LinkedIn's native video presents new advertising opportunities

LinkedIn has updated its mobile app to record, upload and share videos.

Members will be able to see who their videos reach on LinkedIn, including top companies, titles and locations, the platform announced in a blog post.

"With the native video feature, members can go beyond written content, recording and publishing their own videos to further engage their networks," Tom Pepper, UK head of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, said.

The new feature can be found by selecting a video icon in the share box at the top of the feed on iOS apps, or the post button on Android devices.

The update is being rolled out today.

However, Callum McCahon, strategy director for Born Social, said it is "illogical" that LinkedIn has taken this long to offer video natively,

"Users don’t want to leave the news feed in order to consume content – they want it to live natively in the feed, as they’re used to on other social platforms," McCahon said. "Non-native video feels outdated in comparison."

"LinkedIn is finally solving that problem with this feature. Integrated video offers a seamless user experience and LinkedIn will be hoping that this move will increase user engagement on the platform," McCahon said.

While the option is not there yet, it won't be long before native video becomes a platform for advertising on LinkedIn, McCahon predicted.

The analytics LinkedIn will offer on who has viewed content is their USP over Facebook, McCahon added.

It's also reasonable to expect that, like other social platforms, LinkedIn will favour natively hosted video over externally linked content, he said. "So brands that use LinkedIn will need to factor this into their content strategy."

"All in all, I’d expect that this feature could lead to a fundamental change in the LinkedIn experience – reducing friction, increasing engagement, and giving brands and advertisers the functionality they’ve been craving for years," McCahon concluded.