The Video Format Working Best on LinkedIn Right Now

I am sharing 3 things with you today:

1: The video format working best for LinkedIn

2: The content purpose of LinkedIn pages

3: Why you shouldn’t depend on content for lead gen  

Let’s get into it.

The Video Format Working Best for LinkedIn

In recent weeks, LinkedIn has been pushing the platform to be more video centric. I don’t know why but it seems to be order from the management.

From a user perspective, this is quite tricky. For example, I get enough dose of video from TikTok, YouTube, IG. To come to LinkedIn and see the same thing in the same format is just tiring.

Plus, LinkedIn is a professional platform. I am not there for entertainment. Anyway.

LinkedIn has been trying to encourage people to do more video content. And they encourage the portrait video format like the ones on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, etc.

But the problem is that the views are tanking. People are trying it and it is not working. Text content is performing better. Text and a picture perform best.

Patrick, one of my LinkedIn connections, is big on video content. He has made a bunch of these portrait videos. I saw them and I made a comment for him to try landscape format.

The portrait videos always looked funny to me. I use LinkedIn on a tablet/iPad. And I am sure it looks worse for people using a desktop. Landscape video makes a lot more sense in my opinion. So, I suggested he tried it.

This past week, he tried it and it outperformed his other videos.

I wasn’t surprised. It was better on the eyes. I remembered LinkedIn tried stories at some point but they eventually phased it out.

People are not on LinkedIn to be entertained. They are on LinkedIn to do business. And more business is conducted through the medium of text than video. In fact, there are lots of business executives that have come to hate meetings.

You can read text at your own pace. You cannot go through video at your own pace. And it is sad that most people doing video do not understand how to hook or get to the point quickly.

In text, you can just scroll to the bottom and get to the point. In video, you have to wait. People hate waiting, unless it is a delightful wait (like in entertainment).

So, text is still king. But if you want to do video, do landscape format – not portrait.

The Content Purpose of LinkedIn Pages

It is no secret that the content you post on your LinkedIn company page will not perform as good as your personal page.

And there a number of reasons for this.

The first is that people connect with people. People relate to people. People bond with people. Business is human to human. The fact that it is coming from a human carries more weight than it coming from an entity.

The second reason is that most company content sucks. If you respond to the company page, who are you responding to? No one knows.

The third reason is that LinkedIn expects the company page to run ads. If you are not running ads with the company page, LinkedIn will keep pressing you to run ads.

This is why I deduced that the purpose of the company page is to repost content from personal pages. With the exception of announcements and official statements, everything else ought to be reposts from personal accounts.

That’s the best way it works. Every other content strategy format for company pages barely works. In fact, there are more thought leadership ads on LinkedIn now. Meaning that the CEO or founder will promote their post (with an offer), instead of promoting it from the company page.

People love to support people. If you think of it that way, it makes a lot of sense.

Why You Shouldn’t Depend on Content for Lead Gen

Traditionally, content has always been a part of lead gen. The purpose of making content was to get leads or gain new customers. That was the norm.

But the recent changes to social media platforms is triggering a rethink of that. Social media is no longer social. Now, it is interest-based.

Furthermore, SEO is changing irreversibly. People are using AI for search. The avenues you rely on for traffic is changing drastically. This means you need a surer way to do lead gen if you want business to continue smoothly.

Smart businesses no longer depend on organic content for lead gen. Instead, they do paid ads, cold/warm outreach, etc.

This has now shifted the role of content to one of two things. It is either sales nurture or retention, depending on the kind of business.

Content is nurture. Interested people are looking at your content whether you notice it or not. And if your content is not nurturing them for a sale, they will go elsewhere.

In recent times, I have discovered that when people sign up (for whatever it is you offer), that is the best time to sell them something. In most cases, those people have been watching you for weeks or months before they sign up. And the only reason they sign up now is that they are ready to buy.

Content is no longer for lead gen. Instead, content is for lead nurture.

This might change in the future, but right now, it is how things stand.

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