It’s Lights, Camera & Action . . . We’re Going Live On LinkedIn!
Once upon a time in LinkedIn Land . . .
You had to apply if you wanted to go LIVE on LinkedIn.
Which I did several times to no avail. Until one day LinkedIn introduced Creator Mode which included creator tools such as LinkedIn Live so that everyone could go Live on LinkedIn if they turned on the Creator Mode feature.
Today Creator Mode has gone. BUT we still have access to creator tools such as LinkedIn Live allowing anyone to go Live on LinkedIn as long as they have an audience of 150 connections or 150 followers on their company page.
Why Go LIVE on LinkedIn?
💥 It builds connection with your audience adding that authentic, human touch to content which helps to build trust and rapport
💥LinkedIn promotes it for you! Your network gets notified when you go live and LinkedIn shares your Live event with others in your network. Plus live video gets 10 times more engagement than a video
💥 The LinkedIn algorithm loves it and gives you lots of visibility
💥 It’s fabulous for thought leadership
💥 Lives can be repurposed giving you lots of other content types such as posts and podcasts (Or newsletters like this one!)
Or as Gillian Whitney explains it’s one of the best ways for your audience to get to know, like and trust you!
I so agree with Gillian as I find Live video so much easier to do than recorded video.
For recorded video, I spend a lot of time prepping for a video, doing several retakes, then having to faff around with editing and captions, which often leaves me very frustrated. But Live video is so much easier! I just press ‘Go Live’ and whatever happens, happens!
And lets not forget AI video. Live Video is REAL with REAL people. You can’t outsource a Live – yet at least!
PLUS Live video gets 10 times more engagement than a video. So what’s not to love about going Live on LinkedIn 😃
So If Live Video Is The Way To Go Why Aren’t More People Doing It? 🤔
Gillian explained there are essentially three things that stop people from going live.
🚨 The first one is fear.
Often the same fear that holds people back from doing recorded video and simply put you have to get over yourself and just do it! Everything is scary at first. I remember my first live and subsequent ones after that and for sure it’s nerve wracking but you only get better by doing!
🚨 Second reason stopping people is the tech.
What tech is needed to go live. The good new is you don’t need lots of tech. You just need a laptop, a good webcam I have a Logitech HD camera. Gillian uses a Logitech Brio or Logitect 920. You also need a microphone. I use the one built into my camera but Gillian has a Blue Yeti USB mic. The thing is you don’t need anyting expensive. Finally you also need a ring light and a good internet connection. So no different from being on a Zoom call.
The other thing you need to go Live on LinkedIn is a third-party platform. Whilst there are rumours of native live streaming on LinkedIn it’s not hear yet.
The platform that both myself and Gillian use is Streamyard, as we both think it’s easy peasy to use, and you can multi-stream to other platforms such as FaceBook, YouTube, Instagram and X (Twitter).
There are other platforms you can use such as Restream or Zoom. But the advantages of Streamyard is that you can display comments on the screen, you can have different layouts and of course once your Live is done, you have lots of options for repurposing it (to create articles like this one!)
Streamyard can be used for free initially if you want to try it out. But if you do pay for it, it’s £140 for the year. And paying for Streamyard gives you 50 hours of recording time saved in the cloud.
🚨Final reason stopping people is what are they going to talk about!
The best place to start is your marketing message. What’s your mission, what do you want to be known for, what’s your area of expertise.
Think of all the things that you’re passionate about or curious about.
Create a mind map
And top tip from Gillian was to then create a mind map, drawing out all the things that you could talk about on a particular subject.
For example, if you’re an expert on doing video you could talk about how yo upload a video, how to make a video, what size your video should be, how long it should be, how do you add captions, create a thumbnail . . . and so on and so.
What happens when things don’t always go to plan 🤔
Both Gillian and I have had experiences where something has gone wrong and as Gillian says its not IF something will go wrong but WHEN . . . because things happen!
Your guest could have challenges such as with their headset, cats/dogs/kids showing up! Thinking you’ve gone live but you haven’t! That was one of my early experiences of doing LinkedIn Lives. But you know what, it doesn’t matter. It’s all part of the learning process. Do it, get feedback and do it again!
Making the Most of Your LinkedIn Live
A great tip Gillian made is how many people watch the replay of your Live. Often more people will watch the replay which is what makes your Live evergreen.
She also discovered that when people were catching up with the replay they were often listening in whilst doing other things, which made her realise that if she’s doing a Live she needs to do it for the ‘ear’ so those that listen in can follow.
It also made her realise she could turn her lives in to podcasts! Another way you can repurpose your Live content
Which is the key here. At the end of your Live look at all the different ways you can repurpose the content. For example you can download the recording, transcribe it and turn it into a blog and a number of posts, use it in a LinkedIn newsletter article (like this!)
You can take the video, create snippets, turn it into a podcast, take key quotes and turn then into a graphic or create a pdf post or carousel post.
And on that note the best tip to leave you with is . . . .
Going Live on LinkedIn creates a gold mind of content for you to milk over and over again!
💡 So let me know . . are you inspired to Go Live on LinkedIn?
If you’re interested in a behind the scenes of how do it just message me on LinkedIn here JUDY Parsons and I’ll get back to you :o)
If you want to the replay in full of Gillian Whitney‘s LinkedIn LoveIn with me JUDY Parsons you can watch it on YouTube HERE:
💥 If LinkedIn isn’t working hard for you or you’re not sure where to start with using LinkedIn, email judy@judithparsons.com or connect with me on LinkedIn to chat about how I can help.
Or book a virtual brew here and let’s make LinkedIn work for you . . . ⭐
