LinkedIn Live — My First Week & Month
So, this week was my first week with access to LinkedIn Live. I actually got access to it on a Sunday, and it mysteriously just showed up with a little red button on the left middle side of my feed when I logged in— which I thought was odd, but I quickly dug into the rules so I was sure to NOT break any of the secret codes for access to the platform that I had been trying to get access to for a while now….as they will TAKETH AWAY if you violate their rules.
If you’d rather hear my podcast summaries of my first week with LIL, you can check out this episode.
First rule of LinkedIn Live is like fight club — you can’t talk about LinkedIn Live ON LinkedIn Live. So, that in combination with being “not too salesy” — it’s tough to ensure you’re following all the rules.
Other items to consider as more people reach the platform:
- You should ideally be hard wired to the internet — your phone and wifi aren’t really going to cut it when you get online. The video quality is actually pretty good even on playback if you do.
- You need to engage with a broadcast platform — LinkedIn gives you a few options to engage with — I chose one that was and is web-based so there’s no software to download or mess with in addition to the stress of going online LIVE. It is NOT as easy as hitting a button like one can do on Facebook Live.
- Audio — you need a mic. We podcasters know this — but it’s a good reminder for us going on video as well.
- Lighting — NOTHING IS WORSE than a dark video feed — pay super close attention to how you are lit and try to use natural lighting when getting online.
- No quick talks — need to stay on for at least 15 minutes or so…they don’t want you on for 5 and out. Odd, considering that these days, everyone is attention deficit. No “Standby for awesomeness” feeds either — you need to get on, get on with your business, and get done.
- You can’t LI live more than 4 times per day right now.
- You MUST try it within 30 days of receiving it or they’ll take it away.
Now, the other challenge is trying to manage and field questions by yourself WHILE broadcasting online. The better remedy here is to use 2 computers — one to run the broadcast feed, and one to look for and field questions and answers. I kept one off to the side on wifi and kept my camera and broadcasting software running on my other computer hardwired into the internet.
Here’s the playback of my LILs —1 on pharmacy, 2 on finding a great next job,3 on senior care stories this month,4 with guest Chris Cozzolino on side gigs and personal branding, 5 on Books and 6 on World Pharmacists’ Day!
I noticed that once you broadcast live, the broadcast software will then convert it to a playback and review on your feed. However, the first time I did one, people couldn’t tell if it truly was live or a playback — so I noted to myself to post WHEN I was actually going live on the playback post so people weren’t guessing when I was live and when I was Memorex. (And if you don’t know why I just said ‘Memorex,’ I weep for you.)
Other interesting items: people can POST on the playback video and it is timestamped. Red timestamps are posts that occur during the live feed, and black time stamps are posted after the live feed. I also tried to go in and post with follow up answers to people’s questions after the live feed, because I can’t talk, type and run 2 computers simultaneously — even I have my limits! Ha!
It was fun to give shout outs to people I know while they were watching the live feed. I actually found myself bringing them into the conversation as well.
Do plan what you’re going to say. It’s hard to go on and just wing it. So, my first LIL was about the future of pharmacy jobs, and the 2nd was on my best tips for job hunting and applying for jobs. Not yet sure what my third will be.
We’re also encouraged to try different times of day — my evening post was better attended than my lunch post. I may try some morning LILs if I can ever get my non-morning-self into gear!
Last, analytics for live isn’t quite what I thought it would be — you have to hunt for the original post, then there’s a tiny arrow for some limited analytics on it. Maybe business pages on LinkedIn have better analytics than personal pages? I don’t know, as I have not yet seen the analytics on a business page.
I also experienced a technical glitch in episode 5 at the end — I don’t know if my internet provider blanked for a second, but all of the sudden my mic went out and the video feed dropped. Not sure how to prevent this challenge from happening in the future. Oh well — it’s all part of the grand experiment!
So there you go. You know about as much as I do now when it comes to LinkedIn Live as a beta tester. I’m going to keep trying — DESPITE that I’m truly a podcaster at heart — because I know the power of this professional network. LinkedIn. Is. My. Jam!
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Erin L. Albert is an author, podcaster, and coach, inter alia. Opinions here are her own. Note that this venue where she is discussing LinkedIn Live, is in fact NOT LinkedIn.
