The Blue Dog Scientific Blog: Advertise for Free on LinkedIn with Youtube Cards.

Advertise for Free on LinkedIn with Youtube Cards.

You're on LinkedIn to sell something right? An app, a book, tickets, an event, photos, widgets, gizmos, websites, hardware, software, arts, crafts, music, an hour of your time? Something.

Are you paying LinkedIn to advertise this whatever it is?

Then you must be stark raving mad. Off your rocker. Completely bonkers. Or you must have more money than sense.

I'm serious. Couldn't be more serious. Really. Here's why.

Have you noticed how youtube videos now appear fully embedded in the newsfeed? Big and bold, loud and proud? That they play right there in-situ? In fact, youtube players are ubiquitous on LinkedIn. Embed them here in Publications. Insert them in the Rich Media sections of your Profiles, add them to your Company Page like LinkedIn recommend you to.

Some time ago, youtube unveiled cards. Cards are clickable little adverts which you can place in a video. Of which, one type is the Merchandise card, about which, and I quote, youtube say: "merchandise cards can promote a creator's licensed merchandise directly from the video... Merch [cards] can link to your shop homepage or an individual product". OK, Merch cards need to link to a youtube approved site. But their white-list is long and includes the big ones: google play, itunes, shopify, eventbrite, ticketmaster, Etsy and many, many more. Or you can just use the Associated Website card instead to link direct to your selling pages on your own website.

No, silly, I am not saying you want to plaster videos all over LinkedIn which are themselves of an advertorial nature. I'm saying you can have great video content which is still engaging, educational, informative or entertaining, but now with an integrated "buy it now" button embedded contextually within/on them. And these engaging video are orders of magnitude more effective than annoying your fellow LinkedIn Users by paying to have your advert splashed all over their Profiles.

And these engaging videos are not blocked by advert blockers.

And these engaging videos, done right, will be a shining beacon on the homepage newsfeeds of your own customer community, not part of the background furniture of adverts to which we have all become blind, nor wasting time and space on the homepages of people-not-in-your-customer-base-and-never-will-be.

And these engaging videos are shareable, likeable, comment-worthy objects in their own right, completely unlike those un-postable, un-loveable , un-interactable boring adverts you pay so much to show.

And these engaging videos and their advertorial cards individually have extremely powerful in-built analytics which help you to understand your audience and their responses down to the level of trivia.
Now, stop thinking so literally. Youtube is not just "video". Youtube media could be anything from a simple graphic (but with background music), an audio or voiceover track (but with background scenery), a slide show or photo album, a blog post made animated, a cartoon, a joke, a quote, a game. Anything you like to post to the newsfeed, but now with your "buy now" button right there as part of it too. A "buy now" button which, by the way is not in any shape or form being placed on LinkedIn at all, because it doesn't exist there. It exists on youtube. It is embedded in a embed. Beyond the reach and say of LinkedIn.

Need help? Ready to start saving your business money? Ready to rethink your LinkedIn strategy? Let me know.

Oh, I nearly forgot to say, in case I haven't been clear.

And those engaging videos with their direct links to your merchandise can be placed anywhere on LinkedIn, including as part of bona fide Group Discussions, for absolutely free.



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