LinkedIn is a popular social media platform used by professionals and businesses to network, share content, and build their personal brand. With over 810 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is a great way to reach a large professional audience.
One useful feature of LinkedIn is the ability to send direct messages to connect with other members. You can enhance these messages by embedding multimedia, like images, presentations, and videos. Videos can be especially engaging and help convey your message more effectively.
However, LinkedIn doesn’t allow you to embed videos directly when composing a new message. You need to add the video using HTML code. This isn’t too difficult once you know how to properly format the HTML tags.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explain step-by-step how to embed a video in a LinkedIn message using HTML.
Why Embed a Video in LinkedIn Messages?
Here are some of the benefits of embedding a video in a LinkedIn message:
– Make your message more dynamic and visually engaging. A video grabs the recipient’s attention and makes them more likely to view your message.
– Demonstrate a product, service, or concept more clearly than you could explain purely through text.
– Strengthen your personal brand by showcasing thought leadership content and expertise through video.
– Share an introduction video to establish trust and familiarity when connecting with new contacts.
– Increase conversion rates by using video to promote an offer, deal, or event. Videos can boost clicks and engagement.
– Entertain and amuse recipients by sharing funny, interesting, or inspiring videos that relate to your industry or niche.
As you can see, embedding a video in a LinkedIn message can be a powerful communication tool. But you need to follow the proper steps to add HTML code for the video to appear correctly.
Step 1: Get the Video Embed Code
The first step is to get the embed code for the video you want to include in your LinkedIn message. Here are the main ways to find the video embed code:
**YouTube**
For YouTube videos, follow these instructions:
1. Go to the YouTube video page you want to embed.
2. Click the “Share” button below the video title.
3. Select the “Embed” tab.
4. Highlight and copy the entire HTML code shown in the box. This is the embed code.
It will look something like this, though the specific video ID will be different:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
**Vimeo**
To get the Vimeo video embed code:
1. Navigate to the Vimeo video page.
2. Click the “Share” button below the video.
3. Click the “Embed” tab.
4. Copy the provided embed code.
It will be formatted like this:
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/VIDEO_ID" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
**Wistia**
For Wistia hosted videos:
1. Go to the video page.
2. Click the “Share” button.
3. Select “Embed.”
4. Copy the HTML embed code.
The Wistia embed code looks like:
<script src="https://fast.wistia.com/embed/medias/VIDEO_ID.jsonp" async></script><script src="https://fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js" async></script><div class="wistia_responsive_padding" style="padding:56.25% 0 0 0;position:relative;"><div class="wistia_responsive_wrapper" style="height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;top:0;width:100%;"><div class="wistia_embed wistia_async_VIDEO_ID videoFoam=true" style="height:100%;position:relative;width:100%"><div class="wistia_swatch" style="height:100%;left:0;opacity:0;overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0;transition:opacity 200ms;width:100%;"><img src="https://fast.wistia.com/embed/medias/VIDEO_ID/swatch" style="filter:blur(5px);height:100%;object-fit:contain;width:100%;" alt="" onload="this.parentNode.style.opacity=1;" /></div></div></div></div>
These are the most common video platforms, but you can get the embed code from any service that hosts videos. Refer to the specific site’s instructions.
Step 2: Paste the Embed Code in Your LinkedIn Message
Now that you’ve copied the video embed code, it’s time to paste it into your LinkedIn message.
When composing a new message in LinkedIn, switch the text editor from “Default” to “HTML”:
With HTML enabled, paste the full embed code you copied earlier into the message body. Make sure the entire embed code is included unaltered.
The message body will now look something like this:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Step 3: Preview and Send Your Message
Before sending your LinkedIn message, preview how it will look to the recipient.
Click the “Preview” icon in the message composer:
This will open a popup preview so you can confirm the embedded video appears correctly. Click “Close” to return to editing.
When ready, click “Send” to deliver your video-embedded message!
Some tips for an effective video message:
– Add context before or after the embed code explaining what the video is and why you’re sharing it. Don’t rely solely on the video without any preamble.
– Ensure the video is relevant and provides value to the recipient based on your relationship and conversation history. Avoid sending random videos with no purpose.
– Use videos sparingly and thoughtfully. Don’t bombard connections with a lot of video messages, which may come across as spammy.
– Follow up any video shares with a personalized message asking for the recipient’s thoughts or feedback. This helps further the conversation.
Troubleshooting Issues
Most of the time, the above steps should allow you to successfully embed a video in a LinkedIn message. However, here are some troubleshooting tips for common issues:
**Video appears as a link, not embedded** – This usually means the full embed code didn’t get copied or pasted correctly. Go back and ensure the entire embed code is present verbatim in the message body.
**Video loads slowly or doesn’t play** – Some videos may be slow or fail to load due to size or compression issues. Try hosting the video on a different platform like YouTube or Vimeo for better results.
**Video embed code causes error** – If the video code generates an error in the message composer, there may be an issue with the embed code itself. Double check that you copied the code correctly without typos.
**Video appears cropped or resized poorly** – Fix sizing problems by adjusting the height and width values in the iframe embed code so the video dimensions match the player’s aspect ratio.
**Restricted or members-only video** – You’ll need to upload the video to a different host to be able to share it if the original video platform has sharing restrictions.
If you continue having trouble embedding a video in LinkedIn, you may need to contact their customer support for assistance.
Embedding Videos Through LinkedIn’s UI
While the HTML embed code method works best, there is also a way to embed videos directly using LinkedIn’s integrated formatting options.
To do this:
1. When composing your message, click the media icon:
2. Select “Add video”
3. Search for and select the video you want to embed.
4. Choose the part of video you want to embed if prompted.
5. Adjust sizing and play settings as needed.
6. Click “Insert.”
The main downside to this method is you have less customization over video dimensions and advanced attributes compared to raw HTML embed codes. But it can be simpler for basic video embedding needs.
Embedding Videos in LinkedIn Posts
In addition to LinkedIn messages, you can embed videos in LinkedIn posts in much the same way using the HTML editor.
When creating a new LinkedIn post, click the “Formatting options” icon to switch into HTML mode:
From there, follow the same steps covered above to paste your video embed code into the post content.
Embedded videos can help make your LinkedIn posts stand out in the feed and capture more attention. Just make sure the video is relevant and valuable to your connections for maximum impact.
The post preview and publishing process works similarly to LinkedIn messages, so be sure to thoroughly test your embedded video before public posting.
Best Practices for Embedded Videos
Here are some top tips to optimize your video embeds in LinkedIn messages and posts:
– Keep videos short and concise. Under 2-3 minutes is ideal. Longer videos may lose viewer interest quickly.
– Speak to the camera directly if sharing an intro video. This creates a more engaging, personal feel.
– Curate visually appealing thumbnail images for embedded videos to encourage clicks.
– Link to your website, landing page, or offer page near the embedded video to drive traffic.
– Experiment with different video types like interviews, testimonials, product demos, or live events.
– Use strong contrasting colors if including text overlays so they are readable.
– Leverage clickable CTA overlays to promote calls-to-action to viewers.
– AB test different thumbnail images, titles, and video styles to see what content performs best.
– Check video performance analytics available on platforms like YouTube to identify viewing dropoff rates.
– Make sure videos are optimized for mobile viewing since many LinkedIn users are on mobile devices.
By following best practices with your video embeds, you can maximize their impact and get the most value for your time investment.
Other Ways to Share Video on LinkedIn
Although embedding videos directly in messages and posts is powerful, here are a couple other options for video marketing on LinkedIn:
**LinkedIn Company Pages** – Business and organization pages can host dedicated video libraries visible to anyone who visits the page. This is a great way to house a collection of video content.
**LinkedIn Video Ads** – For businesses wanting to run video ads, LinkedIn provides robust advertising options with customized targeting and analytic data.
**LinkedIn Live Video** – LinkedIn Live allows broadcasting real-time streamed video which followers can view and interact with as it streams. This works well for events, announcements, Q&As, and other timely content.
**LinkedIn Stories** – While not a full video option, LinkedIn Stories do allow adding very brief video clips up to 20 seconds, similar to Instagram or Facebook Stories.
So if embedding videos in messages and posts isn’t right for your goals, focus on using one of these other formats tailored specifically for video. The right platform depends on your specific audience, content, and objectives.
Should You Use Video in LinkedIn Messages and Posts?
Here are a few key advantages and drawbacks to weigh when deciding if you should utilize embedded video in LinkedIn content:
**Pros:**
– Boost engagement and click-through rates
– Showcase your brand personality using richer media
– Demonstrate products/services visually
– Appear more trusted and established
– Increase conversion rates and leads
**Cons:**
– Videos take more time and resources to create
– Mobile viewers may prefer text-based content
– Too many videos may damage your sender reputation
– Viewers can more easily ignore video embeds
– You lose some customization versus natively hosted video
Overall, thoughtfully embedding high-quality videos aligned to your goals and audience can deliver tremendous value on LinkedIn. Just be sure to monitor performance data and recipient feedback to refine your video strategy over time.
Conclusion
Adding videos to your LinkedIn messages and posts is an impactful technique to strengthen engagement and demonstrate your thought leadership. Although LinkedIn doesn’t natively support video embeds in messages, using HTML embed codes makes the process straightforward.
Simply obtain the right embed code for your selected video, paste it into the LinkedIn composer in HTML mode, preview the results, and send. With the best practices covered in this guide, you can start embedding dynamic videos to elevate your LinkedIn content.
Friend, here is a summary of the key points:
– To embed a video in a LinkedIn message, get the HTML embed code from a hosting platform like YouTube or Vimeo, and paste it into the message body using the HTML editor.
– Embedding videos makes messages more visual, engaging and helps strengthen your personal brand.
– When pasting the code, be sure to use the full unaltered iframe embed syntax provided by the video host.
– Always preview your message before sending to verify the video appears correctly.
– Follow best practices like keeping videos concise, using strong CTAs, and tracking performance data.
– In addition to messages, you can embed videos in LinkedIn posts and utilize other formats like Company Pages, Live Video and Video Ads.
Let me know if you need any clarification or have additional questions!