LinkedIn Live Month 3: The Grand Experiment Continues

Now nearly into month 3 of the grand LinkedIn Live video experiment (for the lady with the face for radio and podcasting), I do have to say that I'm always down for a good old fashioned trial. And, although I think I've nailed down one regular time to show up on the platform once a week (Saturdays at 10 am ET - grab your coffee and let's chat, although that hasn't been fully committed to just yet), I'm still trying to figure out a better time for the second, if there is a second. I saw a guy on last night at 10 pm from Australia, and he was crushing it. (Night owls of the eastern standard time zone, unite?!?)

There are a lot of rules, and a friendly reminder - you still have to first apply to be a tester. As someone who loves podcasting, I was a little skeptical on this platform, but now that I have it - I actually love it. It is powerful. The ability to interact with a live audience and stream trumps the fact that I have to be presentable on camera vs. the podcast that is audio only. LOL! But - I bring some cautionary tales this time to this second post. You can read the first here.

Here's a post about the process and my mechanics of LinkedIn Live.

Here, below, is a warehouse of the topics and #linkedinlivestreams thus far. (My channel? LOL!) I'm still trying to figure out how to maximize the playback feeds too. (Maximizer is my #2 strength! Yay!)

LinkedIn Lives:

9/9/19 - Ep 1 – Future of Pharmacy Jobs

9/12/19 – Ep 2 – How to Get a New Gig

9/14/19 – Ep 3 – Senior Care and Technology

9/18/19 – Ep 4 – Side Hustles and Personal Branding with P4 Student, Chris Cozzolino

9/21/19 – Ep 5 – Books books books!

9/25/19 - Ep 6 - World Pharmacists' Day - and a little more on cool corners of practice

9/28/19 - Ep 7 - CPE Crunch Time (Sorry, the video is gone. See APPE Challenge Accepted Ep 11 instead.)

10/5 - Ep 8 - How Do I Nail a Job Interview?

10/16 - Ep 9 - National Boss's Day - Top 40 Great Boss Attributes

10/26 - Ep 10 - My Personal Top 5+ I'm excited to see at #ASCP50!

10/30 - Ep 11 - APPE Challenge Accepted - One pager on our LMS with Helen Weinberg

11/3 - Ep 12 - Podcasts and Top 5 You Need to Watch on LinkedIn Live!

11/12 - Ep 13 - Full moon, and #13? More on job interviews, podcasting, mentoring and work!

11/16 - Ep 14 - Goal Digging

11/26 - Ep 15 - ?Prethanksgivingness!

11/30 - Ep 16 - Shop Small Business Saturday - Hoosier Style - in Indiana!

12/4 - Ep 17 - Digital Health with special guest, Tim Aungst - The Digital Apothecary

12/12 - Subsequent episodes focus on the #20to2020 campaign where we have an ASCP Call for Proposals for Speakers out until 12/31/19.

By the way, I have a personal LinkedIn Live page - not a business page. So, the analytics side shows up only for the business pages, which appear to be more robust than analytics on the personal page. But, below are some stats from one of my LinkedIn Live personal clips, so you can see what the analytics look like (it's a lot like a regular post):

For a hot minute, I found these analytics on the desktop version of one of my live streams, interesting stats on where viewers drop off around 15 minutes:

If you've been watching - let me know at this quick survey when and what you want me to talk about. Also, if you want to be a guest on the feed, you can apply here.

A couple of other thoughts if you really want to understand how to use this powerful tool - 1. Follow the hashtag #linkedinlive here on the platform. 2. I think there's an officially sanctioned LinkedIn Instagram account - but you can follow LinkedIn Live's account over at Instagram. (Not linking it in case it is not official - and it will take you out of this platform.) 3. Of course, those savvy enough to stream across multiple platforms, like youtube, here and Facebook are way ahead of me - I'm watching what they are up to....eyes on them.

Last, this grand experiment has taught me, or clarified for me, a few things:

• That being available 24/7 all the time might not be a great thing--e.g. there may be no Zen and just a lot more work found in the Art of LinkedIn Live Maintenance. Meaning: that having a constantly available video stream, in order to maintain it with rich content, is not easy to do. In order to have quality, you need to watch quantity. Doing more does not mean doing better. Each episode takes at least a little planning, even for someone with a gift of gab and rich content. It's almost more like film production and less writing in order to pull off a good LinkedIn Live or video stream post. It's a slightly different skill set than podcasting or writing...and in my mind, a level or two harder, because you also have to think about good lighting, facing the camera, etc. ALL STUFF they never really taught me in school.
• Consistency in podcasting is one key to success, and I think this might be true of livestreaming as well. Yet, I've still struggled to figure out when my "consistency" magic happens with LinkedIn Live. That, and I have to say quality of video streaming and live stream is frustrating at times. Example: episode 11 - not sure why my audio tanked (?). Also - it would be cool to have analytics from the LinkedIn mothership on the 'best' times of day for livestreaming by time zone. I don't feel like I've got this figured out yet either.
• That and, my best stuff--the richest, deepest content--will probably never be on a 15-30 minute livestream, at least when it comes to education. I think the best form of learning is hands on--and that can truly only take place live, in person, and in a classroom. It's very, very hard to pull off workshop and hands on individualized learning on a livestream - especially with hundreds of people watching at a time. (I know there are some reading this who might be shocked by this bullet coming from me; however, I don't think webinars count here. Again - you can't learn very well hands on from a webinar (live or home study) either. The highest form of learning for me as an educator is seeing, doing, then teaching. You can see on a webinar or a live stream; it's harder to do on livestream, and you could teach on live stream, but it's never going to get to that one on one level with doing, in my opinion. (Hint: I'll be providing an edutainment example soon here in Indy using this theory as well and making good on a promise I tossed out to the ether back in August - stay tuned.)
• However, the platform is GREAT for real time FAQs - I think if you have a right hand person with you to field the questions as you live stream, this is probably one of the BEST reasons for using livestream. I think @garyvee is a master of this format--and one that more of us with livestreaming should take advantage of.

And, now that I've been in it for a minute, here's my wishlist from LinkedIn around this tool of modern social media wizardry:

Wish List for LinkedIn Live:

• Wish I was notified when someone posted on a video after. Wish I was notified when people commented on the recording after - it's next to impossible to keep up with comments unless you're tagged.
• Wish the videos and audio could be downloaded for re-broadcast elsewhere. (This I think is a paid feature on some broadcasting software.) It would be nice to edit it retrospectively as well so the playbacks could be better.
• Wish the analytics weren't buried solely on the first post, and really hard to get at on the desktop version (it's easier to find them and get them, although they are more limited, on my phone).
• Wish we could give heads up on our next broadcasts (the original notes said you couldn't do this, but I'm seeing more people out there bravely going around this rule, myself now included.)
• Wish I could insert the video feeds to play natively in a LinkedIn long post. (I keep trying this one hoping it will be fixed, but nope.) We really don't have a way of creating a "channel" - ? Should we?
• Wish I could simulcast without having to pay for it. (Not really LinkedIn's problem, but more so the broadcasting platforms.)

Thanks for watching! And...for your patience as I continue to wrap my little brain around this big opportunity.

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Erin L. Albert is an author, educator, pharmacist, and budding live streamer, inter alia. Opinions are hers alone here.