With the rise of social media sites like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube creating new forms of content, LinkedIn has jumped on the back of this and developed something new – LinkedIn Reels.
Yup, Reels have found their way to LinkedIn.
LinkedIn’s main focus has always been written content, however (doom) scrolling shows advertisements, interviews, filmed podcasts, and TedTalk snippets. These all bring a lot of value to the platform, helping with engagement and holding viewers’ interests past short and sometimes long form posts. This is why short-form videos coming to LinkedIn is so exciting.
Short form video content is the content of choice for a lot of scrollers. As it is,TikTok reigns supreme. Not only is TikTok ranked the most engaging short-from video platform, it also boasts the highest watch rate, and sparks 3x more conversation than Instagram Reels.
This is something LinkedIn could definitely be promoting.
In March 2024, LinkedIn released a beta version of “Reels”. This allowed users to engage with creators by way of short-form video content and drew a lot of content creators to the platform. Now out of beta testing, Reels are starting to make up a bigger portion of the popular LinkedIn content.
Maxing out at 90 seconds viewing time, they differ greatly from the other apps by posting almost exclusively professional and educational content. The beauty of using a Reels format for LinkedIn is that they condense what would usually be paragraphs worth of written information into quippy videos that can get the point across a lot faster.
The most interesting thing about LinkedIn Reels that sets it apart from every other platform is that it is only available to view on phones or mobile devices. You cannot watch LinkedIn Reels on a web browser.
LinkedIn Reels functions are similar to any other kind of short-form video platform:
- It has the basic scroll to view functionality with endless scrolling
- Tailor your algorithm just like any other app with a “Not Interested” button
- Select your desired playback speed if a Reel is too long
- Mute or unmute Reels
- Display closed captions
- Save Reels to view later
- Share, like, and comment on any video to boost engagement
This is not the first time LinkedIn has tried to bring in an alternative to their standard format. In 2019, they introduced LinkedIn Stories. It was the first step towards professionals and brands sharing their content more freely. These Stories were almost exactly the same as Instagram Stories, they were only available for 24 hours and were portrait orientation images or short videos. However, LinkedIn Stories were heavily criticised and the feature became unavailable in 2021, not too soon after the launch.
When LinkedIn Stories flopped, there was still a massive opportunity for LinkedIn to draw content creators. According to a LinkedIn post, only 1.1% of contributors actively make content. Considering there are nearly a billion users to cater to, LinkedIn Reels opens up the opportunity for creators to market their content to professional correct target audiences.
Since its creation, LinkedIn Reels has grown in popularity and still has a bunch of room to grow. Creators can get upwards of 1 million interactions by way of views, likes, or comments. As the feature becomes more widely known, this could only increase. So how can you leverage this?
- As LinkedIn is moving towards pushing visual content vs written content, focusing more on producing high quality, well edited videos could be the key to driving engagement
- LinkedIn is a platform for professionals, so educational content that provides information is ideal in keeping audience interest and gaining clients
- More young people are joining LinkedIn, so using trends (sparingly) and tailoring content to younger audiences may draw more engagement
- Use accurate captions, especially because people often watch on their phones with sound off or very low
The videos themselves need to be constructed outside of the app. Unlike TikTok, LinkedIn does not yet focus itself around video creation. Uploading videos to LinkedIn for the Reels is easy enough anyway. Simply create a post with the video attached and when you click “post”, it automatically uploads itself as a reel as well as showing up on your main feed.
For the moment, the content in LinkedIn Reels is pretty limited to the few creators who have started using the platform to promote their brands. A lot of them I recognise from other social media apps, but it makes so much sense for them to be on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Reels offer a great opportunity for businesses to promote their brands and products in a more targeted app. While advertising is not yet an option with this function, there is plenty of opportunity for LinkedIn Reels to grow further as more professional, short-form video content is produced.