The LinkedIn video intro allows you to record a short video to showcase on your profile and tell your professional story. LinkedIn recommends keeping your video intro to under 30 seconds. While you can say whatever you’d like in your video intro, LinkedIn has some suggested questions to help guide your video intro and highlight the most relevant professional information about yourself.
What is your full name and professional title?
Start by clearly stating your full name and current job title. For example: “Hi, I’m John Smith and I’m a Senior Software Engineer at XYZ Company.” This establishes who you are and your role right away.
What are 3-5 top skills you want to highlight?
Call out your most relevant hard and soft skills. For example: “My top skills are Python programming, leadership, team collaboration, project management, and strategic planning.” Keep it short and sweet.
What are you most proud of in your career?
Share a career accomplishment, award, or milestone you’re proud of. For example: “In my career, I’m most proud of leading the development of our top-selling product and seeing it grow from an idea into a solution used by over 1 million customers worldwide.”
What are you passionate about professionally?
Talk about what excites you and motivates you in your work. For example: “I’m passionate about using technology to solve real-world problems and make people’s lives easier and more efficient.”
What types of projects have you worked on recently?
Give a brief overview of current or recent projects to showcase your experience. For example: “Recently, I led development of a new mobile app for our company to improve the customer experience. Before that, I spearheaded an initiative to migrate our legacy systems to the cloud.”
What are you looking for or interested in professionally?
Share your current goals or interests. This lets people know how they can potentially connect or collaborate with you. For example: “Currently, I’m interested in leading an engineering team for a high-growth startup and am open to new opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area.”
What makes you different from others in your field?
Highlight what unique strengths, values, or personality traits set you apart. For example: “What makes me different is my creativity – I always come up with innovative solutions to problems. I’m also deeply passionate about sustainability and finding ways to make technology more eco-friendly.”
How do you help companies or people through your work?
Explain the impact you make. For example: “I help companies launch and scale successful products by leading high-performing engineering teams to build great tech efficiently and effectively. I also mentor new coders to help them thrive in the industry.”
What else should viewers know about you?
Add any other final details you want viewers to take away. For example: “When I’m not coding, you can find me hiking, traveling, or playing guitar. I love bringing my diverse passions to my work and teams.” This gives people a fuller picture of you as a well-rounded person.
Conclusion
The LinkedIn video intro is a quick and powerful way to showcase who you are, your skills, and what you care about to your professional network. Focus on concise responses to questions that convey your unique value, strengths, and passions. With some thoughtful preparation using LinkedIn’s suggested video intro questions as a guide, you can create an engaging video that captures people’s interest to help achieve your career goals.
Question | Example Response |
---|---|
What is your full name and professional title? | “Hi, I’m John Smith and I’m a Senior Software Engineer at XYZ Company.” |
What are 3-5 top skills you want to highlight? | “My top skills are Python programming, leadership, team collaboration, project management, and strategic planning.” |
What are you most proud of in your career? | “In my career, I’m most proud of leading the development of our top-selling product and seeing it grow from an idea into a solution used by over 1 million customers worldwide.” |
What are you passionate about professionally? | “I’m passionate about using technology to solve real-world problems and make people’s lives easier and more efficient.” |
What types of projects have you worked on recently? | “Recently, I led development of a new mobile app for our company to improve the customer experience. Before that, I spearheaded an initiative to migrate our legacy systems to the cloud.” |
What are you looking for or interested in professionally? | “Currently, I’m interested in leading an engineering team for a high-growth startup and am open to new opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area.” |
What makes you different from others in your field? | “What makes me different is my creativity – I always come up with innovative solutions to problems. I’m also deeply passionate about sustainability and finding ways to make technology more eco-friendly.” |
How do you help companies or people through your work? | “I help companies launch and scale successful products by leading high-performing engineering teams to build great tech efficiently and effectively. I also mentor new coders to help them thrive in the industry.” |
What else should viewers know about you? | “When I’m not coding, you can find me hiking, traveling, or playing guitar. I love bringing my diverse passions to my work and teams.” |
Highlight Your Skills
Your LinkedIn video intro provides the perfect opportunity to feature some of your strongest skills and capabilities. Rather than just listing them, think of tangible examples that really showcase those abilities in action from your work experiences. For instance, instead of saying you have great project management skills, you could say something like: “For example, on a recent 6-month project rolling out a new CRM system, I coordinated cross-functional teams encompassing over 50 people to deliver the project on time and $15K under budget.” This demonstrates those skills in a compelling, results-driven way.
Quantify Your Impact
It’s one thing to share your skills, but you can take your video intro to the next level by quantifying the impact of your work. What outcomes have you driven thanks to your abilities? For example, you could say “By optimizing lead generation strategies, I increased sales qualified leads by 25% over 2 years.” Putting tangible metrics around your skills and accomplishments helps viewers really grasp and remember the value you delivered.
Engage the Viewer
Your video intro shouldn’t feel like a lecture or one-sided advert. Look for opportunities to engage the viewer and get them invested in learning more about you. You can pose questions like “Want to hear about a project I’m excited about?” or “Curious what I geek out on?” Little hooks like this make the video feel like a two-way conversation versus a broadcast.
Share Your Passions
Don’t be afraid to get personal and share what you geek out on or what interests you outside of work. Talking about your passion projects or hobbies makes you more relatable and interesting to watch. It also gives viewers an organic way to connect with you over shared interests. Just keep it professional and the focus on the highlights.
Customize for Your Goals
While LinkedIn provides general guidance for video intros, don’t be afraid to customize your answers and focus to align with your specific career goals. For example, if you’re job hunting, focus more on skills and accomplishments than company overviews. Or if you’re seeking speaking opportunities, highlight relevant experiences upfront. Tailor how you respond to put your best foot forward for your aims.
Change It Up Over Time
Your career is constantly evolving, so don’t get locked into a single video intro script. Re-record when you switch jobs, win new awards, or want to refocus your profile. Update your video intro regularly to keep it fresh and aligned with where you are now versus in the past. A new intro can also help regain attention when networking with existing connections.
Practice Makes Perfect
You don’t have to nail your LinkedIn video intro in a single perfect take. Give yourself multiple tries to get comfortable on camera and refine your answers. Practice helps polish your delivery and cadence. You can also enlist others to watch your intro video and provide feedback so you can improve before publishing your best version.
Keep It Conversational
Avoid sounding too scripted or robotic in your video intro. Speak conversationally like you would if you were actually meeting someone new. This makes you seem more natural on camera and your intro more engaging to watch.
Mind the Time Limit
Practice staying within the recommended 30 second time frame. Time yourself to make sure your answers are succinct and focused. It’s better to captivate in 30 seconds versus lose people’s interest in a longer intro. Quality over quantity when making an impact.
Showcase Personality and Smile
Personality gets lost in a written resume or LinkedIn profile, so use your video to stand out as human. Share some humor, wit, or heart when appropriate to be memorable. And don’t forget to smile – it puts the viewer at ease and exudes confidence and approachability.
Dress the Part
Dress professionally for your intro video, even if filming at home. Avoid distracting patterns or noisy jewelry. You want to look polished and pull together to showcase you’re ready for any opportunity.
Mind Your Surroundings
Pick a clean, minimal backdrop and make sure the lighting is flattering. Remove clutter from the filming area and any distracting background noise. Test your audio and lighting first for optimal viewing quality.
Distribute Beyond LinkedIn
Maximize your video intro by repurposing it beyond just your LinkedIn profile. Post it on other social media networks, embed it on your website, and use it in targeted email outreach campaigns. The more potential contacts who view your intro, the better.
Track Performance
Leverage LinkedIn’s analytics to see who has watched your video intro and their engagement levels. This can help you refine it over time and identify where else it resonates so you can double down on outreach in those areas.
Solicit Endorsements
Proactively reach out to current colleagues and clients and ask them to watch and endorse your video intro if they feel it provides an accurate picture of you professionally. Testimonials add social proof.
Consistency Across Networks
Ensure your LinkedIn video intro complements your profiles on other networks for consistency. The core elements should stay aligned across all your professional profiles online, even if the format differs. You want your overall personal brand and messaging to come through wherever people engage with you.
Spotlight Diversity
Showcase diversity, equity and inclusion in your intro by highlighting volunteer work, speaking on panels related to your underrepresented identities, or mentioning your involvement in relevant employee resource groups.
Adapt Your Approach
Consider modifying your intro approach depending on the target audience of each network. A more formal intro may work best for LinkedIn, while you could get more casual and creative on TikTok. Adapt while staying authentic.
Track Changing Trends
Keep an eye on creative new examples of video intros as they emerge on LinkedIn and other networks. Trends like using text overlays, infographics, or intro reels may resonate more over time compared to a talking headshot.
User Testimonials
Monitor how other professionals in your industry and peers in your target roles make video intros. Pay attention to what stands out and resonate. Let excellent examples inspire you.
Iterate and Innovate
Continuously evaluate the performance of your video intro and iterate on the concept quarterly or biannually. Experiment with fresh formats, platforms, and distribution strategies. Keep innovating your approach for maximum impact.