GIFs Work Surprisingly Well on LinkedIn

Interview with Ilze Švarcbaha, Founder of Not Scheduled and Co-founder of Every Good Idea social media marketing agencies.

Based on your experience, what would you describe as the formula for a successful LinkedIn post? 

If a post comes from a founder’s profile, being personal is one of the most important factors. If it comes from a company profile, I recommend using GIFs, because they have worked consistently for my clients.

Video can also perform well, but it requires testing. I have one client for whom video works very well, and another for whom it does not. GIFs, however, have worked for everyone. Personal photos also perform well, especially when people can see the team behind the brand.

Sometimes it is effective when teams are willing to be humorous. For example, one client was comfortable sharing a photo of themselves wearing a Santa hat and beard.

When you say GIFs, what do you mean in practice? Do they need to be created specifically for the brand, or can they come from platforms such as Giphy? 

It depends. There are two approaches.

For my own content, it has worked well to use a familiar GIF, such as an animal doing something, or a well-known GIF from Giphy, and then add text to create a meme. That performed very well for me.

Example

For clients, one option is to create a GIF from existing brand assets. For example, if you have a photo of two founders, you can turn it into a subtle moving GIF. This worked particularly well for one B2B cosmetics brand.

Example 

Another option is to use short clips from a product or software demonstration. You can cut an 8 to 10-second segment and use it as a GIF. It works as visual entertainment. People may not fully understand what they are seeing immediately, but that is often what encourages them to read the post for context.

Many content creators on LinkedIn publish hero posts, often bragging about their achievements. How do you view this trend? 

If it works for them, then it works for them. Their strategy is often different from what most B2B organisations aim for.

In many cases, that style is closer to a B2C approach, because the objective is to generate maximum attention. So you might see a very cheesy post about themselves, and then the next post is “DM me to get something”. That is simply a strategy that some people have chosen.

I am not personally a fan of it.

There is also a practical observation: if you have not posted on LinkedIn for a long time and then publish a clear introduction post about what you do, with a genuine personal photo, ideally in a work context, LinkedIn often boosts it. It can feel like a sugar rush, because the platform promotes the post and gives the impression that you will receive the same response if you continue.

In reality, results vary, but I have had clients whose first “introduction” post received 10,000 to 20,000 impressions. That is substantial, especially if they have only around 500 followers.

Another observation is that LinkedIn seems increasingly dominated by consultants, personal branding coaches, and self-help figures. Meanwhile, posts from actual business leaders appear less frequently.

I used to be in a bubble of personal branding experts. It was repetitive, with templated posts and polished selfies. But when I started engaging with more niche content, my feed changed.

If you consistently like and engage with leaders discussing company challenges, lessons learned, and business outcomes, the platform will show you more of that content.

And I see more CEOs appearing, at least in Latvia, because it has become fashionable. One CEO said something I liked: if billionaires are on this platform, I should be too.

For CEOs, it can actually be easier to stand out because they are less common. One example is a CEO whose company provides moving services, literally moving furniture. It is rare to see such a CEO on LinkedIn, so he stands out. He has even been interviewed in a magazine because people noticed him.

If a CEO were listening to our conversation and asked, “Why should I post on LinkedIn? What is in it for me?”, how would you answer? 

I would say: your clients are on this platform, and it is definitely cheaper to publish organic posts on LinkedIn than to pay for ads, because you can still achieve strong reach.

Another very important point is employer branding. People are more likely to want to work for employers that are active on social media.

The CEO is one of the biggest assets a company can use. Reach will generally be higher when the main representative speaks about the company.

You consult companies on LinkedIn. What is the main barrier? Why are they not more active or more effective? 

Time. That is what I am effectively selling. I provide my time and my team’s time to create posts.

When a company wants to announce what they achieved last year, it takes time to gather the numbers, write the post, possibly create a carousel, and involve a graphic designer. It is time- consuming, even though there are ways to do it faster.

Some people lower the bar and simply take a screenshot and post it as it is. But most companies want branded assets, and that takes time to assemble properly.

Should CEOs and senior leaders be more spontaneous and less polished, or should they remain controlled and highly curated? 

For company profiles, it is acceptable to be more controlled, because those accounts are typically polished.

But for personal profiles, the more authentic they are, the better. People are more willing to follow personal brands than company accounts. Posts usually perform better when the picture is real, not AI-generated or heavily enhanced.

The same is true with text. AI-generated writing is becoming easy to recognise. Many people’s brains have learned to spot it immediately, and it is often a turn-off. People still do it, though. Some have only recently discovered these tools and are using AI at full speed for both images and text. It can be quite irritating.

How would you use AI? How much would you use it, and for what? 

I will be honest: we do use AI. And I would suggest using Claude, not ChatGPT, because Claude is better for more creative writing. It can generate strong text if you provide examples in advance, so it learns your tone of voice.

The best approach is usually a mix: write the core ideas yourself, describe what happened, even as a rough flood of text, and then use AI to help refine it.

ChatGPT has a recognisable structure, including the emoji style patterns, and a common issue is that it does not have taste. It often misses the tone. Sometimes the wording becomes strange. Those are the areas where you need to be careful.

Speaking of video, what are your recommendations for LinkedIn video content? For someone who has mostly posted text and wants to start video, where should they record? Office, home studio, outside, or something else? 

From a technical perspective, keep it simple. Use your phone. Use the back camera, not the front camera. Sit facing a light source. If you have a window, sit in front of it. Place the camera and speak directly to it.

Sometimes you can ask someone else to hold the phone. With iPhones, you often do not need microphones, but if you have them, it is even better.

And you need to test. The first video might “flop” in the sense that people may feel slightly uncomfortable seeing you speaking directly to them. But the more you post videos, the more comfortable they become with you. Video creates trust faster.

That is why I post videos. People later tell me, “I feel like I know you.”

Example

What about the setting? A neutral background can be boring, but walking videos can feel more dynamic. On the other hand, walking can be distracting and you can lose focus. What is your view?

I would test it, but personally, I prefer sitting or standing. Then I can use my hands, concentrate, and look directly into the camera.

I am not a fan of walking videos. I am not against them, but they can look overly informal, as if you pulled out the phone and said something without preparation. Sometimes it gives the impression that the information will not be well structured.

When you sit or stand and prepare, the outcome is often stronger. That is my personal preference.

With clients, we usually have them stand and speak. If they attended a podcast, we cut out the most interesting snippet from the longer recording. Nobody will watch an hour, but they might watch two minutes.

Are subtitles necessary? 

Yes. I always generate subtitles myself, even though LinkedIn offers automated subtitles. If you want to stay on brand and use a specific font, it is better to create your own subtitles. Then you can also check spelling.

For example, my name would probably be wrong if I relied on LinkedIn’s automatic subtitles, so doing it myself helps me avoid those mistakes.

What about editing style? Some videos are heavily edited, with many effects, while others are simple talking head videos. What should B2B brands do? 

I would start with the brand. How do they want to appear?

For example, I work with an organisation that helps companies export. For them, they need to appear agile, active, and trustworthy. In that case, a phone video is more natural and straightforward.

Heavily edited videos are more common for banks and large corporations. They sometimes want that style because it creates a higher perceived standard and a bit of distance between them and the viewer.

Let’s say I start creating content and nothing happens. The numbers are disappointing. Low reach, low engagement. Then I see a guru claiming a million views and hundreds of comments, and I feel it is not for me. How do you encourage someone not to give up too early? 

Two things. First, most people look at 300 or 500 impressions and think it is small. But if you imagine 300 or 500 people in one room, it is immediately impressive.

Also, impressions are not the same as unique people. The actual number of people might be smaller, but it is still meaningful. Impressions can include multiple views by the same person. If someone sees your post three times, that increases impressions.

Second, my suggestion is to comment and be active in the community. Some people achieve excellent results primarily through commenting. They do not create much original content. Comments create impressions, too.

If you comment on other people’s posts, they may come to your profile, and they may see your content. It often works like this: you comment on someone’s post, and then when you publish your next post, they are more likely to see it. The same applies to people you speak with in direct messages.

The best comments are the ones where you ask a question back and start a conversation.

Please recommend some B2B LinkedIn profiles

- Niche: engineering AI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannes-brandstetter-55741b116/

- Consultant: LinkedIn ads: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krutainis/

- CEO of SEB bank: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ieva-tetere/ (content in Latvian)