Going live with my one complaint about LinkedIn Live…
You all know how much I love LinkedIn and I don’t like to complain about the platform, but this feature (or lack of feature) really bugs me! Shocking I know.
So here it goes: this is my one huge complaint about LinkedIn. It’s not about the bugs (which there are many I’d like to see squashed) or lack of analytics for content creators (which unfortunately is pretty normal for social media platforms)…My one big complaint is this LinkedIn Live is still unavailable to everyone.
Going live on LinkedIn vs. other social media platforms
If you aren’t already familiar with LinkedIn Live, LinkedIn Live is similar to other social media platform “live” options in that it allows you to live stream a broadcast, whether by yourself or with guests, to your followers. However, unlike Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube, LinkedIn does not offer live streaming to every user, and, perhaps, more frustratingly, there’s no rhyme or reason as to who gets it.
On LinkedIn, you have to apply for to be able to live stream. And while LinkedIn has made it a bit easier to apply (you used to have to fill out a much lengthier form), it’s still not clear who gets approved for it, and why, and perhaps more importantly, who doesn’t get it and why.
When I first applied for LinkedIn Live in early 2020, I simply didn’t hear back. They said they were looking at my application and that it would take weeks to get back to me.
I think that not allowing every user to go live on LinkedIn is a big mistake from the company’s point of view. Why is that?
Because it discourages users from actually using the platform to its fullest extent, it keeps great content from being produced, and thus makes it less sticky
As LinkedIn grows in popularity and as they try to encourage more people to be engaged and active on the platform, not having livestream access for all, like many other social media platforms, means that they are missing the mark. Especially as TikTok continues to grow and started getting into longer video formats.
If Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and others have livestream capabilities or all, why can’t LinkedIn have the same? Especially for those who are consistently creating content specifically for LinkedIn’s audiences?
Microsoft, one of the world’s most valuable companies, acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. Microsoft has an incredible tech and user experience infrastructure, not to mention cloud capabilities. Oh, and money. Microsoft has a lot of money. And yet getting into LinkedIn Live is still a struggle.
I eventually got LinkedIn Live – here’s my experience so far
I ended up applying for LinkedIn Live twice, and I got the same canned email response both times. thanking me for using LinkedIn and for applying to be a LinkedIn Live broadcaster, asking me to wait for them to review and approve my application.
Eventually, several months later, I got good news – I was approved for LinkedIn Live!
This was in June 2020, and as of this article, I’ve now been using LinkedIn Live for about a year. Overall it’s been great, there are a few things that I’d love to see updated or changed with the experience:
1. First, there’s no native LinkedIn broadcasting tool. I don’t find this too annoying since I stream using streamyard, which allows me to go live on LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook at the same time. Still, for those who only want to share content on LinkedIn, this forces them to use a third-party tool even if they only want to stream on one platform.
2. Second, there’s no centralized place for all my recorded livestreams. YouTube, for example, makes this super easy but grouping livestreams together (and otherwise allowing users to create playlists, etc.). LinkedIn just throws your live stream recording into a running feed of all your “posts” which makes it annoying to find later on.
3. Third, accessing comments after the stream has concluded is nearly impossible. Sometimes people watch a livestream after it’s done and still leave comments. I see those comments and want to reply, but when I click on them, it just brings me to my video, starts it from the beginning, and makes it nearly impossible to find the comment.
4. Finally, video content on LinkedIn just doesn’t do as well from an algorithmic perspective. When LinkedIn first rolled out video, they were really pushing it to uses. But now video content has pretty terrible engagement as opposed to photos or text-only posts. For example, my videos typically get about 1,000 views whereas when I post photos or text-only content, my average views shoot up to around 3,000 to 7,000 views. That’s a big difference!
Still, LinkedIn Live is definitely work it for immigration professionals. Here’s why.
Despite the challenges with LinkedIn live, to me, it’s totally worth it, especially for immigration professionals, and ESPECIALLY now as COVID continues to impact the entire world.
From a branding and marketing perspective, going live is an incredible way to truly connect with your followers, whether you have 100 or 100,000. They get to see your face, hear your voice, learn from you, and best of all, interact with you via questions or comments.
Plus, from a legal standpoint, people around the world want to keep up-to-date on the ever-changing immigration and mobility trends, laws and policies that shape the global economy. By going live, especially regularly, immigration lawyers and other professionals in the industry can keep their peers, clients and colleagues updated on the latest immigration and travel news.
Have you successfully used or tried using LinkedIn live? I would love to hear about your experiences. Connect with me on LinkedIn, shoot me a DM, or join GMI Rocket Slack channel to discuss LinkedIn and other digital marketing topics with other like-minded immigration and mobility professionals!
