B2B marketers may soon be able to use video to court prospects and customers on LinkedIn.
The professional network announced that it will enable 500 select influencers to post 30-second videos on its platform. The company touts the new tool as a way for users to take “an intimate look at where they work and hear their honest thoughts on topics central to the professional world.”
The videos, featuring mostly those in the C-Suite and other thought leaders, are designed to let users conduct Q&As with their followers and others in the wider LinkedIn community.
“With the introduction of user-generated video, we are making it easier for members to engage directly with influencers by offering them the ability to watch influencer-generated video content in their feeds,” said Jonathan Sherman-Presser, senior product manager at LinkedIn. “As we’ve seen through the incredible engagement of our publishing platform, members appreciate having direct access to industry thought-leaders on LinkedIn. The addition of rich video content in the feed gives them yet one more way to get news, insights and access to the world’s top thought leaders. They also have the unique the opportunity to engage directly with these insights through likes, shares and comments.”
The company told B2B Marketing that Q&A topics are either curated by the LinkedIn editorial team or initiated by influencers who create their own topic for other influencers to comment on.
This is a great new addition for B2B marketers. In addition to providing marketers with a popular channel to answer customer and prospect questions, the 30-second format is very shareable and will help engage new followers. While this video tool is currently invite-only, Presser said that may change.
“Depending on how we roll out more broadly, video will most likely be integrated into our platform rather than a standalone app,” he said. “We believe there is a huge opportunity to expand the ways our members can collect and share knowledge, and video will play a role in that. We are evaluating the experience and determining the best approach for expanding video more broadly in the future.”
According to eMarketer, the U.S. digital video ad market is set to nearly double by 2019 to more than $14 billion. It makes sense that the network is beefing up its video capabilities considering the millions raked in from video by other social networks. If this feature proves popular, LinkedIn could boost its bottom line by adding advertisements to the video Q&As.
