How to Utilise LinkedIn Live for Your Content Marketing
- SHARE ON:
Video and live streaming is now readily available to anyone with a smartphone and a story. Discover how LinkedIn Live can help you expand your content marketing reach.
With the reach of COVID-19 growing everyday, expecting people to actually turn up to events is becoming increasingly complicated. It’s not just global pandemics causing a decline in conferences and events — the costs can be prohibitive too. So, on top of company travel bans, organisations might not have the funds to host an event or send employees to schmooze.
Fortunately, video is an effective tool to get around these obstacles. LinkedIn has become the go-to platform for video marketing and live streaming. According to their data, video posts get five times more engagement and live video aka LinkedIn Live gets 24 times more engagement.
The beauty of LinkedIn Live is you don’t need to be a directorial genius, invest in high tech camera equipment, or hire a recording crew. You can get away with lower production values (record the entire presentation on a smartphone) and represent your business in a more authentic way. There’s no hiding behind slick editing or scripted messaging.
So what styles of video work on LinkedIn? So long as it’s educational and engaging most formats are appropriate; Q&A, round-table, talking head, slide share, etc.
Keep these pointers in mind and leverage LinkedIn Live:
Know what you’re talking about
Your business is successful because of your expert knowledge in your field. This should ground all of your presentations. It doesn’t have to be strictly business; you can choose topics that relate to your products, services and brand. Think outside the box — for some reason anything to do with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is popular.
Know your audience
The key to choosing the right topic is knowing your audience, better known as your customers. LinkedIn is full of educated people with business on their mind — which is why the platform is successful when it comes to B2B marketing. Understand the solutions they’re after and the problems they’re trying to solve.
Live Q&As, interviews with industry experts, or product demos are effective ways to attract the audience you want. It’s even better if you make the events interactive — take the concept of Reddit’s Ask Me Anything (AMA) to the LinkedIn Live format.
Keep to a schedule
Whatever video format you decide on you need to be consistent. Aim to go live the same time each week or month. If you have the time and resources, you could even consider a daily show discussing say, trending industry topics or a monthly wrap of stories affecting your sector. Regular behind-the-scenes videos are also effective.
You don’t always have to be doing the hard sell, sharing other aspects of your business creates a more authentic and genuine perception. Just remember to create a video calendar and stick to it.
Think beyond one social platform
Your business is probably also active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and any other platform as part of your social media strategy. Cross promotion is vital to get the word out for your LinkedIn Live event. You’ll need to do this well before your event is broadcast, so take the time to reach out to your social community on all the platforms available. That includes promotion on LinkedIn too. Research appropriate hashtags for topics and guests.
Think longform
Live video doesn’t need to be short and sweet. It can take time for the audience to settle in to the content and start interacting. As a live event is more unpredictable, the event is more engaging — this means your audience will stick with you as long as the video is relevant, interesting, and has a clear way for participation. Aim for 10 to 15 minutes — plenty of time to dig deep into a topic.
Keep the recording tech simple
Luckily, there’s no need to invest in a big production budget. Recording your video can be done affordably and not look cheap. Smartphones can replace big cameras and create a more natural and authentic video — which is what you’re after on LinkedIn Live. Multiple phones will give you multiple angles. There is also plenty of free editing software available. Both Apple iMovie and Microsoft Movie Moments can be used for basic editing.
Future vision
With easy and accessible platforms like LinkedIn Live, the “brand as broadcaster” dream is finally a reality. Forget the need for expensive equipment, or the stigma that only content marketers can produce content with platforms like LinkedIn Live. We are all content producers in our own way. As long as we keep the above pointers in mind, the coronavirus and smaller marketing budgets is an opportunity for everyone’s inner content marketer.
The trick is to not overthink things — keep it simple and stick to your area of expertise. Everyone has a unique and engaging business story to tell.
Read more from Click2View:
- Affected by COVID-19? Here’s 5 things you can do.
- Writing for mobile — what’s different?
- Which social platforms to use for marketing in Asia?
Sign up to our newsletter for more.
Click2View is Southeast Asia’s premiere full-service independent B2B content marketing agency servicing clients like Microsoft, Google, Visa, Prudential, and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
