Reaching your target audience isn’t hard anymore! Thanks to social media and streaming platforms, you can connect and engage with them in real time.

LinkedIn Live is one such platform that allows professionals, marketers, and founders to broadcast live videos to showcase their expertise and build authority in their industry. If you use it right, it can significantly elevate your online presence and increase your followers.

Today, I’ll be sharing everything there’s to know about hosting LinkedIn Lives and the best practices for leveraging it to grow your authority and revenue!  

What Is LinkedIn Live?

LinkedIn introduced its live streaming features in February 2019 as an invitation-only beta program and was available to a few users only. Over time (especially since the pandemic), LinkedIn expanded its access to LinkedIn Live, allowing more organizations and professionals to leverage the powerful tool to build their professional brands on the platform.

Linked Lives are public and discoverable by all LinkedIn members, and you can host live events, webinars, interviews, panel discussions, product launches, and more – all to connect with your audience! 

For example, Vimeo has a weekly live dubbed “Vimeo’s Working Lunch:”

Is LinkedIn Live Free?

While LinkedIn Live is a free feature offered by LinkedIn, it currently requires you to connect to a third-party streaming tool. 

Depending on their functionalities, these tools can be free or paid. 

LinkedIn Live vs. LinkedIn Event

LinkedIn Live is a streaming feature that helps increase brand awareness and reach, whereas LinkedIn events are best for community building. 

Live is accessible to the public; anyone can search and join them. However, not everyone can join a LinkedIn event—you need to be registered to attend.

Moreover, when you go live, a subset of your followers will get notified. But with events, you need to promote them to get the desired attention, and only event attendees get notified. 

Since 2020, LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn events can be used together. This way, you can live stream directly to LinkedIn event attendees. 

Just create an event on LinkedIn and make it an “online” event. Connect your streaming software and select the event as the stream destination, not your LinkedIn page. 

Benefits of LinkedIn Live

Going live on LinkedIn doesn’t only help businesses but also individuals looking to build their personal brands:

• Live videos capture attention and generate high engagement. You reach a larger audience, allowing you to influence many prospects in one go—a faster way of growing on LinkedIn, I’d say!
• With LinkedIn Live, you can interact with the attendees in real time, form a real connection, and address their questions. 
• It helps your audience see a more authentic and unscripted side of you, which works wonders!

Prerequisites for Going Live on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has some specific criteria you need to fulfill to host live sessions:

• You need a minimum of 150 followers or connections in your LinkedIn account.
• You need to have a clean slate when it comes to abiding by LinkedIn’s community policies in the past.
• You must be located in a region with the LinkedIn Live feature. (Mainland China doesn’t have it yet.)

How to Go Live on LinkedIn

1. Verify that your account has access to LinkedIn Live. 
2. Choose a streaming tool—Vimeo, StreamYard, and Socialive are some popular ones. Alternatively, you can choose one of LinkedIn’s certified partners or connect to a streaming software like Zoom.
3. Connect the streaming tool to your LinkedIn page.
4. Navigate to your page’s admin view and select “Create a live event.” Choose the event category that best aligns with your content. You can also select whether you want to enable comments during the live video.
5. Connect your broadcast to your event using your 3rd-party streaming tool.
6. Start streaming from your broadcasting tool.

After the live session, you can save and share the video as an on-demand video or repurpose it for other platforms.

Best Practices for LinkedIn Live

1. Plan in Advance and Use Storytelling

Hosting an impromptu live to have candid conversations with your audience may sound like a cool idea, but it can become a nightmare if it isn’t targeted. 

LinkedIn’s audience is a bit different from the one on Facebook and Instagram. They like to attend events that come with an agenda. 

So, to ensure you’re giving them the value they expect from you, prepare your content in advance. Pick a topic, identify the key points you want to address, and keep all the supporting materials with you during the live (just in case). Make sure it's a topic that you can provide valuable insights, tips, and practical advice for.

Incorporate storytelling elements into your content to make it more relatable and engaging. Share personal experiences, anecdotes, case studies, or success stories!

For example, you could be talking about AI in recruitment. You could be generic, but where's the fun in that? Instead, share your own anecdotes and experiences!

2. Test the Streaming Equipment Beforehand

It’s a no-brainer, yet many forget to test their equipment and then face technical difficulties during the live, spoiling the experience for their attendees.

Make sure your internet, webcam, and microphone are working fine, and that you have a decent backdrop.

3. Spread the Word

So, you regularly host LinkedIn Lives? Make it official on your profile and promote the hell out of it! Consider repurposing your LinkedIn Live recordings into shorter video clips, posts, or articles (whether on LinkedIn or your blog).

Keep screenshots of testimonials from happy attendees and use them as content to attract new followers. 

Make your Lives timely and encourage the audience to participate, like Julius Solaris does in the example above.

How to Promote Your LinkedIn Live Session

• Announcement Posts: Create engaging posts on your LinkedIn profile, company page, and relevant LinkedIn groups, informing your network about the upcoming LinkedIn Live session!
• Teasers and Countdowns: Build anticipation by sharing teasers or short video clips related to the session content.
• Cross-Channel Promotion: Leverage your email list, blog, Twitter followers, and other social media to raise awareness about the session.
• Collaborations: Collaborate with influencers, industry experts, or relevant organizations to co-host or participate in your LinkedIn Live session.
• Personal Invitations: Personally reach out to key connections, clients, and colleagues who may be interested in the session. Craft personalized messages highlighting why they should attend and how it aligns with their interests.
• Post-Live Promotion: Create outtakes of the particularly memorable moments and turn them into teasers for upcoming events, write LinkedIn Pulse articles, and invite your followers to share what they liked the most about the Live event.

4. Experiment with Different Live Formats

Give your audience a variety of content by hosting webinars, expert sessions, Q&As, and more. This keeps your audience on their toes and helps you become their go-to person for learning on LinkedIn. 

Ready to Go Live and Level up Your LinkedIn Game?

LinkedIn Live is worth exploring if you’re looking to increase your brand awareness or become a thought leader in your industry. And as you go, monitor analytics, gather feedback, and keep iterating to optimize the impact of your live sessions. 

Just be your authentic self and focus on sharing value with your attendees—your LinkedIn engagement will soon take off!

Happy Live streaming!