A blueprint to add LinkedIn video to your social strategy

Video is one of the best ways to stand out on social media, and video on LinkedIn is no exception with video uploads increasing 45% year-over-year. According to The 2024 Social Media Content Strategy Report, 66% of consumers say short-form videos are the most engaging type of in-feed content.

And with LinkedIn incorporating short-form video into its platform, and growing at twice the rate of other formats, you should take it as a sign to add video to your LinkedIn marketing strategy. From educating people on your products and services to sharing quick thought leadership takes, now’s the time to lean in and start experimenting.

The good news? Taking advantage of video on LinkedIn doesn’t necessarily mean producing more video content. With Sprout’s LinkedIn integration, you can schedule and crosspost videos as part of your multi-channel network strategy, track performance metrics and test out different formats to monitor how your audience responds. You’ll also see how your LinkedIn video efforts fit into your cross-network strategy, all in one place.

In this blueprint, we’ll discuss the three types of LinkedIn video: organic, live and paid. Keep reading to learn more about the updates to LinkedIn video and how to use it to boost brand awareness and engagement.

How video on LinkedIn fits into the social media landscape

LinkedIn has been testing video on the platform over the past few years. Some users may see a dedicated video tab in the navigation bar on its mobile app. The tab takes users to its new immersive vertical video feed that mirrors the short-form, swipeable style popularized by TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.

This addition is just the beginning. Recent updates include a full-screen vertical video feed on desktop and the “Videos for You” module, which recommends curated content based on user behavior. And they are keeping their community updated on video best practices on the platform.

Fortunately for social practitioners everywhere, similar features across different networks makes social media content creation easier.

With the rise of LinkedIn video, several LinkedIn influencers and content creators have claimed that their vertical video content receives more engagement and impressions on LinkedIn. While these observations are unconfirmed, this suggests the platform is investing in video discovery and performance.

Outside of LinkedIn’s video push, the platform has evolved a lot in the last few years. Our 2024 Social Content Strategy Report found that it’s evolved from being strictly business to a place where users get more personal and build a community. For brands, this shift opens the door to more meaningful connections and allows you to meet your audience where they are, professionally and personally.

The impact of video for your brand on LinkedIn

For B2B brands, video on LinkedIn represents an unmatched opportunity to boost brand awareness. Four out of five LinkedIn members help make business decisions, and LinkedIn members have twice the buying power of the average online audience. Think of a LinkedIn video as a direct line to decision-makers in a context where your message carries more weight.

More than any other type of content, consumers want educational product information on LinkedIn, according to The 2024 Social Media Content Strategy Report. But with so many brands sharing similar content, how do you stand out? The answer is edutainment social content.

Edutainment is entertaining educational content that’s quick to watch and easy to understand. Using humor, storytelling, gamification or strong visuals, brands can turn product information into creative video content that hooks viewers and increases brand recall. Sprout’s 2024 Social Media Content Strategy Report found 66% of social users say edutainment is the most engaging type of brand content, even surpassing skits, memes or serialized content.

Here’s an example from Plaid. In this fun, less-than-one-minute video, they highlight how Branch uses Plaid in a clear, engaging way.

Whether you’re sharing tips, showing how your product works or telling a customer story, video on LinkedIn helps your brand feel more helpful and trustworthy.

Learn how Plaid used Sprout to grow its LinkedIn audience by 60% in one year.

Using video for engagement and community building on LinkedIn

Want more people to engage with your LinkedIn videos? Include one call to action (CTA) per video and keep them short. Our 2024 Social Media Content Strategy Report found that videos under 15 or 30 seconds get the most engagement.

You can also boost engagement by working with LinkedIn influencers and thought leaders. There’s been a 23% year-over-year increase in posts from CEOs on LinkedIn. Posts from C-suite executives and thought leaders get four times more engagement than the average LinkedIn post, showing that people want to hear from real voices, not just brands.

One potential way to work with LinkedIn influencers is by leveraging LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads.

These ads promote content from a LinkedIn influencer, an employee or a thought leader, rather than the brand itself. A LinkedIn video ad like this feels less promotional, humanizing your brand and maximizing your investment.

If you are looking for a faster, smarter way to identify the right people to partner with and manage those partnerships, Sprout Social Influencer Marketing might be right for you.

Together, these tactics increase engagement and create opportunities for meaningful interaction, which is the foundation of any strong community.

What to know about the different LinkedIn video types

LinkedIn has a few different ways to share video, and it’s essential to know how each format works and when to use it.

No matter how many LinkedIn pages you manage, Sprout’s LinkedIn integration makes it easy to plan, publish and measure performance for all your videos on LinkedIn.

When you’re ready to post your video to LinkedIn, reference our always up-to-date video specs guide.

LinkedIn Live video

LinkedIn Live enables you to broadcast live video content on the platform. You can use it to host live virtual events like panels, Q&As, announcements or product launches.

Unlike the other types of video content, LinkedIn Live directly connects the host with the audience, making them ideal for building community. This is likely why, on average, LinkedIn Live broadcasts get 23 times more comments than regular videos.

To use LinkedIn Live, your Company Page or profile needs to meet certain criteria and use a third-party broadcasting tool. Sprout’s integrations with streaming platforms help you manage your live content alongside the rest of your strategy.

If you’re new to planning or hosting LinkedIn Live, check out our ultimate guide to LinkedIn Live.

Standard LinkedIn video formats

Standard LinkedIn video formats are posted directly to your feed, making them a key part of a consistent posting strategy. They are best for brand awareness, thought leadership and audience education.

Short videos perform best, especially when they have a strong hook at the beginning and call to action at the end.

Take Sephora, for example. The brand shared a horizontal trailer-style video to promote its Beauty and Belonging campaign and used the call to action to tell viewers to go to YouTube and in-store to watch the long-form version. This shows that Sephora understands the role of LinkedIn video in a multi-channel strategy.

LinkedIn video ads

LinkedIn video ads are paid posts that show up in users’ feeds based on your targeting. You can target by filters such as job title, company and industry, helping you directly reach and win over decision-makers. After all, LinkedIn says audiences are two to three times more likely to associate positive traits with a brand after seeing its LinkedIn ads.

Like all the other social platforms, on LinkedIn, it’s not enough to pay for placement. Your video ads need to be creative, clear and memorable. In a study on B2B video ads on LinkedIn, only 19% of participants remembered the advertisement and attributed it to the correct brand.

Here are some best practices suggested by the study to consider incorporating into your ads:

1. Brand early and often by including three or more brand mentions.
2. Use sound strategically, as it can help enhance memory and engagement.
3. Keep ads 30 seconds and under. In the study, recognition results dropped from 68% for videos 10 seconds or less to 59% for videos 18 seconds or less.

As an example, this professional ad by Rogers Business hits all of the best practices above and promotes its products by telling the story of one of its customers.

If you’re new to creating LinkedIn ads, our LinkedIn ads guide runs through key best practices you’ll want to know.

LinkedIn vertical video

The full-screen vertical video feed is LinkedIn’s answer to TikTok-style content: full-screen, vertical video that’s short, scrollable and built for discovery on both desktop and mobile. While it’s an exciting new feature, not all users can access it because LinkedIn is still experimenting. For example, when I open my mobile app, I don’t see it on the bottom navigation bar.

Another important thing to mention about LinkedIn’s immersive video feed is that you can’t post directly to it. The content that gets featured is based on quality and relevance, and most of the videos are very business-centric.

Tips to succeed with video on LinkedIn

Once you know the video types, the next step is creating content that connects. Here are a few best practices to help your videos stand out and deliver results on LinkedIn.

• Lead with a hook in the first 3 seconds of all your videos. Ask a question, share a stat or tease the value upfront to keep viewers watching.
• Keep your LinkedIn videos short, ideally between 15 to 30 seconds for maximum impact, especially since the ideal watch time is between 13 and 15 seconds (depending on the account size).
• 79% of LinkedIn videos are watched with the sound off. Optimize for muted viewing by using captions or on-screen text. Sprout’s video publishing tools let you upload and schedule videos with captions included, so you can scale accessibility across your video library.
• Focus on consistency and iteration over perfection. Use Sprout’s social media analytics and reporting tools to track what works so you can build on it.

Integrating LinkedIn video into your social media strategy

LinkedIn video content works best when it’s aligned with your bigger goals.

For example, if you’re a B2B software company, you might use short-form videos to explain key product features or highlight customer success stories. A consultant or thought leader could use live video to share real-time insights, answer questions or build trust with their network.

And when you’re managing more than one platform, Sprout’s social media management platform makes it easier to run a multi-network video strategy without doubling your workload. With Sprout, you can schedule video content across all your social channels, track performance in one place and get data-driven insights.

For more insights to help you create content that resonates wherever your audience scrolls, read Sprout’s 2024 Content Strategy Report.