How to Make a Video for LinkedIn that (Really) Stands Out

LinkedIn isn’t just for jobseekers anymore. It’s the most important professional social network for anyone looking to keep their finger on the pulse of their industry, make new connections, and look for exciting new career opportunities.

To take advantage of  LinkedIn’s popularity, companies need to stay active by sharing great content that helps them build brand awareness, engage with their followers, and promote themselves as industry leaders.

Video content has become more and more popular across all social media platforms, and LinkedIn is no exception. Video performs very well here — 80% of marketers using video on LinkedIn said it had been an effective strategy, and in one recent survey, 80% of respondents preferred live video to a blog post.

What’s more, LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritizes video, showing it more often in users’ feeds. That means that making video part of your LinkedIn strategy will get you greater engagement and broader reach. You can also repurpose your LinkedIn videos into other content, such as republishing them on Facebook or transforming them into downloadable eBooks!

Video on LinkedIn has massive potential — but with more and more companies jumping onboard, there’s plenty of competition, too. Wondering how to make a video for LinkedIn? Here’s your guide to creating truly great LinkedIn videos that get you likes and shares while staying true to your brand, voice, and mission.

What makes a successful LinkedIn video?

Creating a successful LinkedIn video is all about having a clear idea of what you’ll say, and what your desired outcomes are.

Where does this video sit in your company’s marketing funnel? Top-of-funnel content will talk about topics your customers are interested in or offer solutions to their pain points, while videos at the bottom of your funnel will talk about your product more explicitly and encourage sales.

Whatever your goals for your video, it should have a concise, targeted message and end with a clear call-to-action (CTA). Your CTA doesn’t necessarily need to ask people to purchase your product; for example, a top-of-funnel CTA could invite viewers to follow you on Twitter, or link to other, related content.

Even if your video is informative, you should still try to give it a sense of story. This is where having a clear message comes in handy — stick to your topic and try to create a narrative arc so viewers can easily follow along and grasp what you’re trying to say. Topics that spark discussion, for example in your comments, can help you out with engagement, too.

For your video to perform well, you also need to keep LinkedIn’s algorithm in mind. Upload your video directly to the site, rather than linking to YouTube or Vimeo. The algorithm prefers native content, as it keeps users inside their platform. Native videos also start playing in users’ feeds automatically, making it easier to pique their interest right away.

A good headline and description will help your video attract viewers who are interested in your content. You’ll also want to caption your video, so that users can enjoy it with or without sound.

The best types of LinkedIn video to create

Whatever your goals are, there’s a type of online video that will help you reach them. Here are some of the most popular marketing videos for companies to publish on LinkedIn.

How-to, tutorial, and explainer videos

On LinkedIn, how-to and explainer videos educate your audience by sharing new information, or demonstrating a skill that will help them in their career.

Unlike on YouTube, where viewers seek out longer-form tutorials, it’s best to keep your LinkedIn explainer video short and sweet. With some snappy scripting and a clear idea, you’d be surprised how much great information you can fit into less than 5 minutes.

Behind-the-scenes and culture videos

It’s likely that many of your LinkedIn followers are interested in working at your company. That’s why LinkedIn is the perfect place to give your followers an inside look at your daily life, staff, and culture. As seen in this example, a good behind-the-scenes video takes an informal, genuine, and even humorous approach!

Employer branding and thought leadership videos

Since your LinkedIn audience is made up of other professionals, why not take this as an opportunity to establish your industry expertise? Data-heavy, scientific or other niche content will likely do better here than on a platform like Facebook or Instagram. Try using animated videos, fun stock footage, and beautiful text to make your video as engaging as it is informative.

Recruitment and job offer videos

LinkedIn is job search central — so why not make your job posting as attention-getting as it could possibly be? Creating video for your recruitment campaign or job offering will set you apart from the thousands of other job listings on LinkedIn.

To make it as appealing as possible, focus on all the great things about working at your company, like your reputation, benefits or amazing culture, instead of just focusing on what you want to see from a candidate.

Teaser video

Build interest and hype for a new product, virtual event, or other exciting initiative with a teaser video. Just as the name implies, make sure your video is intriguing without giving away too much. You want to hint at what’s to come, yet leave the viewer wanting more.

Interviews

LinkedIn is a great place to share interesting stories and information directly from people within your company. To tailor your interview towards a company culture or employer branding agenda, you can go in a more personal direction, sharing an employee or executives’ personal journey at your company, or on a specific project.

You also can create an interview that promotes your product or service by interviewing a customer, or take a more thought-leadership approach by creating an informative interview with a high-level employee or executive about an interesting subject related to your work.

LinkedIn Live

LinkedIn Live takes all the engagement power of video, and adds a sense of participation, immediacy, and exclusivity. Be sure to invest plenty of time into promoting the live event before you go live on LinkedIn to garner interest, and build in ways for viewers to participate, such as asking the speakers questions on voting on poll topics.

LinkedIn Stories

LinkedIn Stories are a more recent addition to the platform, and they give you a rare opportunity to stand out from the crowd. On LinkedIn, stories are displayed right at the top of the users’ screen, and they’re not yet as ubiquitous as on, say, Instagram.

Stories are a natural fit to give a behind-the-scenes look at your company culture — why not let your employees take turns doing a story ‘takeover’, then repromote what they’ve shot from their personal accounts?

Feeling inspired? It’s now time to discover how to make a LinkedIn video, and the best practices to make your content stand out on the platform.

How to make a LinkedIn video in 6 steps

If you’re going to invest time and energy into creating a LinkedIn video, you’re going to want it to be the best it can possibly be. Luckily, it’s not complicated or expensive to create high-quality videos that represent your brand well. Here are some simple steps to set yourself up for success.

Arrange the right setup

To shoot a good video, you need the right gear — but don’t worry! A professional film crew or studio is definitely not required. Make sure you have a good camera (a newer-generation smartphone is perfectly fine), and buy an affordable external microphone so that your audio is crisp and clear.

You’ll also need to think about lighting. Natural light is a classic for a reason — it’s beautiful, flattering, and free! However, if you can’t swing filming in natural light, setting up a few of your own lighting points can help a lot.

Before filming, run some tests to try out your setting, camera, and microphone all together. That way, you can make any little adjustments and get everything looking great before you shoot.

Script your video

No matter how well-spoken you are, your video will sound better if you work from a script. To perform well on Linkedin, you need to keep things concise! Rambling and awkward pauses can cost you views, comments, and likes.

Your video script doesn’t need to be set in stone — it’s okay to ad-lib a little bit as you get into the flow of filming. But in general, plan to go into your shooting session with a crystal-clear idea of what you’re going to say.

Create a great storyboard

Think of storyboarding like scripting, but for the visuals of your video rather than what’s being said. Storyboarding might be less important if you’re just filming one person speaking, but if your video will have any action, scene changes, or you’ll be demonstrating something onscreen, it’s best to have an idea how each segment of your video will look.

Prepare your subject

It’s important to make sure whoever you’re filming feels calm, prepared, and is comfortable going on camera. However, it’s especially important if you’ll be streaming something live or relatively unscripted, like a livestream or LinkedIn story.

While you don’t want to give your subject a word-for-word script, ensure that you have a general idea of what they’re going to say, and share with them your goals and desired outcomes for the video.

Know your tech specs

You could have the most interesting content in the world, but if it’s not optimized for how LinkedIn displays video, users will find it annoying, confusing and even uncomfortable to watch! We will share with you the different LinkedIn video specs:

LinkedIn Video Stories Specs

• Resolution: 1080 (w) x 1920 (h) px
• Frame: 30 FPS, square pixels
• Supported file types: H264, MP4
• Aspect Ratio: 9:16

LinkedIn Native Video Specs

• Video length: 3 seconds–10 minutes
• File size: 75 KB–5 GB
• Orientation: Horizontal or vertical; note that vertical videos are cropped into a square in the feed
• Aspect ratio: 1:2.4 or 2.4:1
• Resolution range: 256 × 144 to 4096 × 2304
• File formats: ASF, AVI, FLV, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, MKV, QuickTime, WebM, H264/AVC, MP4, VP8, VP9, WMV2, and WMV3

LinkedIn Video Ad Specs

• Video length: 3 seconds–30 minutes
• File size: 75KB–200MB
• Orientation: Horizontal only; vertical videos aren’t supported by LinkedIn video ads
• Pixel and aspect ratio: 360p (480 x 360; wide 640 x 360); 480p (640 x 480); 720p (960 x 720; wide 1280 x 720); 1080p (1440 x 1080; wide 1920 x 1080)
• File format: MP4

Edit your video

Editing is what turns raw footage into an entertaining, informative video. Here are a few ways to video editing techniques to make your video that’s attention-getting, engaging, and fun to watch!

• Add stock images or footage to illustrate what’s being said
• Use motion graphics, animation and transitions to give the video a fun, dynamic feel
• Choose the right background music for your video’s desired atmosphere.
• Add captions to every single video you publish to LinkedIn. Captions will:
  1) Make your content more accessible for viewers with hearing problems,
  2) Reach the widest audience possible — 80% of users will watch without sound!
  3) Help with your video’s SEO ranking.

Choosing the right LinkedIn video maker

Your in-house marketing team probably doesn’t have the budget or inclination to bring in a professional film crew. That’s where premium video production tools come in. They’re designed for the needs of marketers who know what a great video looks like, but aren’t experts at technical videography themselves.

Premium, enterprise-level video editing tools come with more features, such as pre-made templates, libraries of royalty-free stock images, video, and audio, and automatic caption generators.

Video production can be intimidating, especially if your marketing team hasn’t experimented with it before. But the good news is that it doesn’t need to be — and with the right video editing software, in-house marketers can create professional-quality videos their company will be proud to share.

PlayPlay is a premium video editing tool that was designed specifically for the needs of in-house marketing teams. Video is no longer optional for great corporate marketing — but thankfully, it no longer needs to be time-consuming or expensive to create professional, branded videos that help your company reach its goals.

If your teams want to make fun LinkedIn videos quickly and easily, give PlayPlay a try. Sign up for your free, 7-day trial, and see how PlayPlay can simplify your video marketing life!