There’s no doubt that LinkedIn is the world’s largest social network for businesses and working professionals. With it, the ability to find talent or opportunities, and research potential employers and employees, and customers and partners has never been easier.
But with 106 million active users each month, how do you differentiate your personal or company brand and make your profile truly standout from the crowd? The answer is by linking video content to it.
Linking video content in LinkedIn posts and sponsored content isn’t new, but a lot of LinkedIn users overlook the fact that they can also link videos to their personal profiles, and in a workaround way, their business profile if they manage their company’s page.
Places Where You Can Link Video Content on LinkedIn
Having a strong brand presence in all of your marketing channels is extremely important and video helps enhance that presence.
- Personal and Company Posts
- Sponsored Content
- Career Pages
- Personal Profiles
- Company Profiles (Workaround)
In the case of LinkedIn, company brand touch points are extended to the individual employee and vice versa, making the importance of having a strong profile that much more important.
Why Add Video to Your LinkedIn Profile?
Today’s information gatherers want video because it’s more engaging, more transparent and easier to consume. Of course all of the other elements of a good profile are still necessary, but a personal introduction video in your main summary can truly differentiate your profile from the next one. More importantly, a well-produced video can have a positive and lasting effect on those that watch it.
You can enhance your profile’s presence even more by linking additional video content inside of the individual “Experience” sections you have listed for previous employers. If any of those companies have a company or product overview video on a public video sharing site like YouTube or Vimeo, you can link them to your profile.
Benefits of Linking Video Content
Adding video to your profile by using LinkedIn’s media “video link” feature has benefits for both you and the companies you’ve worked for in the past. First, it makes it extremely easy for the people taking the time to view your profile to quickly understand more about you and your previous employers without having to visit their websites and search for the answers.
Second, it gives company brand managers the ability to extend a consistent brand message and appearance across all current and former employees who have a presence on the social network and choose to link company produced video content.
How to Add Video to LinkedIn Profiles
Linking video content to personal and company profiles only takes a few simple steps. LinkedIn’s native profile editing tool is extremely intuitive making the overall process of linking video super easy. Below I will show you how to link video content to both the Main Summary and Experience sections of your personal profile. Below that I will also show you a workaround that will allow you to link a permanent video to your company page.
Personal Profile Summary Videos
In your LinkedIn personal profile summary, the video will appear directly below the main summary content in the “media” section. I’ve only got one video embedded in my profile summary, but you can easily link multiple videos inside this section.
The LinkedIn platform allows you to embed video links from both YouTube and Vimeo as well as few other lesser known video and embedded content platforms. If a user clicks on the video in your summary it will open an expanded window with a larger video player that also displays the video’s description, see below.
Types of Videos to Use in Your Profile Summary
When it comes to choosing the right video or videos to include in the main summary section of your LinkedIn profile, it’s best to select content that reflects your professional career. Video resumes, which are essentially high-level personal introductions are becoming more and more popular and really help establish a personal connection with the viewer.
- Personal Introduction
- Company Overview
- Creative Portfolio
- Animated Slideshow
Animated Video PowerPoint Presentations are an easy way to engage viewers and highlight your accomplishments. If you work in a creative or design focused field, try putting together a video portfolio showcasing you or your agency’s best work.
Adding Videos to Your Profile Summary
To link videos inside of your personal profile summary, you’ll need to edit your profile by clicking the “Pencil Icon”, see below. Once your profile allows you to edit it, you’ll be presented with several fields that can be updated.
To upload your video link look for the “media” section, see below, towards the bottom of the available profile fields you can edit. First, click the “Link” button, and then you’ll be provided with a field to add your video link.
Once you’ve pasted your video link into the field be sure to click “Add” before you click “Save”.
Personal Profile Experience Videos
Just like in the “main summary” section of your LinkedIn profile, you can also add content to the “experiences” section of your profile too. I use video throughout my entire experiences section to help profile visitors get a solid understanding of who I am and the type of companies I’ve contributed to during my professional career. Below are some examples from my profile.
The process to link videos to your Experience section is very similar to linking videos to the main summary section of your personal profile.
Adding Videos to Your Profile Experience
First, click the “Pencil Icon” to open the editor for a specific company you’ve listed within the Experience section of your LinkedIn profile.
Then click “Link” and add the URL to the videos host location such as YouTube. Lastly be sure to click “Add” before your click “Save” otherwise your video will not display.
Adding video content to the Experience section of your LinkedIn profile is easy to do and highly encouraged if you want to stand out and make a bigger impact on the people that visit your profile page.
LinkedIn Company Page Videos
Currently, LinkedIn does not allow businesses to link video content directly to their company page, however, there is an easy work around to help you accomplish this. Your Linked in company page will always display your most recent update on it, see example below.
Linking a video to always appear on your company’s main page is easy. I’ve provided detailed instructions below using my company’s LinkedIn profile page as an example.
Adding Videos to Your Company Profile Page
First, you need to publish a post on your company page. Then you’ll need to edit it in order to make the video post always appear on your company page instead of your most recent post activity, you need to “Pin” it to the top of your feed on your activity page, see below.
The black thumbtack confirms that the video post is pinned to the top of your activity page and will always appear as your most recent update on your company’s LinkedIn page. And as a result, every person that visits your company page will be presented with an engaging video!
In Summary
In today’s ultra-competitive online business landscape, LinkedIn has proven to be the world’s greatest social network for working professionals and businesses alike. Having a LinkedIn profile is no longer something every working professional should consider but something they must have. One easy way to boost both the presence of your personal and company’s LinkedIn profiles is to add video content by using LinkedIn’s “video link” feature.
About the Author
Peter Horton is a seasoned B2B technology marketer and the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Telideo Productions, a Denver based video marketing agency that specializes in corporate video production.