It may be a little late to the party, but with its upcoming native video feature, LinkedIn is poised to provide brand communicators with a new way to capture attention on the platform.
LinkedIn first introduced its video feature in August 2016, but only 500 of its most influential users were given access. That's about to change: Soon, the app will be rolled out to all 500 million of its users.
The native feature offers "the ability to record, upload, and post original videos directly into your LinkedIn Feed using our mobile app and coming soon, desktop," says Tatiana De Almeida, PR manager on LinkedIn's corporate communications team.
PR News asked De Almeida about the the feature's likely applications for professional communicators, how to measure its success and what makes it stands out from native video on other social platforms.
PR NEWS: How is LinkedIn’s video feature different from the way users consume and upload video on other social platforms?
De Almeida: Our professional context creates an experience that is unique to LinkedIn. The best use cases for videos on LinkedIn speak to the professional topics that our members care about—for example, sharing perspectives from an industry event, giving insights on breaking news, walking through a product demo or teaching others a skill.
PR NEWS: How can communicators use LinkedIn video to reach new audiences?
De Almeida: Native video has the potential to create new opportunities, like getting the attention of a recruiter by sharing smart insights about current industry news or connecting with someone that can give you advice.
PR NEWS: When can we expect to have access to the feature?
De Almeida: Right now, we're focused on building a great experience for members to share video but we look forward to opening this up to companies and publishers in the future. Marketers and communicators can expect to have access to create videos in the coming months.
PR NEWS: Are there any brands or publishers that have started demoing the feature and found success?
De Almeida: Check out Hotel Tonight’s CEO Sam Shank's inside look at a team lunch, Shane Atchinson announcing his new role as CMO of Domo or a LinkedIn Top Voice giving his best advice for reading three books a week.
PR NEWS: There’s been some buzz around a LinkedIn-specific metric for seeing your video’s top viewers’ accounts/business affiliations. How does that work?
De Almeida: As with your other LinkedIn content, you'll be able to see demographic insights like the top companies, titles and locations of your viewers. You'll be able to see the videos you’ve recorded as well as these analytics in the dashboard of your LinkedIn profile on both mobile and desktop.
PR NEWS: What KPIs will communicators be able to track on their LinkedIn videos?
De Almeida: You'll be able to see how many likes, shares, comments and views you receive on each video. (A view is counted when someone has watched at least 3 seconds.)
PR NEWS: How can those metrics help communicators strategize future content?
De Almeida: The metrics we provide will be very telling to marketers in terms of understanding the audiences they're reaching and tailoring the content they create. Those metrics may also uncover surprises in the types of companies or job titles that are viewing your content.
PR NEWS: What are your recommendations for improving the chances of reaching target audiences using LinkedIn video?
De Almeida: Make sure you post your video as “public” so that anyone on or off LinkedIn can view it—this will help you uncover new audiences. We also encourage using hashtags to help surface your videos in search. Our editorial team will curate and highlight timely, relevant videos across a number of our distribution channels which will increase your chances of getting featured.