How to send a video link in a LinkedIn message or InMail

A LinkedIn inbox is a hard place to stand out. Every message from a stranger looks like every other message from a stranger, and most of them are selling something.

A short video of you, made for the one person reading, is different enough to get noticed. But LinkedIn handles links in its own way, and if you do not know how, the message comes out looking worse than plain text would have.

How links behave in a LinkedIn message

When you paste a URL into a LinkedIn message, LinkedIn may fetch the page and show a preview card under your text. Once you send, the card is part of the message.

The card draws the eye, so whatever you write above it should be short or it gets skipped. The recipient is also likelier to tap the card than to read your text, so the page behind the link has to explain itself.

Put the link on its own line at the end of your text. If you drop it into the middle of a sentence, the card may still appear at the bottom and the sentence reads oddly.

If a preview does not appear, the link still works as a plain tappable URL. Do not resend to force a card. Two messages from a stranger in one minute reads as spam.

Why a link rather than a video file

A video file sent to a stranger has the same problems here that it has in email. It is heavy, it may not play on their device, and you cannot tell whether they watched it.

A link to a page that plays the video in the browser fixes that. With hi.video the page shows the recipient's name, your note, the video, and one button you chose, either an email address or an https link such as a calendar. The recipient does not need an account or an app. You can see when the link has been viewed, which tells you whether to follow up or leave it.

The links are unlisted. Anyone with the link can watch, and search engines are told not to index the page, so pasting it into a private message does not put it anywhere public. Who can see my video link goes into the detail.

What to write around the link

Two or three sentences is enough, because the video is the message.

The first sentence names them and gives the reason you are writing, in their terms. The second says you recorded a short video rather than writing it all out, and how long it is. Then the link.

Do not write out the content of the video in the text. If the text says everything, there is no reason to watch, and if they watch and hear it all again, the whole thing feels padded.

Write it the way you would say it out loud, without the corporate phrasing.

A template for a connection follow-up

Suppose someone accepted your connection request two days ago and you want to start a conversation without pitching. Here is the shape I use.

Thanks for connecting, Marcus.

I saw your comment on the thread about onboarding handoffs, and it matched something we ran into last quarter. I recorded a 35-second hi for you about it rather than writing an essay here.

[link]

I have no agenda beyond that. If it is useful, there is a reply button under the video.

For an InMail to someone who does not know you at all, the first sentence changes. You owe them a reason for the interruption before the link.

Hi Lena, we have not met. I work with support leads at companies about your size, and your post last week about ticket backlog after the pricing change is the exact problem I keep seeing.

I recorded a short video for you with one idea on it. It is 40 seconds.

[link]

If it misses the mark, ignore this and I will not chase.

Timing and follow-up

Send a connection follow-up within a few days of the acceptance, while they still remember saying yes. An InMail can go any time. I send mine mid-morning on a weekday so they land while people are at their desks, though I have no evidence that it matters much.

If the link shows as viewed and there is no reply after four or five days, one short follow-up is fine. Refer to the video without resending it, and do not ask whether they watched it. "Any thoughts on the handoff idea?" is enough.

If it has not been viewed, the text above the link may be the problem, so try a different first sentence on the next person rather than nudging this one.

Recording the video

Keep the video under a minute. Record in the browser, with your camera, in one take if you can manage it. If you stumble on their name, retake. Trim the start if you were reaching for the button.

Captions matter more here than in email. Many people read messages on a phone with the sound off, and a captioned video can be watched in a meeting or on a train. hi.video offers captions.

You can record your first hi on the free plan, which gives you five published videos a month, each up to a minute. That is enough to find out whether video gets a different response from your LinkedIn list than text does. The Pro plan at $14.99 USD a month raises the limits and adds a custom username to the link. The pricing page compares the two.

hi.video records in the browser and has no AI avatars and no uploads. Every recipient page carries a "Recorded in hi.video" label, which means only that the video was made with the recorder. It does not prove who is on camera or that no AI was used elsewhere, so the label supports your message and does not replace it. The trust page explains what it does and does not show.

For the structure of the video itself, video prospecting that gets replies has a 40-second script. If you met the person at an event rather than online, networking follow-up video after an event covers that case.