Learn how to use LinkedIn Live for marketing and branding.
If you’re a digital marketer, you’ve definitely heard of Facebook Live and Instagram Live.
Everyone’s heard about them. It has been around for a while. Come lockdown, every business and individual used them—either as audience or as presenter.
But there’s another platform that has a live feature that’s gaining popularity—LinkedIn live.
- LinkedIn live videos grab 24 times more comments
- Its live videos gain 7 times more reactions
However, not everyone knows much about LinkedIn live. So, in this blog, we take you through all its aspects—what it is, why and how to use it, LinkedIn live best practices and examples from the field.
What is LinkedIn live?
LinkedIn live is a live video streaming feature of the business and employment social platform, LinkedIn. It allows eligible members to broadcast live video content on their LinkedIn profiles/pages. While LinkedIn doesn’t have its own broadcasting tool on the platform, it easily integrates with third-party tools.
Companies are using LinkedIn live in many different ways to generate content, communicate with their audience, and reach different business goals. If you’re a business owner, a digital marketer, or an individual, you have yet another channel to reach your goals.
At this point, let’s also distinguish between LinkedIn live and Events, as many tend to confuse the two as the same.
LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn Events: The difference
Although LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn Events seem like the same, the two are different.
The first difference is that live streams are public and discoverable by all LinkedIn members, while events are accessible only to attendees.
Live streams help build brand awareness and reach. Events help build communities of targeted audiences.
Another difference is that when you stream a live video, a subset of your followers will get notified, whereas in events, only all the event attendees will get notified.
Criteria to get started with LinkedIn Live
While all LinkedIn members can watch LinkedIn live videos, not every member (individual or page) can create a Live video on the platform.
First, let’s understand the criteria to be able to use LinkedIn live:
- Audience: Members and pages with more than 150 followers and connections are eligible to have access to LinkedIn live, however, only upon further evaluation.
- Adherence to LinkedIn Professional Community Policies: Members, pages and individuals that have a good record of following LinkedIn’s Professional Community Policies are considered to be given access to the live videos feature.
- Geography: LinkedIn live is currently available only to members and pages based in mainland China.
If you meet the above three criteria, you can start streaming LinkedIn live videos. Now let’s get into how to get started.
Step by step guide to getting started with LinkedIn Live
Step #1 Choose a broadcaster tool
As mentioned above, you’ll require a broadcast tool, for example, Restream, Socialive, Vimeo, StreamYard, etc. or choose a customer stream (RTMP).
Step #2 Connect your broadcast tool with LinkedIn
The next step is to integrate the broadcast tool with LinkedIn. The correct steps to do so may depend on the tool you choose.
Step #3 Create your LinkedIn Live event
Now it’s time to create your LinkedIn Live event. It’s an easy step. Fill out information about your event, such as title of the event, date, registration option, presenter’s information, etc. Once the event creation is complete, you’ll get a URL that you can use to promote the event on LinkedIn and other channels.
Step # 4 Set up the live stream
Once the live event is created on LinkedIn, go to your third-party broadcasting platform and connect the broadcast to the event. This is where you can enter from to start streaming.
Step # 5 Optimize your set up
A hastily put together live event can have glitches, for example, poor audio, low light, or technical bugs. Hence, once you test your live stream event, it’s critical to address any issues. Here’s a checklist:
- Ensure the lighting is not only good, but visually balanced and pleasant on the eyes
- Keep a comfortable distance between the camera and the speaker/presenter
- Use a tripod for stability
- Ensure the camera quality is good—high resolution. It takes only 90 seconds for viewers to leave poor quality live streams
- Run a sound check to assess the audio quality
- Ensure the presenter’s body language is professional and relaxed
- Have a clean and professional looking background. For example, add your brand logo in the background if possible
- Based on your LinkedIn live analytics reports, optimize any aspect of your live stream
Why should LinkedIn Live be top priority for your company?
- The online live streaming industry grew 99% between 2019 and 2020
- More than 90 million subscribers will use live streaming by 2024
- Live videos capture audience attention 10 to 20 times longer than pre-recorded videos
These figures help gauge the impact of live stream videos on audiences, and hence, their importance for businesses.
It’s hard to refute the fact that today’s businesses just cannot survive without good content and effective engagement strategies.
Static content such as articles, blogs, image-based social media posts, aren’t as effective in capturing attention, which is hardly 8 seconds.
It’s critical for businesses to up their content game with the times—at the same time put out meaningful and intelligent content. And that’s why we’re talking about the newest kid on the block that everyone’s talking about—LinkedIn live. Let’s look at reasons why your business needs it.
1. Helps you reach targeted audience of LinkedIn members
LinkedIn is the best social media platform for business and employment related matters. Companies use the platform to reach their marketing and employment goals (particularly B2B). LinkedIn live streaming boosts the probability of reaching the right kind of audience as the platform already has those who’re serious and interested in your industry follow you/ your page.
2. Creates more engagement opportunities
Depending on the format you choose, you can create more engagement opportunities. For example, if your intention is to collect audience perspectives, you could open the live session to the audience inviting them to share their perspectives via the comments section.
3. Facilitates the nurturing of professional relationships
Since LinkedIn is a platform for business and professional interactions, it already has your audience narrowed down. Unlike other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn members use the platform only for professional connections. This makes it much easier for companies to nurture professional relationships with individuals and companies.
4. Helps businesses build thought leadership in the industry
LinkedIn is also a space where industry leaders share professional opinions. Apart from articles, blogs, and posts, LinkedIn live streams are yet another format that help industry experts establish their thought leadership with more authenticity. When experts speak live on video, it helps build more authenticity.
LinkedIn Live best practices to follow
1. Plan at least a few weeks in advance
Planning at least two to three weeks in advance will allow you to have enough time to grasp the subject. Moreover, you’ll have time to address any technical glitches.
2. Promote the event
Promote your event via different methods and platforms to increase participation in your event.
3. Engage the audience during the event
Engage your audience during the live event by throwing in questions and making the event interactive. Similarly, respond to comments and questions from the audience during the event.
4. Decide the event duration
Too short an event and you might not allow enough time for your audience to grow and engage. Too lengthy and you might not be able to hold audience attention. Hence, choose the event duration wisely.
5. Repurpose content from your LinkedIn Live event
After the event, repurpose snippets, highlights and share in different formats on LinkedIn as well as other channels. For example, create social media posts, videos, etc.
6. Nurture your event participants
Your LinkedIn live events can help you build your audience and followers. Create campaigns to reach out to them via email, social media, etc. Retarget them, engage them, and nurture relationships.
7. Monitor LinkedIn Live analytics
When you run a campaign or conduct an event, it’s a must to monitor it and assess its success. How do you do that? That’s where LinkedIn live analytics will come in the picture. Measure the results of different factors of your live stream, for example, number of audience members, audience drop rate, interaction rate, number of comments, etc.
Types of content can you generate via LinkedIn Live: Ideas with examples
1. For interactivity
Interactivity is a two-way approach that allows companies to engage with their audience. And live events create opportunities for one-to-one interactions. Think live seminars, Q and A sessions, talks, presentations, etc. that allow the audience to ask questions or participate by sharing their opinions.
For example, say you’re building a new product for your company and you want to know your target audiences’ perspectives. You engage in social listening to understand what your potential audience is talking about related to your future product. Based on your findings, you organize a live streaming presentation, including a Q and A session to facilitate interactions.
Example: Thrive Global’s AMA with Arianna Huffington
2. To showcase innovation
For today’s businesses, innovation is the buzzword. Among other social platforms, LinkedIn is one of the best to showcase innovation to like minded audiences. This is where companies have been using LinkedIn Live. Not only does the platform help showcase innovation, it also helps create meaningful collaborations, partnerships, and discussions around the innovation.
LinkedIn Live example of a company that showcased innovation: A software company, Nutanix, used LinkedIn Live to simplify information about their cloud-based infrastructure technology for their audience.
3. Live events
LinkedIn live can be used to conduct any kind of live events, such as conference, seminar, AMA, presentations, and more. Depending on the nature of a company’s products/services, one-to-one live events are imperative for many companies. The inability to organize these can negatively impact business. With LinkedIn live companies can do many such events with ease and lesser resources.
Example: Pfizer uses LinkedIn Live streams to showcase patient stories via live interview format of content.
4. To make important announcements
Another LinkedIn Live example from how companies use live streams is to make important company announcements. For example, you can go live on LinkedIn to announce its strategic partnership with Google My Business. They did so via a panel discussion on the topic.
How should you go about your LinkedIn Live streams?
While there are many different ways to use LinkedIn Live streams, you will have to determine what is more relevant to your audience. For your strategy to be successful, ensure you keep your audiences’ interest as the foundation.
And to understand your audience interest before your live LinkedIn events, you could use a social listening tool. It is one of the best ways to understand your target audiences’ needs, preferences, and sentiments.
Explore Radarr, the social listening tool designed for savvy businesses.
FAQs on LinkedIn Live
What are the requirements for LinkedIn Live streaming?
To be eligible to stream live videos, the member or page has to have more than 150 followers, adhere to LinkedIn Professional Community policies, and be located in mainland China, because that’s the region where LinkedIn live is currently available.
How do I promote my brand on LinkedIn?
There are many ways to promote your brand on LinkedIn, such as LinkedIn ads, LinkedIn live videos, posts, articles, endorsements by other members, etc.
What is the best LinkedIn live streaming platform?
LinkedIn recommends using broadcasting tools such as Restream, Socialive, Streamyard, Switcher, and Vimeo.
What is the best time to host LinkedIn live?
Typically, the best time to host LinkedIn Live videos is before work hours in the morning or after work hours in the evening. However, the best suited time to stream your videos depends on your audience preference. You’ll have to try out different times to determine the best time to engage your target audience.
