How to double your content engagement levels on Linkedin with only 60 second videos.

Welcome to this episode of the Unnoticed Show. Today, I'm delighted to have G.J. Van Bussek, who's joining us all the way from Harlem in not New York but Holland. Goedemiddag. Welcome.

Thank you very much, Jim. Very nice of you to ask me and have me on your show. Happy to be here.

I only wish people could see you because we're going to talk about video, and you've become a bit of an expert in making videos. So, G.J., you've had a fascinating career, and you've moved from entrepreneur employee during COVID You've Built yourself back up, and now you've become a bit of a thought leader and influencer in creating video. Tell us your story and how other people that are unnoticed can get noticed using video.

That's a good question, Jim. I, I was a sales manager in an energy company until 2018, and then I decided to make a complete change of career and do a study to become a documentary maker, so film. Video that lasted a year. And I, well, halfway through the course, we all were surprised by COVID. I also had to stay home and I couldn't do the things that I had in mind. I finished the course, but then I had to reconsider my future for what to do sitting at home, being quarantined, not being able to go anywhere. And then decided to be more active on LinkedIn, which was a platform for me that I hardly used. Sometimes you just browse around, but I didn't actually use it very much. And then I met an American, Alex B. Sheridan, who at that time was really busy on making content and he really inspired me. And then I thought maybe I should also start content creation, making content that will help others to get ahead. And he really pushed me in a pleasant way to use, at least to start using videos. And what I did, as scary as it was, on a Sunday morning in September, I recorded my first 60 seconds of video. I just put my mobile phone in front. I started recording and I put out a message that I thought would be interesting for other people to listen and to watch. And I posted it on LinkedIn and it was really scary. You're expecting the most worst reactions and responses. And what really happened was nothing. There really didn't happen anything. Some people were surprised, but nobody gave me the criticism that I thought was going to come upon me. People were really surprised.

And I decided, well, if I can do one, let's do another one.

So I started building up a routine of putting out little videos of, let's say, 60, 90 seconds. On a regular basis. And I grew my connections, my network, who was like 700 at the time, September 2020, up to like almost 1,800 now. People that not only were invited by me, but also people who sent invitations to me, people that are following me because of the content that I make. And yeah, I think at this moment, I can say that I'm some sort of an expert on using video on LinkedIn in order to get in the picture. That's actually what it says in my profile, get in the picture and make yourself known out there. And what better way to do— to use video?

Yeah, there's a few things in there that I'd love to ask you to share a bit more. First of all, who are you making the video for? Because there's all the theory now about knowing the audience and the avatar. Just talk us through that first video. Did you have someone in mind or a particular profile, or did you just— something you wanted to share?

As I started the first time, I had nobody in mind, and the whole world.

I thought that what I was telling or saying could be interesting for anybody. Anybody would listen and would watch it. At that time, I was only giving a short message, my view on on the way LinkedIn developed, where it used to be a platform for recruiters and people seeking jobs.

It now became a platform for content creators sharing knowledge, helping others to get better, giving away the things in order for somebody else to use it and improve themselves, which is, at this moment, I still think is how LinkedIn is developing. But then again, later on, besides all these messages, I just, I realized that I had to focus more on the use of video. So I started making videos in order to show people that it wasn't that difficult to make a video, that you have a camera in your pocket, you have your phone, that's all you need. You don't need expensive equipment, you don't need a green screen, you don't need lamps or lights. All you need is the knowledge that is inside you. You switch on your camera, put it at yourself, and share whatever it is that you know with the world.

Gigi, that's a very liberating message because so often now we're given a kind of a huge kit list to be professional. Tell us, you were sharing about how you're making a pendulum out of your camera and using daylight. Can you just share that? I think that's a fantastic idea.

There's always excuses why you're not going to do the things that you say you'd like to do, but I miss this, I don't have that, what do I know about video? Actually, you don't need to know that much. What you do is you have your camera that's in your modern smartphone, you stick it with a bit of duct tape to your window, and you have beautiful daylight falling over you, and just press record. That's all you need. And if you want to— if you don't want to stick the tape to your phone, you can actually maybe tie it with a little piece of rope to the window, stick it to the window. But daylight is the most beautiful light that you can use, the most even light that you can use. Just to make a short movie. We're not talking about a feature film here, right? It's not like a 3-hour movie that you're making. But if you have an interesting message, and I think the ideal time is like between 1 and 2 minutes, and it's got to have something that invites others to keep listening to it, that's long enough, then you have— then that's all you need. Daylight, a camera in your pocket, that's it.

Okay, that's essentially a very positive message for everybody, especially in countries where access to many of these things is not possible. And tell us then, in terms of the amount of content that you're creating, GJ, are you suggesting people do this kind of daily, like a thought for the day, or once a week, or just as I would call an opportunistic posting? Help us with that.

You all have to find your own rhythm. I have— when I started in September, I was so enthusiastic about making short movies I started posting several times a week, but you can overdo it. And you also have to give people the time to digest it. And if you're gonna make a movie every day, it's taking a lot of time. You have to record it. Most of the time you find the first time is not good enough, so you record it a second time. Maybe you have to do a little bit of editing, which is, in my opinion, not really necessary if it's a good message. Put a little black in the front and a little black And it's okay. You don't need titles and subtitles. And, but if you improve over time, you can add that. But in the beginning, just start. That's the most important message that I can give. Just pull out that phone, turn it on, and share your knowledge with the world. Everybody has something that is interesting for somebody else. Share it. You don't have to worry if it's like, if you have only 10 views. Or 10,000 views. It's like, if there is only one person that finds value in it, then it's, then it's worth doing it.

That's a really wonderful message. And are you posting it into your feed or are you putting it into groups?

Groups are also always limited to the number of people that are members of the group. You can put it in groups if you have a special group and you wanna— I have one group that is limited to people that have followed a course with me. Then I invite them to the group. They can actually take They still have access to me in a more private way just to ask me extra questions.

But basically, normally all my videos are posted in my profile or however you call it, in my feed.

So it's accessible to—

Okay, so that's another useful tip, isn't it? You mentioned about the basic camera. What about your editing? Are you doing that on your phone or are you transferring the content onto your desktop to top and tail it?

Yes, I tell everybody that is just starting out, there are apps, free apps that you can use in order to edit on your phone. Having done a course in documentary making, filmmaking, I have professional editing software. So I transfer all my, all the material that I record to my software and edit it in there because I hate working on a little tiny phone.

Yeah. Yeah. Because you can make, On an iPhone, you get iMovie for free, and I used to edit the kids' holiday movies just using iPhone on the plane or on the iPad. So, it is possible.

Yeah, but there are so many apps you can have. You have, for example, InShot. I've tried several of them. InShot, which is a great app, you can add stickers, you can edit it, and then you can just upload it to anywhere you want to— YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, whatever you like. But I just, I'm not really fond of using my finger on my phone. I transfer it to my Final Cut Pro, which is actually the same as iMovie, but then a more expensive and more professional.

Yeah, the Adobe Cloud editing software is now available on subscription at $8 a month, which is really quite liberating as well. And what about backgrounds? Because there's kind of two schools of thought. About whether one should have a green screen and a branded sort of backdrop, or just make it authentic and just be where you are. What's your view on that?

Depends on the sort of movie that you make.

I have— I've made—

I'm not sure that's the right word, but a video column every week since the beginning of January, just the beginning of this year, a weekly one. And I was based in a theater, which is, of course, just a background that I edited into my movie. And I, but I filmed it in front of a green screen. But you can sit in a park and be careful with sound, by the way, if you sit in a park, a lot of birds, wind and everything. But you can actually sit in a park. It's about the message that you have, the story you tell, the— that is what is interesting. If you need backgrounds to make your story more interesting, then maybe you still have to reconsider your story first.

That's a really good point, isn't it, that the content should carry itself. And then In terms of response and knowing what to post next, what are you doing about sort of measurement and looking at what's working and what's not? Or are you just carrying on with what you feel is the best thought you've got in this particular week?

I make series, so I did the video column, which was like every Friday I had a look back on the week, on the news and everything. And I do stand-up comedy as well, so I make some jokes about that in a 2-minute, 2-and-a-half-minute column. Now I am doing the video podcast, which is a combination of video and podcast where I place myself on the Playa del Video, where I have a background as if I'm somewhere on a holiday resort, which is— yeah. And in that one, I tell people about how you can make videos and I highlight a subject. So all the subjects are The ones that I think fit in that range or that series that I'm making. And if I find that people are interested in new subjects, then I'll make a new series and I'll do this in a specific format.

That's a good idea. This perhaps comes from your cinematography course of making a series of, what, 6 or 8 episodes around a theme that makes it into something that the audience can get to. And what about language? And obviously you're in Holland, we speak in English. Are you working in obviously Dutch and English or just one? Tell us about that.

I've done only one of my video columns in English as I wanted to honor my foreign connections.

And I hope that if they were responding to my column, that the whole world would see.

Too bad they didn't.

But no, it's my market is Dutch. It's my, it's a Dutch audience.

So I do it in Dutch and I can tell you something about responses if that's because engagement is all I'm looking for. I use the Shield app. Do you know it? Oh, it's a great app. It's an independent app that's the only one that actually measures your results on LinkedIn. If you're over 5% engagement on LinkedIn, that's very good. My average engagement on LinkedIn is 6.6%, which is the ratio between comments and likes and shares versus views times 100. So over 5 is good. I'm on an average at 6.6, but this is the average of all my content, which is also sliders and written content with pictures and everything. I'd like to show you why video is doing so much better. If I look at my videos, the average engagement rate on my video is 11.3%, and my latest series The average engagement rate is almost 14%. So you have, you have less views than the written content, but the engagement rates are much higher.

And from what you're saying, actually the production time for your video is actually shorter probably than for your written content, but it's giving you better engagement.

No, you have to put in a lot of, a lot of time.

You have to put in a bit of time.

I tell people that if you, once you find the rhythm, and you know what it is that you're going to talk about, then maybe you can film, let's say, for a couple of subjects or topics that you want to touch upon and make several short clips from that. So you can actually do the filming in one bit. For my column, I had to actually record everything every week, and I was pretty strict for myself. There was no way I could pronounce something with a mistake. Once one word wrongly pronounced, I had to re-record everything because that's what I thought belonged in a column. You don't make a big mistake, no editing in the column. In my new series, I just edit all the us and us and I have hard cuts and it's fun. It's like jump cuts, whatever. But writing takes you less time than filming, But the feedback and the engagement are so much more, so much higher that I'd recommend that if you want to actually get in the picture, filming is the way to do it.

And if people would like to find out from you how to do it, Gigi van Busek, how do they find you? Because I've already learned just in 19 minutes, a huge amount from you. How do people get ahold of you?

Wherever you are in the world and wherever you're listening to this podcast, please contact me on LinkedIn. Any question you like on video making, and I'm really happy to help you.

That's very kind. Thank you so much for joining us, GJ, all the way from Harlem, just over the water. And let's not talk about the football.

You're very welcome, Jim. I was happy to be here, and I hope I this will be informative to all your listeners.

It absolutely has been. You've been listening to the Unnoticed Show with Gerrit Jan van Bussek over in Harlem in Holland, and I think. A couple of key takeaways. One is get video, make video, get in the picture. And the second is that you don't need a huge amount of kit. You need your phone, a little bit of courage, and then press play and enjoy. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Unnoticed Show.