How to use LinkedIn Live

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What is LinkedIn Live?

LinkedIn Live is a live streaming feature that lets you broadcast live videos on LinkedIn. You can live stream whether you have a personal or business page, as long as you meet LinkedIn Live’s requirements. Live streams are public on LinkedIn and anyone can view them. Once the stream is over, the replay will show up as a post on your feed, so more people can discover and watch it later.

Many people confuse LinkedIn Live with LinkedIn Events, which is understandable considering they used to be two separate features that have been combined into one experience — LinkedIn Live Events. Now, you can go live spontaneously to your profile or page or schedule a live stream in advance. The change also made all live streams public, so anyone can view your live video or watch the replay on your profile or page. If you have a page with access to live streaming, you can also require registration for your live event.

If you don’t want to schedule your event through LinkedIn, you can also use one of LinkedIn’s preferred streaming partners like Restream.

Why go live on LinkedIn?

Streaming on LinkedIn has a big potential for audience engagement, brand exposure and even recruitment. Live video is dynamic and interactive, so if your goals on LinkedIn include building a community or making authentic connections, then you should definitely consider live streaming.

More people are watching live videos on LinkedIn

Millennials — people aged 30-49 — represent the largest share of LinkedIn users in the U.S., at 36%. And according to LinkedIn, 63% of millennials watch live streams on a regular basis. Live videos have become more popular on LinkedIn in recent years, as people want more real-time interaction with products and brands they follow.

Connect with your audience

LinkedIn has become a platform where you can build a community around your content, and not just search for jobs or generate leads. Live video is one of the best ways to connect with people who work in the same industry or have similar interests and establish a following. Richard Moore, a LinkedIn expert on sales and content, is a big fan of live video.

“Live streaming works because it’s so authentic and it gives people a chance to connect with you,” says Moore. “The more someone tunes into your live stream each week, the more they’ll feel like they know you — even if they've never even met you.”

Show off your brand and products

LinkedIn Live is the ideal platform for live B2B product demos. As a professional social platform, LinkedIn puts users in a more professional mindset, so they’re more open to content about products and services than they are on other social media networks. Don’t just make your live stream an infomercial, though. Include an interview with an industry expert, make it interactive with questions from the audience or find another way to engage viewers.

Be a thought leader

Thought leadership and LinkedIn go hand-in-hand. Whether you’re a company or individual, you can use LinkedIn’s many content features to position yourself as an authoritative source in your industry. Live broadcasts can help you build trust with your audience. Have an expert guest on your weekly talk show, stream your podcast recording session live or broadcast live footage from one of your events.

Land a job or make a hire

LinkedIn has indeed evolved as a content sharing platform, but don’t forget that recruitment is still one of its functions. As an employer, you can use live videos on LinkedIn to showcase what it's like to work with you by doing short interviews with current employees or a regular talk show with your CEO. As a jobseeker, use LinkedIn Live to build your personal brand. Discuss past projects you’ve worked on or commentate on industry trends and news.

How to go live on LinkedIn

Unlike other social media streaming platforms, you can’t just sign in and start a live broadcast on LinkedIn. You have to meet certain criteria first. Once you have access, then you can start streaming.

LinkedIn Live streaming requirements

Before you can go live on LinkedIn, you need to meet these criteria:

• Have at least 150 followers and/or connections (for Members and Pages).
• Your profile is in good standing and you have a history of complying with LinkedIn’s professional community policies.
• Don’t be based in mainland China, because LinkedIn Live isn’t currently available in this area.

How to know if you have access to LinkedIn Live

LinkedIn previously asked users to submit an application for getting access to LinkedIn Live, but that’s no longer necessary. Once you’ve met the three above requirements, LinkedIn will review your profile and then grant access if you’re eligible. But you have to trigger that review process in one of three ways:

1. Create an event on LinkedIn: If you see LinkedIn Live as an event format option, you have access.
2. Create an event with a third-party broadcasting tool: Use Restream to create an event for your LinkedIn profile and if you don’t have access, Restream will notify you right away.
3. Turn on creator mode: If you see LinkedIn Live available under LinkedIn’s creator tools, you have access.

Steps to create a live video on LinkedIn

Once you know you have access to LinkedIn Live, you can start broadcasting. Here’s how:

1. Choose a third-party broadcasting tool. You can’t go live natively on LinkedIn; you’ll need a broadcasting tool. Restream is one of LinkedIn’s official streaming partners, so you can create a live broadcast using Restream Studio, and push it live to your LinkedIn profile.
2. Connect Restream to LinkedIn. Read our guide on connecting your LinkedIn and Restream accounts to see how to do it. It only takes two minutes.
3. Create a live stream. You can either start streaming spontaneously or create a live stream event in advance. To start streaming spontaneously, simply open Restream’s live studio, ensure you’re connected to your LinkedIn profile, then hit the Go Live button. For scheduling a stream on LinkedIn, read our guide on creating a LinkedIn event with Restream to see how to make a live streaming event in advance. When you’re creating the event, be sure to choose an enticing title, event description and thumbnail.
4. Set up your stream. Before you go live, you’ll want to be sure everything on your stream is set up, such as graphics and backgrounds, overlays, having guests join the stream, and anything else you need to produce your live video. If you’re multistreaming to other platforms in addition to LinkedIn, you can also add those channels before going live.
5. Monitor the comments. Reading and responding to comments while you’re speaking can be a lot for just one person, so have another person sign into your Restream account (you can get multiple seats for just one account with the Restream teams feature) to monitor the live chat for you.
6. Get the necessary gear. You’ll want the basics: webcam, microphone and decent lighting. These three things alone can have a huge impact on the quality of your video. Read our guide on what you need to stream live video for more details about the best gear and how to optimize it.
7. Go live! When everything is set up, you can hit that Go Live button and start your broadcast. If you encounter any problems, just start a new chat with our support team. They’re available 24/7.

When you want to end your stream, hit the Finish stream button in the Restream studio.

LinkedIn Live streaming with Restream

Restream does more than simply allow you to go live on LinkedIn. Our live streaming studio has tons of features that make your broadcast look more professional and help you pull off a successful, engaging stream:

• Add your branded logos, backgrounds and graphics
• Invite remote guests to your streams with a simple link
• Multistream to other platforms like YouTube and Facebook in addition to LinkedIn
• Save a recording of your stream to edit and repost later
• Upload and stream a pre-recorded video so you can focus on the live chat
• Get insights about your streams with robust analytics
• Consolidate the live chats from each platform into one widget

How to use LinkedIn Live on mobile

Streaming to LinkedIn Live with Restream Studio is easier to do on a computer, so we recommend using a laptop or desktop computer the first time you try. You may decide to do a stream out in the field, or want to stream one of your conferences or trade shows to LinkedIn, however. For these use cases, streaming with a mobile device is more practical.

You can use Restream Studio on your mobile device the same way you use it on a computer. Our mobile app is still in the works, but you can go live using Restream from your mobile phone’s web browser. Here’s how to do it:

1. Meet the requirements for Restream mobile streaming. We recommend that you have a smartphone that’s been upgraded in the last five years, you use Google Chrome or Safari, and you have a dedicated Wi-Fi connection. For the best results, you should also ensure your device is fully charged and close all of your background apps.
   
2. Go live using Restream Studio. Go to restream.io and log in to your account. Enter Restream Studio and tap the Go Live button just like you would on a computer.

Note that currently the screen sharing feature isn’t available in Restream Studio if you stream from a browser. If you need to capture your screen for your LinkedIn Live stream, you can use an app like Larix Broadcaster and connect it to Restream via RTMP.

Tips for streaming to LinkedIn Live

Make your streams stand out on LinkedIn Live by sticking to some of these tips and best practices.

1. Set goals for your streams

Goals determine what kind of live stream you should create, as different content helps achieve different goals. With a goal, you can also determine a KPI and measure the success of your stream.

Make broader goals like “getting more exposure” and then boil those down into specific goals you can apply to each stream, like “get two more viewers than on my previous stream.”

2. Make a content plan

People come to LinkedIn for business- and career-related content. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone live streaming entertainment on LinkedIn.

If you’re short on ideas for the types of content you can stream to LinkedIn Live, here are a few:

• Product launches: They can boost your sales and help with branding.
• Behind-the-scenes streams: Showing the human side of your business might help with recruitment.
• Conference streams: Good conference streams can gather lots of viewers.

Decide on the type of content you’ll stream in advance. Once you have a general format for your broadcast, make an outline or a run of show. Write down when you’ll switch between scenes, approximately how long you’ll spend on each segment, and some short notes about what you want to say on-stream.

3. Pack value into the first few minutes

A lot of broadcasters start live streams by welcoming viewers or making small talk. While this tactic is great for getting people to engage right away, it can turn off viewers who are watching the replay. Before reposting the video after the stream ends, edit out these first few minutes of greetings and small talk, so the replay starts right away with a value proposition.

AJ Wilcox, a LinkedIn ads expert and founder of LinkedIn advertising agency B2Linked, found that “shooting the breeze” and waiting for more viewers in the first few minutes was wasted time and created a bad experience for replay viewers.

“What I’ve decided to do,” says Wilcox, “is every time when I get in, I just immediately get to the point and start dropping knowledge.”

You want your LinkedIn Live broadcast to be engaging while it’s live, but the content shouldn’t only be effective for the 30 minutes you’re streaming. It should keep delivering value long after it’s over.

4. Spread the word

You should give people a chance to learn about your live stream beforehand so they can plan to watch it. It’s a much better strategy than just relying on the people who happen to be online at the time you’re broadcasting.

Even if you choose to stream only to LinkedIn, you should still mobilize all your communication channels to spread the word about your stream. Social media, newsletters, guest posts — use whatever you have to promote your upcoming LinkedIn Live stream.

5. Optimize your stream

Make your stream look as good as you can. Take the time to adjust your mic, camera and lights so your video has a high-quality feel. We have a video lighting guide that can help you determine the best lighting setup.

Don’t forget to dress the part and make yourself look presentable too. LinkedIn is a professional platform, so dress like you would for a client meeting or job interview. Practice presenting your material on camera as well so you can see what you look like and have a good idea of what to say.

6. Check your internet speed

Test the speed of your internet connection to ensure you have a decent upload speed for streaming. Aim for 5 Mbps or higher. The higher resolution and frame rate you want, the more Mbps you’ll need. Also, try to stream with a wired ethernet connection, rather than using Wi-Fi. It’s a small thing that’ll add just a bit more stability to your live video.

7. Test everything

The middle of a live stream isn’t a good moment for your camera’s battery to run out. It’s not a good time to learn that you don’t have a good upload speed for streaming either. And let’s not mention how bad it would be to discover that your stage fright extends to online broadcasts while you’re doing one.

Do a test run with all of your gear to make sure it’s working properly. You can record a short video without going live using Restream’s record-only feature.

8. Create audience-driven content

When you’re coming up with topics for your LinkedIn Live broadcast, try to involve your audience as much as possible. If you don’t have a big audience on LinkedIn yet, use other platforms where you have a presence to see what your followers are talking about.

Richard Moore does a weekly stream on LinkedIn and uses his audience’s questions to determine the topic. He runs a poll in his Facebook group to ask his audience what his weekly stream should be about. Once the poll results are in and a topic is chosen, he asks people to comment with their questions on that topic. Then he answers those questions directly in the live stream. It makes the audience feel more engaged.

“What I’m doing is not just starting the stream with ‘hey it’s the Richard Moore show,’” he says, “I’m actually drawing the audience in. They help construct the show.”

9. Update your LinkedIn profile

If people like your live video they’ll want to visit your profile to learn more about you. Make sure your profile accurately reflects your current professional situation, use a professional headshot, and have a catchy, informative headline.

If you’re an organization, ensure your Page is completely filled out. Pages with complete information get 30% more weekly views according to LinkedIn.

10. Follow LinkedIn’s best practices

LinkedIn suggests going live for between 15 minutes and two hours, so try to stick to this time frame. You can also get more engagement by devising a broadcast schedule and sticking to it. Your audience will know exactly when you go live and can plan to tune in.

Don’t live stream every day, for two reasons: You’ll quickly get burnt out trying to juggle daily streaming with your other professional responsibilities; and your followers will get tired of seeing you every day. Start off with a once-weekly stream and see how it goes.

11. Repurpose your live stream for other platforms

Your LinkedIn Live video will post to your feed as a regular video once the live broadcast is over, so anyone can rewatch it. But you can get even more mileage out of it by clipping highlights from the stream to post on your other social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or TikTok.

Chris Packard, manager of live streaming and programming at LinkedIn, says highlight clipping can be hugely beneficial.

“Sometimes the live stream will get a couple thousand views, but there might be one choice clip in there, one snackable clip, that you can share across the social universe,” says Packard. “And that can get you millions of views.”

12. Multistream

You don’t need to limit yourself to streaming to one platform at a time. If you have content you’d like to stream to other networks besides LinkedIn, you can. It’s easier than you think.

Restream’s streaming software lets you broadcast to LinkedIn as well as multistream to other platforms simultaneously. All you need to do is connect other platforms to Restream, and the next time you go live, make sure those platforms are toggled on.

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Conclusion

Live video is getting more and more attention. There are few other types of content that are as immediate, available, and engaging as live video. Every social network knows it and offers live streaming services. Even the last holdout, LinkedIn, caved in when it released LinkedIn Live.

For you, that means the ability to serve content to your professional network in a new and interesting way. Because it’s still LinkedIn, though, you’ll have to make sure to post content that’s appropriate for the network. And once you get the hang of it, you can start multistreaming with an additional click or two using Restream.