There are a few things I…and I suspect a few million others of us…would like to see less of on LinkedIn.
There have been a lot of good things LinkedIn has done over the years…like Groups, Showcase Pages and of course LinkedIn LIVE. All of which have improved the platform to become the #1 social and business network for business people.
But there have been a few things LinkedIn allows to be posted to their platform that is starting to turn their users off.
LinkedIn is Not Facebook
I was at a business function last week where the host was demonstrating the advantages of using LinkedIn over Facebook. She quickly showed the many disadvantages of Facebook and to the audience’s delight moved on to focus the rest of her time on LinkedIn.
It did not take long during her review of her personal LinkedIn Feed she had linked to an overhead screen before she ran into the number one thing LinkedIn allows to be posted on their platform that sent a cringe through the audience when it appeared on her screen.
Poorly Produced Videos
Yes, videos that are poorly produced and posted to LinkedIn are starting to take their toll on the user of LinkedIn.
With there being so many very qualified professional videographers available today there really is no excuse for producing, then posting, a badly produced video anywhere, much less too LinkedIn. Yes, that does include the excuse 90% of you use…lack of funds. Talk more about that lame excuse in a bit.
What makes a video poorly produced?
- Bad camera selection,
- Out of Focus
- Bad audio
- Poor use of Green Screen
- Lack of creativity
- Poor storytelling
- Bad lighting
- Irrelevant content
- Too Personal Content
- No text overlay to explain what is being talked about
- Produced in Portrait format instead of in Landscape
- Shaky handheld
- No call to action
Why are poorly produced videos posted to LinkedIn?
There are several reasons for poorly produced videos being posted to LinkedIn. The most predominant reason is the fact LinkedIn is more popular than ever for business people. Even more popular than Facebook…for obvious reasons.
With the heightened popularity, more marketers are going to post videos to LinkedIn.
Since most of these poorly produced videos are marketing type videos it would make sense to post them to LinkedIn since that is where 98% of consumers will migrate to LinkedIn throughout the day. So it is smart to post Videos to LinkedIn since 90% of LinkedIn users prefer watching videos…but not poorly produced videos.
One of the overbearing reasons for poorly produced videos to be posted on LinkedIn is based on the lack of funds issue mentioned previously.
Strangely enough, during my years of asking people who are posting poorly produced videos why they post them, I found it was not that they could not afford to hire a professional to produce their videos. The reason was they not caring how the video looked and felt professionally produced videos were overrated.
The few who truly do not have the funds to hire a professional just posted the poorly produced videos as a last-ditch effort to stimulate business leads.
Damage to Brand
All of the people I have talked to over the years to find out why they are posting poorly produced videos I found were not aware of the damage they doing to their brand. They were not aware that consumers are savvier now and less tolerant of video content that wastes their time.
They were not aware that consumers are bored at smartphone produced videos and were not aware that over 85% of the users on LinkedIn will eventually block a user who posts poorly produced videos.
What LinkedIn and YouTube Users Like
What LinkedIn and YouTube users are saying they prefer watching is a video that is professionally produced in a studio or like environment. One that has fastpaced content presented to them in a high resolution presented to them by energetic people who care about their appearance.
Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch
As the presenter I was watching last week finished up her presentation on the dozen or more advantages LinkedIn has over Facebook as a business and social network platform, she closed with showing a few really badly produced videos. The cringe factor was off the chart.
Interesting that one of the poorly produced videos she reviewed was posted produced by one of the people in the audience. Afterward, he came up to me to say…“Guess it is time we talk about having my video marketing produced by a professional.”
I would hope more people who post these badly produced videos would get the message on what posting very poorly produced videos is doing to hurt their brand…like this gentleman did. Hopefully, we will start seeing less poorly produced videos on LinkedIn from now on. At least coming from people in Dallas.
Let me know how I can help.
