LinkedIn just implemented its newest feature – the Video Carousel. With the reported rising consumption of video content on LinkedIn, the professional social network aims to reach more audiences and strengthen relationships with followers through the latest tailor-fit and in-feed video content. In this piece, you will learn how to leverage this newest platform update to market your business, particularly:
- Understanding LinkedIn Video Carousel and Its Purpose
- How Video Carousel Will Impact Content Marketing on LinkedIn
- How to Set Up LinkedIn Video Carousel
- How to Create an Effective Video Carousel Content
- How to Optimise Video Carousel Content
Understanding LinkedIn Video Carousel
LinkedIn reported that members engage with 1.5 million pieces of content per minute. Moreover, LinkedIn Business Highlights stated that “video is now the fastest growing format on LinkedIn, with uploads up 34% year-over-year.” With this increasing content consumption, it’s high time LinkedIn capitalises on this to help its content creators reach a broader audience.
Here, the Video Carousel comes in.
What is LinkedIn Video Carousel?
Image source: Mindi Ramsey on LinkedIn
The Video Carousel is a multimedia post on LinkedIn where users can upload multiple videos within one post, allowing viewers to swipe through the content horizontally. Each carousel can include up to 10 videos, making it a powerful tool for presenting a sequence of ideas, showcasing different aspects of a product, or telling a layered story.
Its primary purpose is to improve user engagement with richer, more interactive content. Traditional single-video posts can be limiting when conveying complex ideas or presenting multiple facets of a brand. The Video Carousel breaks these boundaries by allowing content creators to:
- Enhance Storytelling: By dividing content into multiple and shorter videos, content creators can make complex topics “digestible” or easy to understand. This content format can also make storytelling more structured and engaging.
- Showcase Versatility: Sometimes, product educational videos can be overwhelming. Because the format is short and multiple, each video can focus on a different aspect, highlighting the product’s strengths.
- Drive Higher Engagement: Video carousels can also increase engagement because the content format prompts users to swipe through the entire carousel. As a result, the content is more interactive, leading to more visibility, likes, comments, and shares.
- Adapt to User Preferences: “Micro-learning” is the current trend in modern content consumption. By leveraging the video carousel, brands can adapt to users’ preference for learning from bite-sized and easily digestible content.
- Reach broader audiences: Brands can repurpose their long-format content or repost the short videos posted on Reels or TikTok, reaching more audiences.
How Video Carousel Will Impact Content Marketing on LinkedIn
The introduction of LinkedIn’s Video Carousel feature has the potential to reshape content marketing on the platform significantly. Here’s how it can impact marketers and content creators:
Greater Flexibility in Content Presentation
The Video Carousel allows marketers to experiment with different content types within a single post. For example, a carousel could include educational content, customer stories, and promotional material, offering diverse content that keeps viewers engaged. This flexibility makes it easier for marketers to test and iterate on their content strategies to find what works best for their audience.
Better Content Personalisation
Marketers can use the carousel to cater to different audience segments within a single post. For example, each video in the carousel could target a specific pain point or industry, allowing viewers to swipe to the most relevant content. This personalised approach can enhance the user experience, making the content more impactful and appropriate, which is critical to driving higher conversion rates.
Expanded Opportunities for Lead Generation
The Video Carousel’s ability to present multiple videos also opens up new possibilities for lead generation. Marketers can include a series of educational videos and a strong call-to-action in the final slide, guiding viewers to download a whitepaper, sign up for a webinar, or request a demo. By providing value upfront and leading into a CTA, the carousel can become a powerful tool for nurturing leads and driving conversions.
Competitive Differentiation
As LinkedIn continues to grow as a platform for B2B marketing, standing out in a crowded content landscape is crucial. Early adopters of the Video Carousel feature have the opportunity to differentiate their content from competitors by offering a more engaging and innovative user experience. Video carousels can help brands establish themselves as thought leaders and innovators within their industry.
How to Create a Video Carousel Post
Are you excited to try the latest LinkedIn update? Before you publish your first post, here are some guidelines to ensure you create an engaging post to help boost your online presence.
Choose Your Topic or Storyline
Before creating your post, decide on the overarching message that you want to tell. Are you creating content for a product launch? For consumer education? Behind-the-scenes? Customer testimonial?
After determining your topic, create a storyline. A storyline can guide you through partitioning a big story into a series of short videos.
Prepare Your Content
Break down your content into segments. For example, if you want to showcase your product, your video carousel can look like this:
- First video: Introduction of the product
- Second video: Design features
- Third video: Benefits
- Fourth video: Customer Testimonials
- Fifth video: Price and CTA
Create Engaging Thumbnails
LinkedIn says, “A good thumbnail can increase your click-through rate (CTR), which is the percentage of people who see your thumbnail and click on it. A higher CTR can boost your video ranking, visibility, and watch time, which are all important metrics for YouTube SEO.”
You must design custom thumbnails for each short video for visual appeal and to increase users’ chances of clicking on your content. These thumbnails will be the first thing users see when they swipe through the carousel, so ensure that they are compelling.
Upload Videos in Sequence
The sequence is crucial in a video carousel. Ensure that you upload each video in the correct order to maintain a cohesive narrative. LinkedIn lets you preview how the videos will appear in the carousel, so double-check and ensure all videos are in the proper order.
Add Descriptions and CTAs
You must give your users a context about each video. Therefore, description is essential per video. Also, end your content with a compelling call to action (CTA) to encourage the users to perform your desired action, whether to like or comment on the post, visit your website, sign up, or purchase.
How to Set Up the Video Carousel
Setting up a video carousel is pretty straightforward. However, you need attention to detail to make your content more engaging. Here is a step-by-step guide to help you:
- Step 1: Access LinkedIn’s Post Creation Tool: Find the option to create a new post on your LinkedIn account or home page.
- Step 2: Upload Multiple Videos to Form a Carousel: There is no direct “video carousel” format option, so you must create one by manually uploading multiple videos in a single post.
- Step 3: Prepare Your Videos: Ensure that your videos are ready for upload. LinkedIn supports multiple video formats, but MP4 is the most recommended. Moreover, ensure that your short videos are 1-2 minutes, which is the best duration for a carousel format.
- Step 4: Upload Videos: Upload the first video, then click “Add” to continue uploading subsequent videos. Arrange them in the desired order. Ensure that each video logically follows the previous one to maintain narrative flow.
- Step 5: Write a Compelling Post Caption or Description: Add a relevant and engaging caption to your post. You can do this by providing a summary without spoiling the whole content. You can also write a compelling question, statistic, or trivia that will intrigue the audience and prompt them to click your post.
- Step 6: Tag People and Use Hashtags: Tag relevant people or companies to increase the reach of your post. Use industry-specific hashtags to ensure your post reaches your target audience.
5 Best Practices for Video Carousel Creation
Now that you know the basics of the LinkedIn video carousel, let’s dive into the best practices for creating this type of content. These tips will help you make your video carousel effective.
Keep Videos Short and Focused
- The LinkedIn video carousel caters to social media users’ short attention spans. Therefore, aim to create videos that are 30 minutes to 2 minutes long.
- Aside from the short duration, ensure that each video has one clear focus, whether it’s an explanation, sharing a tip, or telling a story.
Maintain Consistent Branding
- Branding is crucial in content marketing. Your LinkedIn followers must immediately recognise your branding when they watch your videos.
- The same goes for the video carousel. When editing your video, stick to your brand kit—visuals, colours, fonts, tone, and other branding elements. Consistency helps reinforce your brand identity and makes your brand more professional.
Start Strong
- The first video in your carousel is crucial. It should be engaging and compelling, encouraging the users to continue swiping through the rest of the carousel.
- Consider starting with a teaser, a bold statement, or an intriguing trivia that piques the user’s interest.
Optimise for Mobile
- Currently, the LinkedIn video carousel feature is available on the mobile app. Therefore, ensure that you optimise the videos for mobile viewing.
- Create videos in vertical format. Use text that is readable on smaller screens. Avoid heavy texts and overly detailed graphics.
Use Closed Captions
Image source: Preply
- According to Preply’s survey, 50% of surveyed Americans watch videos with subtitles or captions. Aside from that, 57% watch content in public and muted; therefore, closed captions help understand your content.
- LinkedIn allows you to upload SRT files for captions or embed texts directly into your video. This effort ensures that your message is apparent even without audio.
Optimising Your LinkedIn Video Carousel
SEO and keyword optimisation are critical to increasing the discoverability of your LinkedIn video carousel. Here is a guide on strategically incorporating relevant keywords in your content so you are visible on the professional social network and search engines.
Incorporate Keywords in Video Titles and Descriptions
- Video Titles: Video titles are essential to help LinkedIn understand the content of your video. Therefore, use relevant keywords in each video in your carousel. Moreover, use low-volume but high-ranking keywords so that your content will stay consistent in a sea of videos having similar topics.
- Video Descriptions: To further increase the discoverability of your video carousel, optimise each video description by having relevant keywords. Use these descriptions to provide context, add value, and include pertinent additional keywords that you did not use in the title.
- Main Post Caption: The post caption must also include primary keywords. Ideally, you must place these keywords at the beginning of the caption to improve SEO.
Use Hashtags Strategically
- In a way, hashtags function similarly to keywords. They also increase the reach of your video carousel, and the best practice here is mixing popular and niche-specific hashtags to reach your target audience.
- LinkedIn allows up to 100 hashtags. But using that many can be eye-sore and overwhelming to your audience. Hence, use only five to ten hashtags. Include industry-specific hashtags and broad terms to reach more people.
Optimise Video File Names
- Random file names do not help in SEO. You must practice file organisation to increase your visibility. Therefore, rename your video files with keyword-rich file names.
- For instance, instead of labelling your video file “videocarousel_post1_final.mp4,” you can use more descriptive terms such as “How-To-Optimise-Video-Carousel.mp4.” This unseen effort can help improve your content’s searchability.
Leverage Alt Text for Accessibility and SEO
- While videos do not have an alt text, ensure that the accompanying images, like the thumbnails, use descriptive and keyword-rich alt text.
- This effort improves the visibility of your content on LinkedIn and search engines and helps your users with disabilities.
Engagement Strategy for LinkedIn Video Carousel
Creating good content is not enough in modern content creation. You must ensure your content is highly engaged to be more discoverable and reach more people in your target market. Here are some tips you can use to enhance your engagement strategy for your LinkedIn Video Carousel.
Create an Interactive Content
- The content in each video should encourage interaction. You can ask questions or remind your followers to comment or like the post. You can also invite the viewers to share their thoughts, participate in a poll, etc.
Encourage Comments and Shares
- Directly ask your viewers to share their thoughts in the comment section. You can start by asking questions or sparking a discussion at the end of your video. You can also directly ask your viewers to share the video carousel or repost the content with their opinions or thoughts about your videos.
Tag Relevant People and Companies
- Tagging relevant people and companies is like riding on influential people’s clout. Leveraging their follower network can increase visibility and engagement.
Post on the Best Times
- According to Hootsuite’s study, the best time to post on LinkedIn in 2024 is Tuesdays from 6 to 8 a.m. PST. If you plan to have daily posts, you can follow these recommended schedules based on the highest activity of LinkedIn users:
Image source: Hootsuite
- On the contrary, Hootsuite stated a caveat that it is still best to study your followers’ activity as it is difficult to make assumptions. It is still better to understand your market by the times they are highly active on the platform and when they view or engage in your content the most.
Engage Back
Image source: PGAG
- Engagement is a two-way street. The best practice is to take the time to respond thoughtfully when your followers comment on your post. This small effort not only boosts your visibility but also builds your community.
- To increase your engagement, comment on follow-up questions to keep the conversation going. Engaging with your audience shows that you value their input and encourages more interaction.
Analysing the Performance of Your Video Carousel
Data is essential for understanding the effectiveness of your video carousel. Make it a habit to analyse your content’s performance using these metrics and LinkedIn’s analytic tools.
Monitor Key Metrics
To check if your content is compelling, monitor these key metrics:
- Views: This metric is the number of times users viewed your carousel, indicating the post’s reach.
- Engagement: This metric includes likes, comments, shares, and clicks. High engagement means that your content resonates with your target audience.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): This metric shows the number of users who clicked on your CTA relative to the number of views, helping you assess its effectiveness.
- Watch Time: This metric shows the duration of your viewers’ viewing. If they drop off early, your content may need to be more engaging.
Analyse Audience Demographics
- One of the significant pillars of content marketing is understanding your audience. LinkedIn’s analytics can provide insights about your viewers’ demographics, such as job titles, industries, and locations.
- Knowing your audience allows you to refine your content strategy. For example, your video carousel became popular among medical professionals, so you must create more content about the medical field.
Use A/B Testing for Optimisation
- Experiment with different elements of your video carousel to see what works. You can test the thumbnails, video lengths, posting time, etc.
Track Long-Term Performance
- While immediate metrics are important, tracking the long-term performance of your video carousel is also essential. Check if the content contributes to your overarching business goals, such as lead generation, brand awareness, or sales.
Gather Feedback and Iterate
- Be keen on the audience’s feedback to improve your future content. Continuously refine your content based on analytics and feedback. LinkedIn’s algorithm favours content that consistently performs well, so improving over time can increase the visibility of your posts.
Will Video Carousel Change the Content Game on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn’s Video Carousel changes the content game by providing marketers and content creators with a powerful tool to enhance storytelling and engagement. This feature allows users to combine multiple videos into a single post, enabling more dynamic and comprehensive narratives that better capture and retain audience attention.
The video carousel format encourages interaction through swiping, leading to increased engagement rates compared to traditional posts. Additionally, showcasing different product or service aspects within one post allows for more personalised and targeted content, catering to diverse audience segments.
This format’s versatility boosts content visibility and offers richer data insights, enabling marketers to refine their strategies more effectively. As a result, the Video Carousel elevates content marketing on LinkedIn, making it easier to stand out and achieve meaningful business outcomes in a competitive landscape.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a LinkedIn Video Carousel, and how does it benefit marketers?
A LinkedIn Video Carousel is a post format that allows you to share multiple videos in a single post, enabling storytelling or showcasing various aspects of a product or service. It benefits marketers by increasing engagement, enhancing brand storytelling, and providing a dynamic way to present content to your audience.
How can I optimise my LinkedIn Video Carousel for search visibility?
Optimise your Video Carousel using relevant keywords in video titles, descriptions, and the main post caption. Additionally, targeted hashtags and keyword-rich file names for the videos should be included to improve search visibility within LinkedIn and external search engines.
What are the best practices for creating engaging LinkedIn Video Carousels?
Best practices include:
- Defining a clear content strategy.
- Maintaining consistent branding.
- Using high-quality visuals.
- You should incorporate text overlays for accessibility. You must also use solid, action-oriented CTAs to encourage viewer interaction and conversion.
How can I measure the success of my LinkedIn Video Carousel?
Measure success by monitoring key metrics such as views, engagement (likes, comments, shares), click-through rate (CTR), and watch time. Analysing audience demographics and tracking long-term performance will also provide insights into your carousel’s effectiveness.
What types of content work best in a LinkedIn Video Carousel?
Good content includes product showcases, step-by-step tutorials, customer testimonials, event highlights, and industry insights. Each video should contribute to a cohesive narrative, offering value and engaging viewers throughout the carousel.
