Any business owner knows that LinkedIn is the MVP for B2B. LinkedIn is where the bigwigs, head honchos and decision-makers hang out waiting to connect and shower you with opportunities – hooray! And LinkedIn is constantly rolling out new features to help you catch their eye. The latest of these? The LinkedIn Video Cover Story, which lets you intro yourself to the world the way you want to be seen in 20 seconds or less. So now, let’s take a look at some top tips for your LinkedIn video cover story so you can be at the top of your game!
If you visit someone’s profile and see an orange circle around their profile pic, that means you can view a quick video intro showcasing who they are and what they’re all about.
As a business owner, this is great news. You can tailor your Video Cover Story to:
- Talk about your services (you’ve linked to a dedicated Service Page on your profile, right?)
- Showcase your expertise, goals and processes
- Give people insight into your background, personality and ideas
Here’s how to whip up a Video Cover Story of your own.
- Check that you have the feature. If you do, you’ll see a little orange cross at the bottom right of your profile pic. I first saw the option when viewing my profile on mobile. (If you don’t, keep checking back!)
- Tap the orange cross, and select “Add Cover Story” from the menu that pops up.
- Upload either a pre-recorded video (make sure it’s captioned!) or record a live video and upload that. You’ve got 20 seconds of video to work with, so make it count!
- Add text or (relevant) stickers to your video. You can jazz things up or improve legibility by changing the text style, alignment or color.
- Decide who gets to see your video. You can set yours to 1st connections only, or all LinkedIn members.
- Pick your 3-second preview clip. This automatically plays (on mute) when someone views your profile, so choose something powerful!
- Click the “add to profile” button, and you’re done!
Want a complete walk through? I got you, just click the video below for the visual play-by-play!
Some tips for killing it with your Video Cover Story:
- Think of it as a short ad for your brand or services
- Pre-record instead of live-record, and edit, edit, edit!
- Make sure your sound is pro quality and that your lighting is flattering (invest in a ring light for sure!)
- Engage a professional if video isn’t your specialty
- Write a script – don’t wing it! You can pack a ton of value into a 20 second video!!
- Aim to solve a problem and compel people to learn more about you and the value you deliver
- Make it relevant to what you do – and always stay on brand
- Make the most of captions, text and visual and comprehension aids
- Your 3-second preview is always muted, so select it wisely
- If you’re shy, you can always just upload a video of your work instead
- Finish up with a catch call-to-action (CTA) to help the viewer continue engaging with you!
Don’t have access to Video Cover Story functionality just yet? Pre-record your video and captions so that you’re ready to upload it the second you do!
Need some help creating a Video Cover Story that absolutely crushes it? Drop me a line!
See you over on LinkedIn!