I look comfortable in videos, but that wasn’t always the case.
For months, I’ve posted videos daily on LinkedIn. I’ve gotten very comfortable with it, and inspired a senior colleague to start posting videos as well.
But my prolificity came with a cost.
How I started making LinkedIn videos.
My foray into posting videos on LinkedIn started with a business coach I hired.
He mentioned that given how saturated the timeline had become with AI generated content, video was the new way to build trust with prospects. I didn’t necessarily have a problem with shooting videos, but shooting videos with commercial intent—and publishing them? That was a whole different thing.
I had already started posting videos on Tiktok for several months, and had been developing my confidence. People actually liked hearing from me, about things I found interesting, but never imagined others would.
Once, I made a Tiktok video about my coaching offering. It performed decently (the Tiktok audience is easily impressed, as I have found out), and I shared it with my coach. He applauded it, pointed out technical improvements, and encouraged me to make more and share them on LinkedIn.
Wow.
That was a crazy idea.
But there’s something about having paid a lot of money to a coach that makes you open to listen. The seed was sown in me, and courage began to blossom.
My first few LinkedIn videos were not great. I knew it, but posting it anyway without overthinking was more important to me. I also did not like the idea of planning properly—that’s a bit of a struggle given my spontaneous personality. More precisely, I did not know exactly how to plan out these videos. So I would just make them, post them with a lot of embarrassment, and run away.
I did it for long enough that I still felt embarrassment, but it affected me much less. Slowly, I began to make videos that gained decent engagement. Most got no likes at all. One time, a video garnered a lot of criticism from a viewer who claimed I was not saying anything meaningful. I kept going, taking learnings from every post I made.
I eventually to a point where I felt no embarrassment at all, where I could tell each video was of good quality. I made videos where I was really being myself—goofy, and insightful. I now wanted each video to get maximal viewership. I was getting support from a few friends who would see my videos and engage with them, but not really piercing through to the wider audience. My videos so far have been random and varied in their message—sometimes, it’s something for emerging solopreneurs, other times it’s a reflection for professionals, and often it’s just a joke.
That’s where I have been at, and I’m ready to get to the next step: gaining traction with my videos. Traction for me means high engagement, new followers, and direct messages from people who want to learn more.
I have a strategy for how I’ll be scaling my video campaign. I am confident it’ll work, and feel very excited to start.
In the meantime, here are seven things I learned from posting 100 videos on LinkedIn in 12 months:
People actually want to see you. Hearing your voice, hearing what you sound like, these things do a lot for getting people to perceive the real you. Personal branding is basically about people getting to know you. Video is currently the best way to do that digitally.
Technicality matters less than substance. I used to stress over lighting, audio balance, captions, and so on. Starting out, being mindful of those things can be overwhelming. Focus on saying something simple and meaningful. That’s more than enough for people.
It’s easy, but hard. Once you dial down a specific method and get into the hang of it, it’s easy and fun to find recording ideas, execute them, and publish them. The hard part is getting to the point where you can run through this cycle without being stopped by your self-consciousness.
You’d be ahead of others. Very few people are bold enough to do video. Just by posting a video of yourself on LinkedIn, you’d be taking a radical step forward in attracting the right attention to yourself. It will easily give you points that count up to a strong personal brand.
Less is more. When I started posting videos, I’d often drop three to four gems at once. I since learned that it’s more important to make one point well than try to say too much at once.
It gets lonely before it gets fun. I’ll be frank—unless you have the gumption to post videos that will get no engagement, you won’t last. You have to be willing to be ignored, to look silly ( and to look desperate even, because why are you posting a video?) and still show up tomorrow with a fresh video as if yesterday did not happen.
Your confidence will grow 10X. Few things will grow your self confidence like posting videos online. Videos, online? You eventually learn that nobody is really watching, and that if they are, it does not matter. What matter is that you are growing.
Have you ever considered posting videos as part of your content strategy?
Let me know.
— Taiwo