Struggling to get noticed on LinkedIn despite sharing valuable content? Wondering how to use video to establish authority and become the go-to expert in your field?
In this article, you’ll discover how to craft a powerful LinkedIn video strategy that builds credibility, fosters genuine connections, and positions you as a respected leader in your industry without feeling salesy or forced.
Why Should Marketers Focus on LinkedIn Video?
LinkedIn itself is actively encouraging native video content with clear signals that the platform wants to promote video creators. In fact, just before this interview, LinkedIn expert Louise Brogan received an email from LinkedIn telling her that her next post should be a video.
Typically, when social media platforms want to encourage specific content types, they boost that content’s visibility when users post it.
Beyond the Linkedin algorithm advantages, LinkedIn native video marketing creates a powerful human connection that text alone simply cannot match. When you appear on camera, your audience can see your facial expressions, hear your tone of voice, and connect with you as a person. These human elements accelerate relationship-building with your audience.
Video also offers a significant opportunity to differentiate yourself on LinkedIn. While the platform has traditionally been text-focused, the widespread adoption of AI for content creation has led to a flood of AI-generated written posts. Video content remains distinctly human in an increasingly AI-dominated content landscape.
The Strategic Benefits of LinkedIn Video
The impact of strategic video content on LinkedIn can be substantial. Brogan shares examples of clients who have achieved remarkable results:
A PowerPoint design consultant, Fiona Walsh, recorded twelve instructional videos in just half a day. After posting these videos, she was invited to speak at a conference in Europe based solely on the visibility gained from her LinkedIn videos. This exposure also led to significant business opportunities, including a €10,000 contract with a company that discovered her through her video content.
For business pages, Brogan notes that video content consistently outperforms other content types. One client’s LinkedIn company page analytics showed significantly higher engagement rates for video posts compared to text-only updates.
A motorcycle company apprenticeship trainer created four videos about his journey and the value of apprenticeship programs. These authentic, story-based videos became the company’s best performing content of the year, effectively promoting their apprenticeship initiatives while establishing thought leadership in this area.
What To Consider Before Using Video on LinkedIn
Before hitting record, Brogan emphasizes the importance of thorough preparation. This foundational work is essential for creating video content that resonates with your audience and achieves your business objectives.
Think Like a Thought Leader
When planning your LinkedIn video strategy, adopt a thought leadership mindset. Focus on sharing valuable insights, expertise, and perspectives that position you or your team members as authorities in your field.
For example, Brogan’s PowerPoint design client created videos sharing tips and best practices for slide design. These videos established her as an expert in her niche, attracting both peers in her industry and potential clients seeking her expertise.
Similarly, her apprenticeship trainer client shared his journey from apprentice to trainer, providing valuable insights about apprenticeship programs from both the apprentice’s and the company’s perspectives. This authentic storytelling positioned both him and his company as thought leaders in the apprenticeship space.
Identify Who Will Appear on Camera
For company accounts, consider which team members would be most effective on camera. This person might be the CEO, but often, subject matter experts within the organization can be even more compelling. Look for people who:
- Have specific expertise in areas relevant to your audience
- Can communicate naturally and authentically on camera
- Represent the values and mission of your organization
- Have stories and experiences that would resonate with your audience
If you’re a solopreneur or representing your personal brand, you’ll likely be the one on camera. In either case, Brogan emphasizes that authenticity is more important than polished performance skills.
Consider Your Content Types and Stories
Before recording, think about the types of content that would provide value to your audience while highlighting your expertise. Possibilities include:
- Behind-the-scenes looks at your business operations
- Educational content showcasing your expertise
- Customer success stories
- Product demonstrations
- Industry insights and analysis
- Personal journey stories that relate to your professional expertise
For product-based businesses, Brogan suggests simple behind-the-scenes content: “You could literally do a walk around in your factory or your warehouse and show people behind the scenes because people love that human connection, and we’re nosy.”
One of Brogan’s clients, Port City Signs, created videos showing its process from design concept through production to installation. These videos, which simply documented their everyday work, became their most popular content because they satisfied viewers’ natural curiosity about how things are made.
The PREP Framework for Creating LinkedIn Video
Brogan has developed a comprehensive framework called PREP to guide the creation of effective LinkedIn videos:
- Plan your content
- Record your video
- Edit for clarity and impact
- Publish and repurpose
Let’s explore each step in detail.
#1: Plan: Crafting Your Message and Strategy
The planning stage lays the foundation for successful video content. This involves determining your video’s purpose, target audience, key messages, and call to action.
Brogan recommends structuring your LinkedIn videos with these key elements:
- Start With a Hook: Begin with an attention-grabbing statement or question that immediately interests viewers. Your hook is crucial because capturing and holding an audience’s attention on social media is increasingly difficult, which is why LinkedIn recommends keeping videos under two minutes.
- Tell a Story or Share Insights: The main body of your video should deliver value through storytelling or information sharing. Brogan notes, “If you can tell a story or share some data or insights into your industry, I find that works really, really well with people.”
For example, a strengths coach might open with a fact about specific strengths and then share a story about how a client leveraged those strengths to overcome a workplace challenge.
- End With a Call to Action: Every video should conclude by directing viewers to take a specific next step. The CTA might be as simple as “Follow me for more content like this” or something more specific like “Check out the guide in my featured section” or “Message me for the free download mentioned in this video.”
Rather than creating stand-alone videos, consider developing a series of related videos around a central theme. This approach encourages viewers to return for subsequent content and creates a more comprehensive resource on your chosen topic.
For example, VPS created a series of nine videos on employee engagement, with each one addressing a different aspect of the topic. This approach allowed for in-depth exploration while keeping individual videos concise and focused.
#2: Record: Creating Quality Video Content
When it comes to recording, Brogan emphasizes that you don’t need professional equipment to create effective LinkedIn videos. However, attention to a few key factors can significantly improve quality.
While LinkedIn itself gives somewhat conflicting advice—in some cases suggesting that all you need is a phone camera and good lighting, while in other instances recommending more elaborate setups—Brogan recommends focusing on these essentials:
- Good Lighting: Aim for light on your face, preferably natural light from a window.
- Clear Audio: Invest in a decent microphone for better sound quality. “Having a clear audio really helps,” Brogan emphasizes.
- Stable Camera Position: Ensure your camera or phone is securely positioned.
Brogan uses StreamYard for remote recording sessions with clients, which offers several advantages.
It allows for interviewer-interviewee setups, making subjects more comfortable by giving them someone to talk to rather than just a camera; records high-quality video that can be easily edited later; captures separate audio and video tracks for more flexible editing.
“A lot of my clients aren’t going to go out and invest in proper lighting and everything, and that’s absolutely fine,” notes Brogan. The focus should be on authentic content rather than perfect production quality.
For those recording on their own, Brogan suggests:
- Having another person off-camera to ask questions to make the recording feel more conversational.
- Using a teleprompter app if needed for script reading
- Placing reminders near your camera (like a post-it note saying, “Look into the camera lens”)
- Ensuring a quiet environment by turning off fans and closing windows to minimize background noise
Brogan notes that many people feel nervous about appearing on video and shares her tips for making subjects more comfortable:
- Conduct a pre-recording conversation to help them prepare
- Assure them that mistakes can be edited out later
- Have them talk to a real person rather than directly to the camera
- Break the recording into manageable segments rather than trying to capture everything in one take
#3: Edit: Refining Your Video for Maximum Impact
Editing transforms raw footage into polished, engaging content. LinkedIn recommends keeping your videos under two minutes, and Brogan suggests aiming for a video length of 60-90 seconds. This length is more likely to maintain viewer attention and increase the chances of complete views, which benefits your content’s visibility.
She recommends Descript as an accessible tool to edit videos, especially for those without raw video editing experience.
Descript converts your video into a text transcript, allowing you to edit the video by simply editing the text. This approach makes video editing as intuitive as editing a document:
- Upload your video to Descript
- Wait for the AI to generate a transcript (usually takes about a minute)
- Edit the transcript by selecting and removing unwanted sections
- Create compositions (separate video clips) from your selections
Descript’s AI capabilities enable several helpful functions.
The Clean Up Audio feature has light, medium, or heavy settings to automatically remove filler words, repeated phrases, and mistakes.
The Create Social Clips feature generates multiple short clips from longer recordings, with options for different aspect ratios for landscape or portrait clips. LinkedIn increasingly promotes vertical video formats, similar to TikTok and Instagram Reels. This vertical format appears prominently in the dedicated video tab on mobile devices (currently available in the United States and expanding to other regions).
The Add Captions feature generates and edits captions to ensure accuracy.
Brogan strongly recommends burning captions directly onto your videos rather than relying on LinkedIn’s auto-caption feature. This ensures that captions appear for all viewers, regardless of their personal settings. Adding custom captions is particularly important because:
- Many people watch videos with the sound off.
- Viewers may speak different languages or have different accents.
- AI auto-captions often misinterpret words, especially with non-American accents.
#4: Publish: Maximizing the Value of Your Video Content
The final stage of the PREP framework involves not just posting your video but strategically leveraging it to create additional content.
When publishing your video on LinkedIn, consider these recommendations:
- Schedule Strategically: Use LinkedIn’s native scheduling feature to post at optimal times for your audience.
- Write Compelling Accompanying Text: Create a text post that opens with a strong hook (ideally one line), highlights key points from the video, and includes a clear call to action.
- Be Careful With Links: LinkedIn’s algorithm tends to limit the reach of posts containing external links. Instead of including a link in your post, Brogan suggests directing people to your featured section or inviting them to message you directly for resources.