LinkedIn is a popular social media platform used by professionals and businesses to network, share content, and build their brand. One of the features available on LinkedIn is the ability to upload and share videos. If you’ve shared a video on LinkedIn, you may be wondering – can you see who watched your LinkedIn video?
LinkedIn Video Metrics
When you share a video on LinkedIn, you do get access to some viewer metrics and analytics. On LinkedIn’s desktop site, you can view the following video metrics:
- Total video views
- Average percentage viewed
- Total minutes viewed
- Shares
- Likes
- Comments
On the LinkedIn mobile app, you can see:
- Total video views
- Total minutes viewed
These metrics give you an overall picture of how your video is performing. You can see the total number of times your video has been viewed, as well as the average percentage viewed, which tells you how much of your video viewers are actually watching.
Who Can See Individual Viewers?
While LinkedIn does provide aggregated metrics, you cannot actually see who specifically has watched your video. LinkedIn does not give creators or account owners the ability to see individual viewers.
So in summary:
- You can see overall performance metrics like views, shares, etc.
- But you cannot see individual viewer names or profiles of who watched your video
LinkedIn provides aggregated statistics to protect user privacy. As a professional networking platform, they want to keep individual viewing activity private.
Why You Can’t See Individual Viewers
There are a few reasons why LinkedIn does not allow you to see who viewed your videos:
Privacy
LinkedIn prioritizes user privacy. Users browse content on the platform with the expectation that their viewing behavior is anonymous. Allowing creators to see exactly who watched their videos would violate user privacy.
Security
If it was possible to see individual viewers, this could open the door to potential harassment or unwanted solicitation based on video views. Keeping views anonymous helps maintain a secure, professional environment.
Functionality
LinkedIn’s feed and content delivery is designed based on algorithms. The platform controls what content is shown to whom for the optimal user experience. Making views public knowledge could interfere with intended functionality.
Scalability
With millions of users, being able to identify each video view would create a huge amount of additional data and complexity. Aggregate metrics allow LinkedIn to efficiently provide useful analytics at scale.
What Individual Viewer Data Could Show
While being able to see exactly who watched your video isn’t possible on LinkedIn, here is some of the data that viewer-level video analytics could potentially provide:
Audience Interests
Seeing individual viewer profiles would allow you to gather data on what companies, industries, job functions, and interests your video audience has. This could help better target content.
Content Relevance
If you could map viewers to their profiles, you could analyze what content and topics tend to attract more views from your target audience.
Audience Location
Viewer locations could show if your content resonates more with certain geographic regions.
Viewer Companies
You may be able to spot certain companies that seem particularly interested in your video content.
Audience Engagement
Beyond just views, you could potentially analyze things like how long each viewer watched and their engagement like likes, shares, and comments.
While the ability to derive these kinds of audience insights seems enticing, the privacy tradeoff and technical hurdles makes this level of tracking unfeasible on LinkedIn.
Other Ways to Gauge Video Performance
While you can’t see who exactly is watching your videos, here are some ways to get more insight into your LinkedIn video performance:
View Comments and Feedback
Looking at comments and feedback on your video can provide qualitative data on who it resonates with and why.
Check Your Follower Overlap
See how many of your new followers also follow competitors or influencers in your industry to gauge if your content is reaching the right people.
Ask Viewers to Engage
Ask viewers to like, share, or comment as a signal they enjoyed your video. This shows organic engagement beyond vanity views.
Review Your Audience Demographics
LinkedIn provides some aggregate demographic data like top viewer locations, job roles, industries, age groups, etc.
Conduct Surveys or Interviews
Asking your audience direct questions through polls, surveys, or interviews can provide viewer feedback even without individual viewer data.
While you can’t access individual viewer profiles, creatively analyzing available data can still provide valuable audience insights.
Increasing Your LinkedIn Video Views
While you can’t see exactly who is watching your videos, you can still work to increase your overall viewership on LinkedIn. Here are some tips:
Optimize Your Title and Thumbnail
Catch viewers’ attention with compelling video titles and preview images that make them want to watch.
Focus on Quality Over Quantity
Well-produced videos with valuable information are more likely to be viewed and shared vs. mediocre content.
Publish Consistently
Posting new videos regularly keeps your profile active and gives followers new content to engage with.
Interact With Viewers
Liking, commenting on, and replying to reactions helps drive engagement and return viewers.
Collaborate With Partners
Co-marketing with partners multiplies your potential reach from combined follower bases.
Run LinkedIn Ads
Paid LinkedIn video ads can expand your viewership beyond just your current followers.
Driving more LinkedIn video views requires an effective posting strategy plus compelling content viewers want to watch and share.
Conclusion
The ability to see who exactly is watching your LinkedIn videos is not currently available due to privacy, functionality, and scalability restrictions. However, you can still access aggregated viewer metrics to assess overall performance. Driving more views requires focusing on optimizing your posting strategy and consistently delivering quality videos tailored to your target audience. With the right approach, you can grow your LinkedIn video audience and engagement without individual viewer data.