How can LinkedIn Native Video help build your brand?

Easy – it all comes down to sharing.

By now, you may have heard that LinkedIn has released a native video functionality for its app on Android and iPhone. If you haven’t, here’s what you need to know: It’s exactly the same as native video on Facebook or Twitter. That means that you can now upload your own video directly to LinkedIn and it plays (on mute) automatically as viewers scroll down your feed.

This has huge implications for you and your brand. Why? Because now you can use the power of video to reach farther than ever before on social media.

Why is this a good thing?

Video is becoming more and more of an acceptable way to spread your brand’s message – especially in short, snappy content. Native video from LinkedIn has further legitimised this and is an excellent way to share your message and any other insights or content via social media.

Already it’s been shown that videos on LinkedIn are shared 20 times more than other forms of content. So if you want to reach more people – video is the way to go.

How can it benefit you?

There are a number of reasons why native video on LinkedIn is good for your business.

1. You can share many different types of professional videos (case study, testimonial, company culture)
2. You know your audience is professional and interested in business content
3. More and more business executives watch business-related video
4. Your videos won’t get lost amongst videos of funny dogs as they do on Facebook
5. You can analyse audience insights to get lots of pertinent information about your viewers.

Who watches these videos?

Forbes have done a really interesting survey of the executives of large US firms and their video viewing habits and come up with some interesting facts around video.

For instance, the popularity of business videos is increasing dramatically:

“In 2009, 41% of executives age 50 or older said they watched videos on business sites at least weekly, and just 11% did it daily. In 2010, the total for that segment jumped to 66%, with 15% going to videos on business-related websites daily.”

It also found that executives often take action based on what they see on a business-related video. “For example, 65% have visited a vendor’s website after watching a video, and 53% have conducted a search to locate more information.”

What types of video can you put on LinkedIn?

The sky is the limit really, but just remember this is a professional forum so keep those cat videos for Facebook.

However you could upload:

• testimonial videos
• company culture videos
• professional profiles
• recruitment videos
• case studies

Are LinkedIn videos any different to other corporate videos?

Not really – the same rules still apply. While you can make slightly lower-quality phone videos if you’re at an event or similar, it is better to make the videos as professional as possible with good lighting, sound and text.

LinkedIn have provided their own guide to Native Video, which you can find here.

There are loads of ways this new function can be utilised but just remember the golden rule of video – keep it short, engaging and on-brand.

And some final good news from the Forbes survey: “Overall, nearly half (47%) of executives said they post links to work-related videos to “networking” sites at least weekly.”