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10 February 2011 / 80 ReTweets

Tutorial: Adding Video to Your LinkedIn Profile in 7 Easy Steps

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When I wrote my LinkedIn book back in 2009, I had two detailed chapters on how you can embed a video into your profile using two different applications that LinkedIn provides.  What is interesting is that, for the casual LinkedIn user, there are no “video” profile sections nor applications to choose from in the main menu, but both Google Presentation and SlideShare Presentations have always supported video.  This tutorial will cover the easiest way to get a video up on your profile, which I have chosen Google Presentation for.

Assuming that you already have a video of yourself, the entire process shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.

I cautioned in my book that there is a certain professional atmosphere on LinkedIn, so that any attempt to add video to your profile should only be done so in adding value to your professional brand.  Similar to the corporate atmosphere that is LinkedIn, I recommend you take a similar reserved approach, imagining a Fortune 500 executive looking at your profile and providing them with a visual experience that they would expect from being on the premiere social networking platform for professionals.

What if you have had the chance to be interviewed on TV or gave a speech that you feel proud of and happened to video tape it, and it positively reinforces your LinkedIn brand of being an expert in whatever you say you are?  Here is the easiest way to get that video on to the top of your LinkedIn profile, front and center.

1.) Upload to YouTube

You do have a custom YouTube channel for your personal brand, right?  Important: Make sure that the title of your video is easily recognizable.  Write it down, because you’ll need it in Step 5.

2.) Install Google Presentation

Google Presentation is one of the optional applications that LinkedIn has had for some time.  While the name doesn’t contain the word “video,” I will show you how to embed a video into your presentation using this application.  The first thing you need to do, assuming you haven’t done so, is to install this application here:

I have already installed the application, but if you haven’t you will select “Get More Applications…” from the “More” Menu Bar at the top screen.

The application menu is full of applications, but keep digging and you will find Google Presentation near the bottom of the list:

3.) Make Sure the Google Presentation LinkedIn Application Settings are Correct

Just make sure that the checkbox for “Display on my profile” is checked.

4.) Create a Presentation within the LinkedIn Google Presentation Application

Now it’s time to create your embeddable presentation.  Take a deep breath and follow the instructions carefully because there are a few steps involved here.

First you need to select “Go to application” which is on the same screen as in Step 3.

Once inside the application you’ll want to navigate below the “Select a presentation” section and choose “Create a presentation.”

Once you have clicked this don’t freak out: A new screen will now appear and you will be within the new presentation creation template within Google Docs.  This will be the “canvas” that you will work with.  Just to be on the safe side, your screen should look something like this:

5.) Search for and Embed a Video within Your Google Presentation

You’re almost there…and now’s the fun part!  Select “Insert” from the top menu, and you should see the drop-down menu which gives you the option for “Video.”  Click it.  You will now see the following screen appear as an overlay in the middle of the screen:

The search has been pre-populated with the term “funny,” but once again, there should be nothing funny with what you use here.  The search will actually be performed on all of the public files that are on YouTube.  Here is where you enter the title of your YouTube video or easily recognizable terms within the title that would distinguish it from everyone else’s.  Note that if you just uploaded your video it may not be indexed in the YouTube search engine yet.  Don’t freak out: Have a soy latte and try again in an hour.

Here is what the search looks like after I enter my name.

Cool!  The video I want to embed in my LinkedIn profile is the 3rd one from the top!  Selecting this and then entering “Select video” on the bottom will embed it on the Google Presentation canvas as follows:

Man I look small!  Let’s stretch it out by first moving the YouTube image to the upper-left corner:

And now we stretch it to cover the entire canvas by clicking on the white square in the bottom right-hand corner of the image.  It should stretch to completely cover the canvas and look like this:

Assuming you’re happy with the way it looks, and have spent a few seconds looking at it, Google has probably already proactively saved the presentation for you with the name “Untitled Presentation.”  Your presentation is now complete!  That being said we don’t want to cut corners, so let’s do this right by renaming this presentation with something that is in line with the content.  This can be done by selecting “Rename” from the “File” dropdown menu as follows:

Selecting “Rename” will allow us to choose whatever name we want on this screen: (excuse the Japanese characters ;-)

After renaming, we’re finished with Google now…let’s go back to the Google Presentation LinkedIn screen.

6.) Publish Your Masterpiece

It is important to now refresh the LinkedIn screen where you left off inside the Google Presentation application so that it can synch up with the presentation that you just saved in Google Docs.  Once you refresh the screen, the name of your new file should appear in the “Select a presentation” section.  Go ahead and select it.  Your screen will now look like this:

Now press “Post to profile,” after which you will get a screen that says your presentation needs to first be published before posted.  Select “OK” and after some internal browser communication between LinkedIn, Google Docs, and YouTube, your video will shortly appear on your LinkedIn profile.

7.) Move the Position of Your Applications within Your LinkedIn Profile

If you thought you were done, not so fast.  Your video will now appear on your profile, but it may be buried so far deep below that it has no impact and won’t be seen by most readers.  If you really want to make an impression here, move it as far to the top of your profile as you can to make an impact.  If you didn’t know that you could reorder the sections on your LinkedIn profile, check out this handy video from the source:

Once you decide where you’ll want to move your video to on your profile, you’ll immediately notice a flaw in the way that LinkedIn has implemented this functionality for applications: All of the applications move around as one “bundle.”  If you only want to move Google Presentation to the top but leave Events, Amazon Reading List, and the other applications that you have installed buried below it, you can’t.  You may find yourself doing what I did: Deleting all of the other applications with the exception of Google Presentation.  I always tell people that a strategy involves deciding what not to do, so this is the time to make a strategic decision.

The highest that you can move your work of art is to right under the top blue box of your profile.  If you decided to move it there, it should look exactly like it does on my profile, which you can confirm below or by navigating to Neal Schaffer’s LinkedIn Profile (and, yes, feel free to add me to your network):

There you have it!  As my children would say, easy peasy lemon squeezy.

If you had any problems in the process, or found easier ways to accomplish this task, please comment below to let everyone know.  In the same manner, if you’ve added a video to your profile that you want to show off to the rest of the world, why don’t you tell us about it in the comments with a link so that we can check it out?  Thanks!

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