes to visual appeal, don’t forget who you are talking to. Make sure that at least some of the people who appear in your video represent your target market. Otherwise, you’re more likely to lose the interest of an audience who feel disconnected from you.

#8 Call to action

Another easy-to-miss but incredibly valuable aspect of a video is your ‘post-roll call-to-action (although technically it’s the last frames of your video). Always include this at the end. Make sure you are clear about what you want your audience to do once they’ve viewed your video. Then make it easy for them to do that thing.

Even on super short videos, having a call to action means that you can measure the impact of your videos beyond views and likes. You get a real sense of how powerful your video is when you can see people responding to your call to action - not least because they have watched to the end of the video.

Just don’t make the call to action too complicated. Maybe get them to answer a single question in comments, subscribe to a channel, visit a site or scan a QR code - but not all of these things together. And make sure the message is on-screen long enough for them to absorb and respond to the call. 

#9 Schedule your posts for time zone accessibility

Sometimes your audience is not just local. You really do need to think about who you are talking to and what time they are awake. Sometimes with video, this means posting multiple variations of the video for different time zones, with different text accompanying each post. 

You’ll find you can create a single video with perhaps just one or two frames that are different, and then be able to share it many times for different markets. And if you need some help working out what time it is on the other side of the planet, you can always use a search engine or electronic personal assistant to find out. 

#10 Vary the content you share in a series 

At point 7 above, we looked at visual appeal, but there’s also content appeal you should be considering.  Having the same format of video all the time - whether that’s fireside chats, or product demos, etc, can be a little wearing after a while. If you are planning on releasing videos regularly, you should be looking at a variety of content approaches.  You might consider:

 

  • Behind the scenes walk through of a product development process
  • Explainer / tutorial screen sharing videos
  • Testimonials with customers
  • Fundraising  / community service showcase
  • Fun stuff - animations, celebrations and inspirations 

Summing it up

If you’re going to share video on LinkedIn, you might as well do it right the first time. Stick to these best practice rules and you’ll be better placed to get engagement and interest from the people you most want to connect with.



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