LinkedIn Shorts: The new way to grow your audience on LinkedIn

Every social media platform has played out a specific pattern as it evolves: it begins primarily as a text based platform, to then sharing images, and finally transitions to being video dominant.

This pattern mirrors the need for more time spent on the app, so the content format becomes increasingly engaging and easier to consume to do so. This is not an assumption, it’s a repeated pattern of evolution across every social media with the same goal in mind: keep users on the platform longer.

On Facebook alone, 50% of users’ time is spent watching videos, and more generally speaking 81% of consumers want to see more short form videos from brands in 2024.

They have all evolved into primarily video sharing apps because our brains prefer visual and auditory stimuli over text. Video also offers a more personal connection through ‘social presence’ whereby you can see and hear the creators. These both result in much higher engagement than purely text or image based content.

Why LinkedIn Shorts are a Game-Changer

LinkedIn’s move to include short videos shouldn’t come as a surprise to most of us, the addition of a shorts feature has become so normalised it has its own term, the ‘Tik Tokification’ of social media: YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, Snapchat spotlight… the list of platforms following this trend goes on.

It shows that the nature of B2B interactions online are also changing and content is at the centre of this change: lead generation needs video content, hiring the right people needs content, sales and marketing needs personal brand content.

What this means for creators is one thing: a big opportunity. LinkedIn is a 900 million user base container with free access and there’s no question video content is the most effective and in demand communication across social media. LinkedIn will undoubtedly push video content more as well in the early stages to encourage adoption in this new feature.

With 72% of consumers preferring video to text, it’s now a question of how much video can we incorporate to build trusted audiences, build a personal brand, and ultimately bring more traction to our business.

Producing these videos at scale is still a pain and the real bottleneck stopping creators from pushing their content out. At Argil, we’ve built our deepfake maker to solve that.

You now have an option to generate unlimited fully edited and captioned shorts in 2 minutes with your AI clone (personal avatar) talking with your voice and body language to a camera.

If you want to create effective content at scale by leveraging your personal avatar, join us here.

The Science Behind Video as the Best Communication Medium

There’s science and psychology behind why video wins on social platforms.

1) mirror neurons with video comms

Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that responds when someone performs an action the same as you. Without over complicating this, it basically means video has an advantage over text and image by allowing both the creator and viewer to relate to each other through experience, actions, expressions and emotions far better. This fosters more potential for a deeper understanding and social connection.

2) facial expressions, tone, and body language

It’s a well known fact that non verbal communication makes up nearly 90% of our communication. With text or image we’re only leveraging 10% of our natural communication. In this way, video helps to convey emotions and intentions far clearer which evokes more trust and helps build a better connection between the creator and the viewer.

3) importance of storytelling

Studies have repeatedly shown that people can retain and understand information far more when it’s weaved into a story. This is understandable because stories are naturally more engaging and leverage emotional responses from us, which can make the message more relatable and memorable.

But what does all this science and psychology about video really mean for the social platforms themselves? This all translates to numbers and metrics that really matter for engagement and watch time.

Video engagement rates:

86% of consumers spend a quarter or more of their time on social media watching videos

Viewer retention rates:

People retain 95% of a message when watched in a video, which is astronomically higher compared to only 10% if you were to consume the message in text.

There’s also a higher tendency to share content if it’s video because of these metrics which leads to even more engagement and time on app:

People are 52% more likely to share video content than any other type of content.

Actionable Strategy to Grow Your LinkedIn Audience with Argil

LinkedIn is still new to the ‘shorts’ feature meaning early movers will likely capitalise the most from the huge potential for organic reach, especially given the platform (and competition) is still primarily text based right now.

It’s never been a better time to start growing your LinkedIn audience with video so here’s an actionable 4 step plan to get started with Argil:

Step 1: Positioning

Identify your niche and target audience. Who can you speak the language of? What audience do you know the pains of? Focus on relevance to your professional experience to leverage your understanding.

Step 2: Choose types of content to post

It would be smart to test different types of videos when you start posting to see which one works best for you and your audience. You could start with sharing what you know and your experiences such as personal stories and educational content to demonstrate thought leadership. If you’re creating videos for marketing purposes then client testimonials and case studies would be also be a good idea.

Step 3: train 3-4 avatars

Record a 2 minute video of yourself (you’ll be guided) and create multiple different avatars for testing with diverse content and languages to maximise your reach.

Step 4: A/B test your content to see what works best

Be consistent with your content creation, volume is key to getting clarity with more A/B testing to understand what resonates the most with your target audience.

If you want to create effective content at scale by leveraging your personal avatar, join us here.

Leveraging Argil’s Features for Maximum Impact

At Argil, we’ve been creators for over a decade. We know the best practices, standard processes, and bottleneck tasks.

Here’s a non exhaustive list of features you would get access to:

1. Consistent auto captioning and subtitles (increases video engagement 2x)
2. Adding AI B-roll footage and transitions (increases retention by 40%)
3. First draft of edited video. Can then fine tune and customise without editing knowledge
4. Multilingual translation to reach broader audiences on a global scale

If you’re a content creator and want to integrate AI into your video production process, join us: here.

Embracing the Future of LinkedIn Marketing with Argil

Right now, LinkedIn presents the perfect timing to capitalize on a unique opportunity with their new shorts feature. As video continues to be the content format of choice, creators will need the right tools to make the most of marketing on LinkedIn.

By automating the production process with Argil to create content at scale, you can assume the most leverage in understanding what your audience really wants and giving you a competitive edge in seeing what works best quickly.

If you want to create effective content at scale on LinedIn by leveraging your personal avatar, join us here.

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