Pilot complete: LinkedIn is live — the professional channel we underestimated

For a long time, LinkedIn was the channel in our social portfolio that nobody thought about. When you picture "publish a product video," you picture Instagram, TikTok, maybe YouTube — not the network where people talk about their jobs. That's exactly why I had low expectations when we put LinkedIn into the pilot.

Three months later I have to admit: the low expectations were the wrong lens. Not because LinkedIn suddenly delivered huge reach — it didn't. But because reach was never the point.

Who was in the pilot

Deliberately mixed, with a focus on shops with explanation-heavy products:

• Three sellers of tools, tech and industrial supplies
• Two vendors of premium furniture and home accessories
• One seller of watches and jewelry in the upper price segment
• Two fashion and lifestyle shops that also wanted to reach a business audience
• One vendor of sustainable packaging solutions (classic B2B)
• One vintage and collector shop with a curated range

Most had a LinkedIn profile, but almost nobody used it actively for the shop. That was the honest test: what happens when the listing videos simply show up there automatically — without the seller developing a LinkedIn strategy?

Lesson one: few views, but the right ones

Let's be clear: LinkedIn videos brought significantly fewer views in the pilot than Instagram Reels or TikToks. If you look at reach numbers, LinkedIn is disappointing at first.

But the composition was different. Someone watching a product video on LinkedIn isn't scrolling through an endless entertainment wall — they're in work mode, often looking for suppliers, solutions, or inspiration for their own business. Several pilot sellers reported that the few reactions that came felt different: concrete inquiries, buyers, resellers.

A tool retailer put it this way after eight weeks: "On Instagram I get little hearts. On LinkedIn I get asked whether I also deliver to businesses on invoice. One is nice, the other is an order."

Lesson two: automation makes the hard channel easy

LinkedIn has a reputation as the channel where you have to "present yourself professionally" — thoughtful posts, the right tone, ideally a write-up to go with it. That's exactly what stops many sellers from posting there at all.

With Buust it works differently: create a video, turn on the auto-pipeline, LinkedIn is included. The video lands on the profile automatically — with a description, tracking link and your name. Not a single seller in the pilot did extra work for LinkedIn. And precisely because the effort was zero, the balance was positive even at small reach: presence on a professional channel nobody would otherwise have had time for.

Lesson three: profile and Company Page are two different worlds

This is the technical lesson of the pilot — and the reason only part of LinkedIn graduates today.

Posting to a personal profile and posting to a LinkedIn Company Page are two completely separate paths on LinkedIn: different interface, different approvals, different app. We got profile posting working cleanly in the pilot — it's regularly available as of today.

The Company Page runs through LinkedIn's Community Management API, which has to be approved as a standalone, isolated app. That approval is still pending. That's why the LinkedIn Company Page stays in the pilot for now — with its own free seats — and graduates separately, once LinkedIn unlocks the API.

What two pilot sellers said in the end

"I would never have posted on LinkedIn myself — too much effort, too serious. The fact that my product videos are now just automatically there opened up a channel I hadn't even considered for my shop. And that's exactly where my first big order came from." — Industrial supplies retailer, Stuttgart

"The reach is small, but the people who ask mean it. On LinkedIn I learned: it's not about many eyes, it's about the right ones." — Premium furniture vendor, Hamburg

The second point — that a small, professional channel has its own value for commerce — wasn't in my original hypothesis. I learned that from the sellers.

What changes now for LinkedIn sellers

LinkedIn profile posting is no longer a pilot feature as of today. The full integration — connect your profile, auto-upload, a tracking link per video, performance in the dashboard — is available on every plan from now on.

If you weren't in yet: on the Free plan you get three free videos you can publish straight to LinkedIn — no waiting list, no pilot code, no upgrade required.

Connect LinkedIn and start with three free videos →

What's next in the pilot

Among the social channels, the LinkedIn Company Page and X (Twitter) remain in the active pilot — each with their own 10 free seats. Google Business runs as a bonus for local merchants. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest, Threads and YouTube have — like the LinkedIn profile now — graduated out of the pilot and are included in every plan.

On the marketplace side the pilot continues: Amazon, Shopware 6, Etsy, Wix, OTTO Market, Kaufland and the other Tier-2 marketplaces.

Thanks to the ten LinkedIn pilot sellers. Your patience with a channel that doesn't look like "product video" at first glance — and your honest feedback that the right question is worth more than the quick view — turned my skepticism into a real feature.