LinkedIn is a great platform for sharing professional content and engaging with your network. One popular type of content to share on LinkedIn is YouTube videos. Embedding a YouTube video in your LinkedIn posts or on your LinkedIn profile can help showcase your skills, promote your business, drive traffic to your YouTube channel, and boost engagement.
Posting YouTube videos on LinkedIn is easy to do, but there are some best practices you should follow to ensure your videos are shared properly. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk through everything you need to know about posting YouTube videos on LinkedIn step-by-step.
Why Post YouTube Videos on LinkedIn?
Here are some of the top reasons to share YouTube videos on LinkedIn:
- Demonstrate your expertise – videos allow you to showcase your skills and knowledge to connections.
- Increase engagement – videos tend to get more reactions and comments than plain text posts.
- Improve brand awareness – videos help you promote your business, products, services or causes.
- Drive traffic – videos can direct viewers to your YouTube channel, website or other sites.
- Show off your personality – video gives your audience a better sense of who you are.
- Establish trust – video content builds a more personal connection with your audience.
In short, videos allow you to share richer, more dynamic content that stands out in the LinkedIn feed. Embedding YouTube videos provides an easy way to tap into the power of visual storytelling and boost your reach on LinkedIn.
Step 1 – Get the Video URL on YouTube
The first step is to get the proper URL for the YouTube video you want to embed. Here’s how:
- Go to YouTube and locate the video you want to share.
- Click the ‘Share’ button below the video.
- Select the ‘Embed’ tab.
- Highlight and copy the entire embed code or just the video URL.
For example, for this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkFqMJoa-5w
The embed URL would be:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=MkFqMJoa-5w
This is the URL you’ll need to paste when sharing the video on LinkedIn.
Step 2 – Paste the URL in Your LinkedIn Post
Now that you’ve copied the video URL, it’s time to share it on LinkedIn:
- Go to LinkedIn and create a new post just like you normally would.
- Paste the full YouTube video URL on its own line in the post editor.
- The video should appear as a preview thumbnail below the URL.
- Add any text, hashtags, @mentions as you normally would in a post.
- Click ‘Post’ to publish the update with the embedded video.
And that’s it! The video will now be live and viewable directly within your LinkedIn post.
Step 3 – Customize With Post Text
When embedding a YouTube video in a LinkedIn post, you’ll want to include some descriptive text above and below the video:
- Lead with an introduction explaining what the video is about and why it’s worth watching.
- Summarize key points or takeaways from the video after embedding it.
- Close with a call to action – ask viewers to like, comment, subscribe to your channel, visit your site, etc.
This text provides helpful context around the video so viewers understand its relevance. It also gives them a reason to watch the full video and take further action.
Here’s an example post with intro and outro text:
How to Give a Memorable Presentation
Public speaking can be nerve-wracking. Here are my top 3 tips for giving a polished, impactful presentation:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=l5vC-YTmpgk
Let me know what you thought of these public speaking tips! Feel free to also share your own advice in the comments. And don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos on professional skills and career development.
The accompanying text grabs attention, summarizes the key video content, and prompts further viewer engagement. This results in higher video watch time and gives viewers added value beyond just the video itself.
Step 4 – Optimize With Hashtags & @Mentions
To extend the reach of your YouTube video posts on LinkedIn, make sure to also use relevant hashtags and @mentions.
Hashtags – Include a mix of broader and more niche hashtags related to the video topic. This helps the right audiences discover your content.
@Mentions – Tag any people, companies, or groups featured in the video or who would benefit from it. This exposes the video to their networks.
For example, for a video on leadership lessons, you could include hashtags like:
#leadership #management #careeradvice #leadershiptips
And @mention profiles such as:
@HarvardBiz @McKinsey @WarrenBuffett
Strategic hashtags and mentions boost your LinkedIn video’s visibility and help get it in front of the right target audiences. Just don’t go overboard – aim for a healthy mix of 5-10 total tags.
Step 5 – Post Consistently
Posting one video on LinkedIn likely won’t attract much attention on its own. You need to share videos consistently to build an engaged audience.
Aim to post videos to LinkedIn at least 1-2x per week. This keeps your brand top of mind and gives followers fresh content to look forward to.
Over time, you can analyze which topics, video styles, and posting times resonate best with your audience. Then double down on those to maximize the impact of your YouTube presence on LinkedIn.
Consistent posting establishes your authority, expands your reach, and gets more mileage out of your video content.
Best Practices for Posting YouTube Videos on LinkedIn
To ensure your YouTube videos are effective on LinkedIn, keep these best practices in mind:
- Post short videos when possible (under 5 minutes). Long videos may lose viewer interest.
- Mobile optimize your videos for vertical viewing.
- Use eye-catching thumbnail images that sell the video.
- Leverage captions to make videos accessible and easy to understand.
- Link back to your YouTube channel or website.
- Promote new videos across LinkedIn Groups and with Sponsored Content ads.
- Analyze video metrics to see which perform best.
- Interact with commenters and build a community around your videos.
Optimizing your approach will lead to higher view counts, more meaningful engagement, and increased subscriptions/traffic to your YouTube channel.
TIps for Creating Share-Worthy LinkedIn Videos
Not sure what types of videos to produce? Here are some top-performing styles of video to create for your LinkedIn audience:
Expert How-To Videos
Share your best tips and tactics on relevant business, career, or industry-related topics. How-to videos position you as a thought leader.
Listicles
Everyone loves a good list or roundup. Share the top 10 tools you can’t live without or the 5 best ways to improve productivity. Lists are easily digestible.
Behind the Scenes
Give viewers insider access to your company, office, team, or business with a “day in the life” style video. It makes your brand feel more approachable.
AMA Sessions
Host a live or recorded Q&A where you answer common questions from your audience. This shows you care about connecting.
Event Recordings
Capture important moments from conferences, talks, and other events and share the highlights reel.
LinkedIn Video Specs
To ensure your videos look polished, refer to LinkedIn’s recommended video specs:
- File type: MP4 or MOV
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 landscape
- Frame rate: 29.97 FPS
- Resolution: 720p HD or higher
- Max file size: 5GB
- Max length: 10 minutes (but shorter videos tend to perform better)
Using the highest quality settings possible within these specs will make your videos shine.
Tools to Easily Create and Edit Videos
Don’t have video production experience? You can leverage some simple tools to make high-quality videos:
Tool | Key Features |
---|---|
Biteable | Animated videos from templates |
Adobe Spark | Dynamic graphics and effects |
Canva | Library of background images and illustrations |
Animoto | Music, text animations, and photo collages |
Magisto | AI video editor automatically creates polished videos |
These tools make it easy for anyone to produce attractive videos in minutes. Many offer professional templates, stock footage, and editing capabilities.
Conclusion
Posting YouTube videos provides an impactful way to boost your LinkedIn presence. With the right strategy, you can build a loyal audience around your video content.
Focus on creating valuable, share-worthy videos. Optimize them for the LinkedIn platform. And promote your videos consistently to maximize reach and engagement.
What tips do you have for succeeding with YouTube and video content on LinkedIn? Share your insights in the comments below!