Virtual Events on LinkedIn:

An Activation Playbook
Your Guide to Hosting
Virtual Events on LinkedIn
In these uncertain times,
you may be considering
how to adjust some business
activities and the ways you
stay connected to prioritize the
safety and well-being of your
employees, customers, partners
and community. ​

Many organizations have

started to look for alternatives
to in-person gatherings. Virtual
events help keep safety at the
forefront, while ensuring business
activities can still run effectively. ​

Our goal is to be as supportive as possible to minimize disruption to your business. That’s why we’ve
created a guide with some helpful resources for conducting successful virtual events on LinkedIn to help
you along this journey.​

In this guide:

Why host virtual

1
events on LinkedIn?
3 Content ideas 5 Proving the value

2 Getting started 4 Best practices

Why host virtual events
on LinkedIn?
We’re excited you’re considering hosting a virtual event on
LinkedIn. We have multiple tools to help organizations of all
sizes find success with hosting virtual events on our platform,
including LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn Events.

Since introducing LinkedIn Live, it has become the fastest-

growing content type on our platform. It has the ability to
drive up to 7x more reactions and 24x more comments than
regular video, and we’ve seen powerful examples of live-
streams from brands across all industries. We’ve also found
that 82% of audiences prefer seeing live-streams from brands
to regular social posts.

To build on this momentum, we’ve expanded upon our

virtual events portfolio by introducing LinkedIn Events, a
new feature (in beta) that enables organizations to drive
awareness of upcoming events within personal networks.

What is LinkedIn Live?

LinkedIn Live helps organizations of all sizes, all over the world, bring their professional community
together in real time. Through third-party broadcaster tools, brands can live-stream video content from
our platform. Once brands start live-streaming, they can engage audiences in real-time and spark
conversations to bring their brand to life and strengthen relationships with target audiences.

What is LinkedIn Events?

LinkedIn Events also help bring your professional community together in real-time, creating a space for
you to drive targeted awareness of your upcoming event and engagement with attendees before, during
and after the program.

Although this product is still in beta, it is a powerful mechanism for event marketers to drive meaningful
conversations around their event. Use it as a place to build excitement leading up to your event, a hub of
social chatter during, and a persistent community after.

Note: One important thing to note is that, at this time, LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn Events are not directly
integrated. However, it’s easy to combine the two in one cohesive virtual event strategy on LinkedIn.
We’ll show you how.
Getting started
To get started with hosting a virtual event on our platform, follow the steps below:

Apply for access to LinkedIn Live Choosing your broadcaster tool

The first step towards live-streaming is to apply After getting approved, your next step is to select
or ask your LinkedIn Marketing Solutions and sign into a third-party broadcaster tool. For
representative for access. We aim to create a the full list of partner tools, visit the LinkedIn Live
high-quality, engaging viewing experience Getting Started site or reach out to your LinkedIn
for our members, so we carefully review every account representative.
application that comes through. While there
We encourage you to take advantage of the free
are no hard and fast rules, we do have some
trial period included with each tool, and to test
guiding principles:
multiple tools before committing to a purchase.
• Brands with active communities: We’re looking Please keep in mind that any fees incurred are
for brands who make an effort to regularly not reimbursable by LinkedIn.
engage audiences, take the time to respond to
comments and create a dialogue.
• Brands with +1K followers: To ensure there’s Sign in to your broadcaster tool
an audience for your live-stream, we find that Once you’ve selected the broadcaster tool that
Pages with +1K followers fare best. If you aren’t works best for your budget and streaming needs,
quite at that threshold, consider leveraging you’ll need to integrate that tool with LinkedIn.
“Invite to Follow,” a feature that allows Page You can find a Getting Started document on our
Admins to invite their first-degree profile Resources Hub for each partner tool, detailing
connections to follow their Page. step-by-step instructions for authenticating your
If your application is approved, you will new tool with the LinkedIn Page from which you
receive a confirmation email from either your want to stream.
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions representative or
If you need additional help getting set up,
[email protected] containing a link
we recommend visiting your tool’s website for
to our website, which contains detailed info on
extensive documentation and support options.
how to onboard and get started.

Troubleshoot
You’ll find the most up-to-date troubleshooting
information for each broadcaster tool in the
LinkedIn Live Resources Hub.
LinkedIn Events Invite attendees directly: To grow your attendee
list, directly invite your first-degree profile
Become a Page Admin: If you’d like to host an connections to attend an event. Note: at this time
event on behalf of your organization or Page, first in our beta, you cannot invite your Page followers
make sure that you have Page Admin access. to the event directly.
Talk to your social media managers if this is
Promote Event indirectly: For wider promotion
something you need.
of an event, share the link to the event on
Navigate to the Event creation button: On a your Page feed or to your personal network.
desktop, open the homepage and scroll down on Alternatively, consider using traditional
the left-hand panel to a header that says “Events.” demand generation tactics, like paid LinkedIn
Click the “+” to create a new LinkedIn Event. Ads and email marketing.

Create Event and set your Page as the Facilitate conversations: As the event
organizer: In the second field of the event organizer, you can start or contribute to existing
creation form, change the Organizer to the Page conversations. Encourage attendees to connect
you’re posting an Event on behalf of and fill out & engage with one another on the Event page,
the rest of the form. even prior to the event!
Content ideas for
your virtual event
Now that you’ve got your tech properly set up, it’s time to build out your content strategy. We’ve outlined
the top content ideas event marketers are seeing success with on our platform.

• Stream a keynote or panel • Talk to a member of the R&D team about

• Host an “Ask Me Anything” session with a their development process
key executive • Announce a merger or acquisition live
• Interview an influencer to learn about • Deliver a speech (e.g., a
their “day-in-the-life” experience graduation commencement)
• Unveil a new, innovative product • Deliver unique insights & analysis
• Highlight partnerships with other • Share tips & best practices around your
innovative companies event topic
• Demo a high-tech product • Conduct a fireside chats with a
member of your C-suite
 Best-in-class examples
In need of more inspiration? Here are some of the best examples we’ve seen.

How tech companies are using LinkedIn Live

Conference Keynote Conference Keynote

See the post See the post

Microsoft live-streamed CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote at Pegasystems went live from PegaWorld 2019, streaming
its premier developer conference, Build. their CEO’s keynote to much fanfare.

How universities are using LinkedIn Live

Talent branding Thought Leadership

See the post See the post

eCornell used this one-hour video to follow an assistant GIBS Business School went live from their campus in
professor walking through an exhibition live, showcasing Johannesburg with Coca-Cola to discuss “Building a
her students’ exemplary work. Total Beverage Company.”
How professional services companies are using LinkedIn Live
Ask Me Anything Workshop

See the post See the post

The Mullings Group’s president and CEO participated SoFi live-streamed an event around Negotiating 101,
in an AMA, sharing his insights on what it’s like to join a bringing in a resident negotiation expert to lead
big company vs. a small one. the discussion.

Insights & Analysis Thought Leadership

See the post See the post

Workday conducted a #wdaychats on Live, Emirates NBD hosts their second

spotlighting healthcare trends. One of their DG #SustainabilityNow Talk in partnership with Dubai
marketers was moderating the chat room, responding Police, to discuss the important topic of fraud and
to specific member questions within the feed. how to prevent it.
Best practices for
LinkedIn Live
Let’s dig into the top tips we’ve learned on how to
execute and generate value:

General
Refrain from going live more than once a day.
A subset of your followers are notified via push
notification every time you go live. If you’re going
live around an event, we recommend that you do
not exceed two streams per day.

Avoid pre-recorded videos. Promoting previously

recorded content as live may reduce trust with your
viewers. If you wish to share pre-recorded content,
use LinkedIn’s native video format or slice in a few If you only remember four things,
key moments of pre-recorded content into your remember to:
(otherwise mostly) live stream.
1. Be prepared: Having a good
grasp on your subject matter,
Before the stream as well as an idea of your run
of show can lend order to your
• Test your internet connection. Use speedtest.net to broadcast and calm your nerves.
ensure you have at least 10 MBPS upload speed.
2. Be consistent: Whether you
• Get the right people in the room. Most choose to go live once a month,
organizations will want a minimum of two people once a week, or even daily,
on hand to facilitate a live stream: one person to consistency helps set expectations
operate the camera and one person to moderate. around when your audience can
• Plan to stream for at least 15 minutes. Your expect new content.
audience will likely build the longer you stream, 3. Be authentic: Video content that
so don’t cut your efforts short with a quick stream. feels less manicured and more
• Analyze your audience. Review your Follower human, direct, and immediate is
Tab under Analytics to see where most of your more likely to be consumed and
audience is located. Choose to go live at a time engaged with.
that allows the largest segment of your audience 4. Be flexible: If something goes
to join (e.g. during the workday or right after). wrong during your stream, try to
respond to real moments in real
time. You’ll be rewarded for
your authenticity.
• Promote your stream. Post on your channels the
date/time of the stream and encourage members
to follow the page. Use Sponsored Content to
boost any promotions of the stream, and don’t
forget other demand gen channels (blog, email,
webinars, etc.).
• Hashtag your stream. Make sure to use
#LinkedInLive and other relevant hashtags in
your stream description to expand your audience
outside your followers.

During the stream

• Moderate your stream. The best way to moderate
a stream on LinkedIn is to have a colleague
with Page Admin access pull up your Page on a
separate desktop device and manage the flow
of comments from the Page Admin view. The
moderator can then delete or report inappropriate
comments and relay any questions.
• Engage your audience. To encourage viewer
participation, make sure your host or moderator
asks the audience questions. Make sure you’re
responding in real time to engagement from your
followers during and after the stream.
• Take advantage of your network. Once a
broadcast has begun, ask your employees or
partners to share the stream to their networks for
wider visibility.
• Have fun! When live-streaming, it’s okay if you
don’t nail your script perfectly or if something
unexpected happens. Embrace the unexpected
and inject some humor into your stream.

After the stream

Repurpose your live stream. Download your
live stream after its conclusion to be repurposed.
Consider slicing the content into video ads or
transcribing the conversation to be turned into a
blog post.
Proving the value
of live video
As with any video content, defining
and tracking success metrics is key.

Analytics overview
To review your LinkedIn Live analytics, follow
these simple steps:

1. Sign into your Page Admin View

2. Click on the “Analytics” drop down Live-stream performance
3. Select “Updates” • Peak number of concurrent viewers while the
4. Scroll to the “Update engagement” section video was live
5. Locate the live-stream within the list of • Total minutes watched
updates • Total number of views
6. Click on the video views number, which will • Viewers for both live and replay versions
open a pop-up containing all the video’s stats
Engagement highlights
Alternatively, you can select the “View Number of reactions, comments, and shares
analytics” button at the bottom of a live-stream
post within your Page’s feed. Audience firmographics
Top Pages, titles, and location watched
Below are the analytics we provide on all live from (no other platform offers this type of
videos. Note that we count a view after three firmographic data)
seconds of watch time.
Identify your KPIs
To understand the impact of your live video strategy, here’s how you might track against your goals:

Brand Awareness Real-Time Engagement Total Engagement

• Peak concurrent • Peak concurrent • Total live engagements
live viewers live viewers (reactions, comments)
• Total viewers (total • Total live engagements • Total engagements
viewers during the live (reactions, comments) during the live session
session and replays) and replays

Pro Tip
We recommend taking
a screenshot of your
engagement stats right
after the live-stream has
ended to compare live
vs. replay metrics.
Good luck with your virtual event!
We can’t wait to see the conversations you start on LinkedIn.

Get started