Lights, Camera, Action: Linkedin goes LIVE!
The online world has been evolving at an exponential pace since a couple of decades. The speed of improvisation of various platforms in the vertical and horizontal direction has gained an upward momentum due to various world events!
In mid November 2008, Queen Rania of Jordan became the premier recipient of the YouTube Visionary Award in recognition of her efforts – via online video – to rid the world of the stereotypes and misconceptions associated with Arab and Muslim communities.
Source: https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/11/15/queenrania.jpg
Till that moment, the world didn’t really know what “Going Live” means! This was the time in evolution of mankind, when only offline events were the ones that existed and there was a hush hush tone of conversation when online events or live events online would be discussed. However, with time, as analytics reports came out, marketers and business owners realized that a Live Video has 3x more engagement than a pre-recorded video!
The “Go Live” trend started off by Youtube was caught by other prominent social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. However, Linkedin being a highly business and networking focussed social media platform stayed silent and observed the other channels improvise their “Go Live” offerings.
Is it available for everyone?
The answer is no! I have been in the Live sessions of many brands and influencers. Generally, on Instagram when an influencer goes live, the wait is endless before the real purpose of going live is revealed. During that excruciating time, I would realise that i am killing my time on social media channels and compare Instagram with Tiktok (Ahhhhh! Blasphemy????!!!)
Linkedin is quite wary of letting brands conduct a Live streaming on its platform. Accordingly, only those brands and personalities are supposed to host a Linkedin Live, who have been doing Live sessions on other social media channels. Thus, as an individual or as a company, one has to apply here.
Just like Facebook that prohibits live streaming on multiple channels at the same time, however the enforcement of the rule is a bit doubtful. Linkedin, the platform intends to bring out similar rules and enforce them better to wean out less quality Live streaming. So, when you apply for Linkedin Live and your application is approved, you need to be sure that the content you are putting out is good and value driven else your streaming privileges may be revoked!
Features of Linkedin Live
The live streaming feature is unfiltered in nature and an exciting opportunity. It presents a unique and exciting opportunity to engage with an audience or give exclusive access to a private event and celebrate a moment.
Features to keep in mind:
- Invite only
- It is mandatory to use a 3rd party tool
- One cannot schedule a Linkedin Live
- Firmographic data is unique in nature and will be explained later in this blog post.
Statistics to consider
Since its selective launch in February 2019, Linkedin Live offers the following statistics in its favor :
| 24x more comments | For Linkedin Live streams versus native videos |
| 7x more reactions | For Linkedin Live streams versus native videos |
| 62% companies | Plan to adopt live broadcasting in the future |
| 73% B2B Marketers | “Video positively impacts marketing ROI” |
Ideal content buckets
As per one Linkedin employee, users should appreciate the Live streaming platform and post Live content that adheres to their niche and not frivolous content. In other words, it is a no-nonsense platform for Live streaming and if you have a wellness page, the platform doesn’t want you to talk about how to score a century in cricket!
In a nutshell, the ideal content buckets for Linkedin Live can be grouped as follows:
Interactivity
- Foster real-time conversations with your professional audience
- Host an “Ask Me Anything” session
- Interview an influencer
- Talk about a pressing and relevant issue over multiple episodes
Events
- Go behind the scenes
- Talent Branding- Highlight the corporate culture
- Live overview of a much coveted event
- Unveil a new thought provoking idea
- Talk to a change maker for a behavior inducing campaign
Read our post on Business Blogging
Linkedin Live: Analytics
One of the highlights of Linkedin Live and the reason for the long wait to join the “Live” bandwagon was building a strong analytics for gauging the success of Linkedin Live.
It has a few predictable parameters for Live video analytics, however there is one parameter that makes this activity worth it! Let’s see if you can guess:
- Peak number of concurrent viewers while the video was live
- Total minutes watched
- Total number of views
- Viewers for both live and replay versions
- Number of reactions, comments, and shares
- Firmographic Data- Top Pages, titles, and location watched from– This is a unique feature offered!)
Case Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted a Live stream on its Tech Day 2019. The Live fetched 4,121 interactions and 2,458 comments.
CISCO
CISCO used the live streaming feature for #LoveWhereYouWork that featured its employees on how they feel working in CISCO. The Live video had a great response 3,131 responses and 1,554 comments.
Boston Consulting Group
Boston Consulting Group held a series of multiple-episodes centered on ‘Leading in the New Reality Live’ that saw 40,213 views, 1,334 engagements and 832 comments!
Here is a small slideshare presentation that i have put together for you to get a gist of more points than i could cover in the blog:
Sources:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-things-you-should-know-linkedin-live-paul-richards/
Wow Ambuj! I have never tried out LinkedIn LIVE but thank you for putting it all together, specially the kind of insights it offers. I will give it a shot next and apply for the feature right away.
Good point, nidhi. LinkedIn live is an important tool for all serious networkers like you and I’m sure that once you get permission to host a live video, the analytics will show you why linkedin live gives you an edge..
I have a LinkedIn account but never try to use it for a LIVE and you are giving us every information that we need to know about it. Thank you!
This LinkedIn is so cool! It’s all in one. Thanks for developing this!
Good to know about this feature of LinkedIn. I am having LinkedIn account but never tried this live feature. Thanks for letting us know about this
May be you should give it a try!
I never knew there is a Linkedin live feature! It looks really interesting to use as well, thanks for sharing this information with us!
Now you know! Maybe you can hold discussions on it and engage your community
This is really really great, especially for trainings and seminars! That is awesome, I am super excited.
I love the opportunities that many large online corporations afford to bloggers and other online professionals. This is awesome!
Haha yes! LinkedIn has been clever to open up its live feature at a time when businesses are struggling and need to create a differentiation
I never heard that there is a Linkedin live. Thank you for sharing this,
Really?! I m happy to have provided value to you
Great features about LinkedIn I’m looking forward to check on this awesome!
All the best…. I hope you apply for it and get the feature for your personal profile or page
I have never tried LinkedIn live, will give it a try soon! Thanks for sharing this detailed post ☺
I would love to help you out in filling up the form and applying for LinkedIn live
Thats a nice feature going live on LinkedIn. Didn’t know about it. Thanks for sharing.
Yes it is a great way to engage people on your LinkedIn page!
Wow! I didn’t know about this. However, I don’t think it’s a very great feature to have! EVen for social media platforms, I feel going live is a constant pressure of engaging and being enagaged.
I partly agree with you.. but if you notice, LinkedIn and in some way, Twitter have seized the opportunity offered by COVID19 and have added interesting features to the platforms. LinkedIn live is one of the most coveted feature to have!