A seamless digital experience has become an expectation of consumers. With so many platforms competing in this space, they are becoming increasingly competitive and advanced with many varying features, and price points.
LinkedIn Live Events is one option that allows users to broadcast live video on their profile, pages, and events. Here’s what we learned while testing out LinkedIn Live Events.
Advantages of LinkedIn Live Events for Webinars
Everything in one place
Arguably the most attractive aspect of using LinkedIn Live Events is that it allows you to house everything on one platform. You can not only create and host the event on LinkedIn, but also promote your event, target your audience, and invite and manage attendees all on one platform.
Easily manage your attendees and collect leads
When creating an event as a super or content admin on a LinkedIn page account, you are given the option to use a LinkedIn registration form. This allows you to easily gate your content, which will provide you with pre-filled LinkedIn profile information including name, email, job title, company name, and country. There is also a checkbox on the registration form that gives attendees the option to opt-in to promotional and marketing materials. It does the work for you.
At any point, as the event organizer, you can access this data by navigating to the “Manage Attendees” section of the event and downloading a CSV file.
These LinkedIn registration forms are not only a huge benefit for the organizer, but also the attendees. As the form automatically populates with their LinkedIn information, registering for an event has never been easier.
All LinkedIn Live Events are automatically recorded
LinkedIn Live Events are automatically recorded and will remain on your feed as a “previously recorded live”. This makes them easily accessible for anyone who might have missed your live event without you having to do the legwork to make them available.
Targeting your audience has never been easier
Because your event will be connected with a post on your profile or page (discussed in more detail below) you can quickly and easily target your event.
Once creating your post, click the “Anyone” dropdown option. This will prompt the question “Who can see your post?”.
Selecting “targeted audience” will give you the option to target your audience based on Language, Region, Job Function, Location, University, Company Size, Seniority, or Industry.
Disadvantages of LinkedIn Live Events for Webinars
LinkedIn does not have its own native live streaming tool
In order to go live on LinkedIn, you have to use a third party broadcast tool. After creating your event on LinkedIn, you’ll need to connect your third party broadcast tool to your event. You will then schedule your broadcast and connect it to the event that you have scheduled on LinkedIn.
This means adding another program to your tech stack and while there are free options, the more expensive tools often offer more custom and personalizable options.
Not everyone has access to LinkedIn Live
Access to LinkedIn Live is granted after you meet certain criteria. The criteria for access are:
- Audience base: Members and Pages must have at least 150 followers or connections to be eligible for access.
- User History: Only members, pages, and their admin with a good standing history of abiding by LinkedIn’s Professional Community Policies will be eligible for access.
- Location: LinkedIn Live Video is available everywhere except for Mainland China.
Once you create your event, it will prompt you to post about your event
Be prepared that once you create your event, you have to publish a post in order to complete your event setup. You can not create an event without immediately posting about it or promoting it on your profile or page.
This means that you have to be ready to launch your event to the public, the moment you create it on LinkedIn. This also means that if you decide to test LinkedIn Live Events, your testing event will be accessible to your audience.
You can not embed the registration form on another page
LinkedIn does not give you the option to embed the LinkedIn event registration form. This means that if you typically use an external landing page for webinar promotion, you wouldn’t be able to display your form on that page. You will have to link out to the LinkedIn form. This also means that your attendees must have a LinkedIn account.
A few more things to consider:
- You have to be connected with the speaker on LinkedIn in order to be able to add them as the speaker on your event.
- If you choose to use a registration form, you need to have a privacy policy link. You can not create an event with a registration form without it.
- Test your event! Host an event testing with all of your material ready so that you can get familiar with this new platform. This avoids any mishaps on the day of your live event.
When it comes to webinars and virtual events in general, there are tons of platform options available, offering a range of features. As LinkedIn Live Events continues to evolve in this competitive space and become available to more LinkedIn users, we can expect to see more customization and additional features. It’s certainly a platform to keep your eye on for hosting your virtual events.
