More video was uploaded to YouTube in the last 30 days than the TV Networks produced in the last 30 years? And, of the 133 million active LinkedIn users in the U.S., 40% of them use the platform daily.
Is this phenomenon driven only by millennials and those crafty creators on YouTube, or are business people using video to build relationships and grow their business too?
Well more than half of marketers plan to increase their usage of YouTube and LinkedIn in the next 12 months (source: Social Media Examiner), and video is a major part of their strategy.
Similar to TV networks like CNBC, LinkedIn is one of the few platforms with such a high concentration of business decision-makers.
Business owners – and especially sales people – are always looking for ways to break the ice and build trust and credibility. The ultimate goal is to become a trusted advisor to your best customers — someone they can turn to when they need to solve a problem.
So is there a way to stay top of mind and build your profile as an industry expert and problem solver with this attractive audience?
We know it’s hard to keep in touch with everyone all the time. The idea of achieving systematic scale in relationship building runs counter to whole idea of establishing emotional connections through meaningful interactions.
However, what if you had a way to deliver sight, sound, motion and emotion on a consistent basis as a way to keep in touch and build those connections?
Using Video to Keep In Touch
One method to consider that’s highly effective in germinating the seeds of a business relationship is to use video – specifically on LinkedIn.
Over the past 2 years, the use of social video by businesses has accelerated. More than half of marketing professionals named video as the type of content with the best ROI (return on investment.)
LinkedIn continues to be a driving force behind this movement. In August 2017, LinkedIn opened their native video platform to all members. If you’re looking for the best way to establish a published record of your knowledge and expertise, then LinkedIn video is the way to go.
We’ll save the mechanics of “how to” for another time, but below are 4 reasons why you should consider using video on LinkedIn to grow your business.
4 Reasons Using Video on LinkedIn is Not a Waste of Time
- Using video on LinkedIn forces you to codify your thinking. Just like writing, making presentations, or even swinging the golf club, the more you do it the better you become. Sharing your ideas and educating your customers using short form video forces you to sharpen your messages to focus on delivering value. The opportunity to test your key message points at scale helps you understand what resonates with your customers and what drives them to action. Once you determine what works, you can incorporate it into all of your communications vehicles.
- It makes you more succinct. Once you have your thoughts in order, you need to deliver your messaging in a very succinct way. Two minutes on video is quite long and you need to avoid awkward pauses and ummms if you want to keep the attention of your viewer. It’s so easy for the user to keep scrolling down the screen, so crafting a succinct and compelling message is critical to maintain attention.
- It helps you extend and amplify existing content. If you don’t have time to craft your own thoughts, you could always take an existing article from your blog or company newsletter and share your perspective about it on video. Don’t assume that your customers read all of your content. Extending your content across platforms is a smart and cost effective way to get the most bang for your buck.
- It helps you find and keep relationships. Shooting a video and hitting the publish button on a consistent basis helps you reach not only your network of connections, but also their network of connections. If your content is useful enough, your video will get shared and new people will discover you. In addition, your customers get the chance to see your face and hear your voice even when you’re not in front of them. Your consistent educational messaging will appear in their feed which helps you stay top of mind.
In conclusion, using video to on LinkedIn is not a waste of time. It makes you a better communicator and it’s an amazing way to build relationships at scale to help you grow your business.
In our next article, we’ll drill into the “how to” use LinkedIn video and have you up and running in less than 10 minutes.