Why should you start creating LinkedIn videos? If you want to build your professional network on the platform, engaging with video content may give you an edge in terms of community building.
Videos on LinkedIn get 3x higher engagement rates than text-only posts. Videos are also 5x more likely to start a conversation amongst LinkedIn users than other types of content.
Want to get started? In VEED's ULTIMATE guide to LinkedIn videos, you’ll learn:
- The types of videos you can post on LinkedIn
- How to post videos on LinkedIn
- Video specs for LinkedIn cheatsheet
- LinkedIn videos tips for creating content that converts
- Ideas of videos on LinkedIn that you can post today
This is going to be a good one! Let’s go!
What types of videos can you post on LinkedIn
Embedded videos from other platforms
These are videos that come from YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and other video-sharing platforms. Embedded videos will still play on LinkedIn, but videos uploaded to the platform tend to perform better in terms of engagement and reach.
LinkedIn Native videos
These are videos on LinkedIn that you can upload for free. You can post these as Feed videos, on company page, or in the groups that you’re part of.
If you want to create original video content for your audience on LinkedIn, please don’t go about this by uploading videos specifically catered for your audiences on other platforms like YouTube, Instagram or TikTok.
LinkedIn users tend to have different video content preferences from those in other platforms. Videos that tend to get high engagement on LinkedIn are more business-oriented, snappier and a lot shorter in terms of time length.
Moreover, social media platforms tend to favor native over embedded videos. According to a study by Quintly, native Facebook videos have up to 10X more shares than YouTube videos posted on the platform. Twitter doesn’t play embedded videos on its tweets. And Instagram just doesn’t allow embedded video content, full-stop.
If this trend also applies to LinkedIn, you’re more likely to get a following through LinkedIn native videos.
LinkedIn video Ads
These are paid videos (minimum $10 per day) that get shown to targeted users on LinkedIn. They’ll be displayed in different parts of the website to attract people who might want to interact with your sponsored content.
Done well, LinkedIn video ads can help you increase conversions, improve brand awareness, and get qualified leads.
But LinkedIn video ads tend to be more expensive than on other social media platforms, so you need to know the right targeting, ad objectives, content, duration and text to achieve your objectives.
LinkedIn Live
LinkedIn live allows broadcast video content live on the platform. LinkedIn Live can really bring you closer to your audience, build deeper connections and drive more engagement.
LinkedIn Live also gets 7x more interaction and 24x comments than other LinkedIn video content.
But compared to the other videos, LinkedIn Live will require you to use third-party apps. You also need to fill out an application form to start with LinkedIn Live. Therefore, streaming with LinkedIn Live requires a lot more hassle than other types of videos.
How to post a video on LinkedIn
Posting embedded videos on LinkedIn is super easy
Click on Start a post (or the icon Post on mobile), enter the video link, and hit post. It’s easier than brushing your teeth!
How to post a LinkedIn native video
On Mobile, LinkedIn has a basic video editor to add text and stickers!
On Desktop
- Click the video icon under the Start a post box.
- Upload the video.
- Hit Edit if you want to either Select Thumbnail or Select Caption to add subtitles as an SRT file.
On Mobile
- Tap Post in the menu bar at the bottom of the screen
2. Go to Take a video
3. Hit the red videocam button to record a video
4. Tap the gallery icon to upload a video
5. Add text and stickers by tapping the icons on the top-right corner of the page!
How to post a LinkedIn video ad campaign
- Go to Campaign Manager.
- Click on the account you want to use.
- Go to Create Campaign (on the top right corner of the page).
- Fill out the form in Step 1 based on your ad goals and objectives. As an Ad format, click Video ad. Hit Next.
- In Step 2, click on the media icon.
- In the Create new Ad page, enter your campaign name (only shown to you), your headline (try to make it under 70 characters), introductory text, URL you want them to go to and the Call-to-Action (CTA) button.
- Once you’re done filling out the form, click on Upload video.
- Upload thumbnail if you want.
- Tick the box next to Add captions to video to add subtitles.
- Hit Create.
You can create multiple video ads for one video campaign to see which ones convert better.
- Leave the Ads in campaign page by hitting Next.
- If you’re happy with your campaign, click Launch Campaign.
How to create a LinkedIn Live
You'll have to complete an application to be able to do LinkedIn Live sessions. Once you're allowed to create LinkedIn Live videos, select from a list of streaming tools to get started with LinkedIn Live.
Specs for LinkedIn videos: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet
This cheat sheet has all the right specs for LinkedIn videos, depending on where you want to publish your video.
LinkedIn Native video specs
Read the next section to see the specs for LinkedIn video ads.
Recommended video headline character count: 70 characters
The maximum is 200 characters, but only the first 70 will show up on all devices.
Minimum length: 3 seconds
Maximum length: 10 minutes
Minimum resolution: 256x144
Maximum resolution: 4096x2304
Recommended aspect ratios: 1:1 (square) and 16:9 (landscape)
If you post in these aspect ratios, LinkedIn won’t show those pesky black bars on the sides of your video on any device. They will show up in other aspect ratios on desktop.
To note: the square aspect ratio (1:1) takes up more space in the feed than the landscape one. If you want effective Feed videos, opt for 1:1.
Other aspect ratios: 2.4:1 (widescreen) and 1:2.4 (portrait)
These work best on the mobile app, where the black bars don’t show up. Unfortunately, the bars appear when you’re on the desktop version.
Linkedin Native video file sizes: 75 KB to 5 GB
LinkedIn Native video frame rates: 10 - 60 FPS
Supported video formats for LinkedIn native videos: ASF, AVI, FLV, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, MKV, QuickTime, WebM, H264/AVC, MP4, VP8, VP9, WMV2, and WMV3
Recommended LinkedIn native video format by VEED: MP4
If you’re a newbie to video formats, stick to using MP4. It’s the internet’s preferred video format and supported by many different social media and video-sharing platforms, including LinkedIn.
Supported LinkedIn video thumbnail formats: PNG, JPG and GIF
The aspect ratio of the thumbnail and video ad should match.
Supported LinkedIn closed captions format: SRT
LinkedIn video ads specs
Recommended video headline character count: 70 characters
Minimum length: 3 seconds
Maximum length for ads: 30 minutes
According to LinkedIn, the types of video ads that work best are under 15 seconds.
Ads frame rates: Below 30 FPS
Supported video format video ads: MP4
Video ads file sizes: 75 KB 200 MB
LinkedIn video ads will be shown to hundreds or thousands of people with varying internet connection speeds, hence the 200 MB limit.
Aspect ratios: 1:1 (square) and 16:9
Resolutions: From 360 x 360px to 1920 x 1920px for square and 1920 x 1920px for landscape
Ads thumbnail format: PNG or JPG
Ads thumbnail max file size: 2 MB
Supported video ad closed captions format: SRT
Linkedin Video Tips for Creating Content That Converts
Before we get into LinkedIn video ideas, here are fast tips for creating great videos for people on the platform.
1. Keep your videos short and clear
People who watch LinkedIn videos can be quite fickle. Make sure that your videos are short and address their needs.
For example, if you’re catering to an audience of marketers, you want your content to be on marketing and to be clear on the solution to the problem it’s offering.
Here are other quick tips:
- Keep sales-focused videos under 60 seconds.
- Keep videos for branding under 30 seconds.
- For content that informs, tells a story, or interviews someone, opt for a longer video that’s around 2 minutes or more.
2. Focus on one thing and create a narrative around it
Providing value on your LinkedIn videos is not enough. You need to make sure that your content is relevant and interesting to your target audience.
Best practice: focus on one topic and build upon it. Nothing’s worse than a video that no one can follow.
Plus, it’s much easier to create a short video on one topic than to edit a video with so many different sections.
Content hack: Record multiple topics in one session and edit them into bite-sized videos. Not only will your content look consistent, but you’re also saving time by recording them all at once. Win-win!
3. Be energetic, pose right and look in front of the camera
Here are 3 fast to take your LinkedIn video creation game to the next level:
- Look into the lens and be energetic. Avoid awkward camera angles of being too high or too low. It’s best to have the camera at eye level. Look into the lens while talking to avoid appearing distracted. You want your audience to get hyped up, too, so try not to appear like you don’t want to be in your video.
Edit out your umms and ahhs with VEED. To keep your videos engaging, edit out awkward moments of silence and make your video seem like one continuous discussion on a topic.
Make sure your script mirrors your talking. You don’t want to sound robotic and stilted in your speech.
Aim on creating conversational content
On LinkedIn, people enjoy engaging content that feels like a casual listen. You want your videos to feel conversational, not formal and full of trite jargon that most people can’t follow.
When you’re scripting and recording your videos, imagine as if you’re a teacher explaining complex topics in simple ways to your students. This will help you more effectively structure your thoughts and make your videos concise and understandable.
Add subtitles to improve accessibility
Subtitles not only benefit those who are hard of hearing.
According to a survey of US consumers, 82% of people view videos with the sound off on any device. On mobile, this increases to a whopping 92%. Adding subtitles to your LinkedIn videos allows your viewers to follow your video without having to listen to it. Therefore, you’re more likely to catch their attention.
With VEED, adding closed captions is as easy as using our auto-subtitle tool and changing the text with the subtitle editor. Watch the video above to learn how to do this.
Moreover, you can also export the SRT file from VEED and upload it to LinkedIn. Research suggests that uploading subtitles as an SRT file on YouTube’s platform boosts the video content's SEO and general discoverability. If the same applies for LinkedIn, then uploading the SRT file on the platform might help your videos reach more users!
Make sure that your thumbnails get you clicks
The same rules for creating great YouTube thumbnails that get clicks also apply for those on LinkedIn. You want your LinkedIn thumbnails to:
- Have a text overlay that hints what your content is about.
- Use a font that’s striking and easy to read. Go for sansnon-serif fonts if you don’t know where to start.
- Remember that white space is an element in itself. Don’t overcrowd your thumbnail with text and images.
There are roughly 2 different types of LinkedIn thumbnails. Here’s the first one below:
Like Vimeo did, you can add some animations or add a custom-made thumbnail in the first seconds of the video using VEED. You can also upload a custom thumbnail when posting a native LinkedIn video, but this might not show up when a user has autoplay enabled, which is, unfortunately, the default setting.
Another option is to include a text above the actual video. As with any thumbnail, this should be a concise description of what your video is about. The thumbnail in the video below clearly describes that the content will be on developing empathy for accessibility.
Think about your caption
If the video serves to grab attention, then a great caption serves to reel people in and gets them to listen to what you have to say.
Keep your captions concise, clear and with a straightforward call to action. You can even break down the video into bullet points if you think that this will help viewers understand better what the video is about.
Sparingly use hashtags. Don’t add hashtags to random words because it interferes with the reading experience. Add them to target specific communities and reach people who might be following content trending in those hashtag topics.
Upload under the highest possible quality to prevent blurry videos
LinkedIn has a file size cap of 5 GB for their native videos and 200 MB for their video ads. Like other social media platforms, LinkedIn also automatically compresses your videos, so that the quality may look worse once uploaded to their platform.
A quick way to get around this is to upload your videos to LinkedIn under the highest possible specs that respect the file size cap.
Conversely, if your video file size is too darn high for the platform, you can use VEED’s compression tool to reduce your file size, while keeping quality loss at a minimum.
6 Linkedin Video Ideas If You Don’t Know What To Post
1. How-to guides
How-to guides as LinkedIn videos are great for building an audience. By providing value, you’ll be able to build a community that trusts what you have to say.
2. Interviews
As we’ve mentioned in our article on video project ideas, interviews can be an excellent way to build a community by celebrating great voices.
This LinkedIn video interview with Charlie Dry offers great tips on how he gets inspired and creates content for Marketing Examples.
3. Customer testimonials
Customer testimonials are our favorite. They’re the best way to highlight your amazing customers and how the product helps them at the same time!
4. Visualized audio bites
If you’re not ready to film yourself but want to take advantage of LinkedIn videos, do some visualized audio bites, instead. This is also great for those who want to publish bits of their podcast episodes on LinkedIn.
With VEED, you can easily convert your podcasts or soundbites into LinkedIn videos. Learn how Alec does this:
5. Product launch video
You can post product launch videos on LinkedIn — or, in the example above, teasers — to create hype. Here’s another type of product launch video that’s easy to make:
Use VEED’s webcam and screen recorder for free if you want to start creating your product launch videos in a super quick and easy way. Play with our intuitive video editor to fix some small bits in your video.
6. Share GIFS and short videos on loop
GIFs and short LinkedIn videos on loop can be a fast way to attract people’s attention for company updates and new content. They’re short, to the point, engaging and can pack in a lot of information.
The example above showcases our new tool to create iPhone video mockups and also incentivizes people to subscribe to us. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.
Time to Create Awesome Linkedin Videos with VEED!
In this blog post, you’ve everything about LinkedIn videos, from posting videos on the platform to LinkedIn specs, to tips for creating great LinkedIn videos and examples on videos to engage with professionals.
Want an intuitive and easy-to-use video editor to create video content for LinkedIn and other social media platforms? Try out VEED today for free! You can add text to your video, merge, trim and split your videos, add an audiogram, and so on.
